Zsh vs bash vs fish. rs and with that changed my shell to Fish.

Zsh vs bash vs fish Apr 3, 2023 · Bash offers stability and widespread support, Zsh provides enhanced customization and advanced features, and Fish focuses on user-friendliness and simplicity. Feb 20, 2024 · Why I Migrated to Fish Shell from Oh My Zsh Choosing a Unix shell boils down to personal preference, specific needs, and the features that one values the most in their daily usage. To enable interactive comments, run setopt interactive_comments. Sep 1, 2024 · Coding Fish Shell vs. I want to share which one I chose and how I went about setting it up. Just recently a colleague told me he's using starship. I believe both have the necessary plugins and themes I need, so it all just comes down to speed. Bash is the official shell of the GNU project and the default shell on most Linux distributions. Bash vs Fish The Fish shell (Friendly Interactive SHell) is designed to be user-friendly and easy to learn. Mar 29, 2025 · Bash vs Zsh vs Fish: Learn the key differences between the top Linux shells in 2025. Zsh vs. Z Shell (Zsh): How Do They Compare? By Alex Mitchell Last Update on September 1, 2024 Origins and History Bash Bash traces its roots all the way back to the Bourne shell (sh), created by Stephen Bourne at Bell Labs in 1977. Zsh, while mostly compatible with Bash, prioritizes features and user experience over strict POSIX compliance. Fish: Interactive and User-Friendly Fish, or the Friendly Interactive Shell, is a relatively new shell that aims to provide a powerful yet easy-to-use experience out of the box. Делаем красочный и удобный терминал. May 21, 2025 · Bash strictly adheres to POSIX standards, which ensures broad compatibility across Unix-like systems. I've been looking at different shells lately, and while I like Fish's overall philosophy and doing things different from POSIX shells like Bash and Zsh, I looked at Nushell's Cookbook and the way it treats things as data instead of raw text looks really interesting. For scripting, bash, though I'm very excited about nushell getting more mature. Syntax looks similar like Bash. In this video we compare and contrast Bash, Powershell, Zsh and Fish. With zsh, I am working (with nearly) a superset of bash. Zsh还具有许多其他有用的功能，包括拼写校正，在多个终端之间共享命令历史记录，命名目录快捷方式等。 Fish 在我看来，Fish，或者“友好的交互式Shell”，是最用户友好和交互式的Shell。 它比Zsh和Bash更具可定制性。它有很多很酷的特性，比如一致的语法、漂亮的制表符完成和语法高亮显示，很 Dec 7, 2020 · Back in June, I started porting my dotfiles from ZSH to Fish. By the end, you’ll see why Fish provides a better overall experience for most users. Bash, zsh and fish offer parameter name completion through a definition external to the command, distributed in a separate completion definition file. When comparing zsh vs fish (Friendly Interactive SHell), the Slant community recommends fish (Friendly Interactive SHell) for most people. Two of the most popular modern shells — Zsh (Z … Dec 27, 2023 · The default Bash shell is a powerful option. May 12, 2025 · Bash, Zsh, and Fish each have their own strengths and weaknesses, depending on your needs and level of expertise. This Jul 14, 2025 · Fish (Friendly Interactive Shell) is a modern Unix shell that offers built-in autosuggestions, syntax highlighting, and web-based configuration without requiring complex setup. Oct 26, 2022 · Not sure which Linux shell to use? Read this guide to find out about the differences between 8 different Linux shells. Scripting Capabilities Developers spend much of shell time writing scripts to automate tasks or run builds. Mar 24, 2024 · zsh for interactive use, because I like a few of it's extra features vs bash (cd -<tab>, cd this that) and I haven't bothered with fish yet. Zsh is (mostly)backward compatible with bash, which means that most of what is true for bash is also true for zsh, but not necessarily for fish. Unlike Bash or Zsh, Fish works intelligently out-of-the-box, making it ideal for developers who want a productive terminal experience without extensive customization. As a default bash user who want to switch from bash why should i use fish instead of zsh ? I was told fish and bash have… Personally, I find scripting in FISH easier than in BASH or ZSH, the syntax just feels a bit more modern and consistent (hence the minor incompatibilites with BASH). That's like the big plus of fish that its scripting language is sooo much saner than sh or bash. In the question “What are the best UNIX shells?” fish (Friendly Interactive SHell) is ranked 1st while zsh is ranked 2nd. It’s a plugin system to integrate multiple Zsh scripts. Apr 7, 2021 · Zsh Zsh is for people wanting an interesting mix of a good compatibility with Bash and