Linux is in an era of revisionism. Functionality that has been part of Linux from the start – such as virtual terminals, file managers, and commands like ls and cd – is being rethought to take advantage of modern hardware and better fit modern needs and expectations. These revisions vary wildly in quality. On the one hand, some are eccentrically engineered, such as one terminal that replaces man pages with AI queries. On the other hand, experiments such as electerm [1] merge terminals, file managers, and remote connections into a single app with versions for Docker and the web. Although few of electerm's functions are new, merging these functions into a convenient single app is such a logical move that electerm seems likely someday to dethrone such classic apps as Miguel de Icaza's 30-year-old Midnight Commander.

Electerm is too new to be found in distro repositories. However, the project's GitHub page offers DEB, RPM, ARM64, ARM Beta, Snap, ArchImage, and tarball packages, as well as macOs and Windows 10-11 versions. Electerm installs ready to use, but you can use the Setting icon in the sidebar on the left to customize shortcut keys, bookmarks to open on startup, terminal scrollback, background image, a limited selection of fonts, and password encryption. By default, electerm opens in a white on black theme, but you can choose from 32 predefined themes via the Terminal themes icon, as well as define your own theme. You can also add your own bookmarks via the New bookmark icon, not only to files and directories, but also network locations.

Starting electerm

Without options, the electerm command works with the local system. However, options can also make an external connection, making it act as an SSH, Telnet, RDP, or VNC server, or connecting via serial port. Used as an SSH server, the command is electerm ADDRESS or electerm PORT. Other protocols must be specified so that the command for Telenet would start with

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