When people hear about Linux and terminals they usually cringe, especially if they are new to the platform. That doesn't have to be the case and the terminal is usually your friend and you can even enhance it. This is where Guake comes into play, and what a truly a marvellous tool it is!

All of the Linux distributions out there have some sort of terminal implemented and most of the stuff that you want to do in a Linux OS can be done from a terminal as well. Many tools that users take for granted are just interfaces for applications that run natively in a terminal. This is no secret, but new Linux users see the terminal with different eyes. They think it's the same kind of experience like the one on Windows, but they are sorely mistaken.

Once you understand what you can do with the terminal in Linux, you will rarely use anything else. Stuff like upgrading the system, installing a package, or even compiling software will become interesting and easy to comprehend. Going back to Windows and installing packages without knowing exactly what is happening suddenly becomes annoying. The only problem is that users like to customize their system, but few people know that they can also enhance their terminal.

Installation

Just click on the install button and the application will arrive shortly. The only caveat is that it's not starting automatically and you will need to start it manually, but that shouldn't be an issue.

Usage

This is called a drop-down terminal, because it's always open in the background and it can be open with a single keystroke. If you follow some instructions from a website, for example. you don't do anything extra. Just open it and paste the commands. It's right there, not to mention the fact that it's transparent and that's always a nice feature to have.

Guake also comes with a wealth of features and options that can be accessed in the Preferences menu. This menu is available separately and you don't have to open the application to find it. The options are divided into tabs. Users can choose all kinds of interpreters, visual parameters, and even alignment from the General tab.

It's also possible to change the keyboard shortcuts for Guake (and there are a lot of them), its color, font, transparency, and even the compatibility with various keyboards. All the options are worth exploring, but you need to handle them with care as some of them might break its functionality.

The Good

It's hard to pick just a few features out of so many. I can only tell you that, after you try Guake, you will wonder why you have been using other stuff before. It blends perfectly with the operating system (no matter what that is), it's extremely customizable, and it's a joy to work with.

The Bad

I literally couldn’t find anything wrong with the application, despite the fact that it's at version 0.5 and you might think that it's a little unstable. The only thing that could be considered at most an oversight is the lack of an option to make Guake boot with the system. This can be done manually of course, but it would be nice to have this option in the Preferences menu.

Conclusion

If by now you still haven't installed this amazing application, you really need to do it. I got to the point where I can't wait to have some work to do with the terminal, just to be able to use this application. It really transforms the Linux experience into something else entirely and it should be present in distros by default. If there are some downsides to it, I really can't see them.