an ecosystem of plugins with a reasonable installation process. Bash is the reliable, time-tested option that prioritizes portability, while Zsh offers advanced features and customization for users who need a more tailored shell environment. Sep 9, 2025 · Comparative deep-dive into Bash commands vs Zsh and Fish: syntax differences, interactive features, scripting portability, and when to choose each shell. I program in C and C++, apart from hello-world 63 For interactive use, there are two main contenders, Bash and zsh, plus the straggler tcsh and the newcomer fish. rs and with that changed my shell to Fish. Zsh uses more aliases whereas Fish avoids using aliases in the scripting language. I like zsh personally, but bash and fish are perfectly useable. For a long time … I'm increasingly seeing Zsh being recommended, but I'm having trouble finding a useful eplanation about its advantages vs bash. Newer Shells: ash, dash, zsh, and fish While the Linux community has settled on Bash in the years since, developers didn't stop creating new shells when Bash was first released 28 years ago. Fish is intentionally not POSIX-compatible and as such some of the things you are used to work differently. Fish's scripting language is different than Zsh and Bash. Reply reply captainstormy • I've always been using oh-my-zsh (omz) on mac/linux and oh-my-bash on windows. I still find myself frequently dropping into bash everywhere, but I really want fish to succeed. Zsh, or Z Shell, is known for its robust feature set which enhances productivity. Are there any long/mid term users here? What do you think it does better than zsh and fish? Are you satisfied with it or planning to go back? Dec 25, 2024 · Explore different types of Linux shells like Bash, Zsh, and Fish, and learn their key features and differences. I just use bash as its the default and figure its the default for a reason. Oct 16, 2025 · Zsh vs Fish: The Ultimate Shell Showdown for 2025 Choosing the right shell can dramatically impact your productivity and command-line experience. Main differences for scripting (and for power users on the command line of course) Feb 6, 2024 · Compare fish (Friendly Interactive SHell) vs Zsh (Z shell) and 16 other options side by side to learn "What are the best UNIX shells?" Feb 7, 2025 · BASH, ZSH e FISH são os 3 shells mais populares do mundo Linux, (e até do mundo BSD com o macOS) alguns sendo utilizados em distros famosas como o Kali Linux e até o macOS, enquanto o BASH . But, I could not find any comparison for zsh vs fish. There are fish plugins (albeit not that many like zsh), but you rarely need them because most things are builtin. Fish and zsh are probably the most customizable, but bash is still fine. What are your reasons for using zsh or sticking with bash? Add a Comment Sort by: Best Open comment sort options Top New Controversial Old Q&A [deleted] • Jul 24, 2023 · Linux is powerful because of its versatile command line interface to interact with the system. The changes they made do make for a cleaner language, but it's a new language nonetheless. Many things are similar - they both fundamentally expand commandlines to execute commands, have pipes, redirections 命令行 Shell 是与操作系统交互的核心工具，允许用户高效地执行命令、自动化任务以及运行脚本。 虽然市面上有多种 Shell 可供选择，但 Bash、Zsh 和 Fish 是最受欢迎的三大 Shell，它们各自拥有独特的功能特点。因… Oct 1, 2024 · I’m still amazed at how quickly my shell instances start up now. Thus far it’s been a good experience so thought I’d share why I did it, how I tweaked my setup and my thoughts on Fish so far. This blog post tells the story of my upgrade and the pitfalls and benefits of moving to Fish Shell. But two popular alternatives, ZSH and Fish, offer more advanced features and customization. I’m enjoying the benefits of using Fish already, but only time will tell if Fish behaves well along the road. As far as 22 votes, 25 comments. Let me go over in this video the difference between Bash, ZSH, and Fish, and finally settle the debate on which one is the BEST. Bash and Why You Should Switch to Fish There are two kinds of *nix users: the cautious and the adventurous Here’s a fact, most developers love Unix and Unix-like (Linux-based) … Sep 1, 2024 · Here are just some of the extensions possible: [showcase some Zsh plugins and themes] Fish limits addons to "completions" – but prioritizes a simplified experience with smart defaults aimed not to need heavy tweaking. Jun 18, 2016 · I have spent sometime trying to pick one, on net comparisons are for zsh vs bash and fish vs bash. Oct 31, 2022 · Customizing my shell: From bash to zsh to fish Oct 31, 2022 20:00 · 1882 words · 9 minute read When I am coding, I use the terminal a lot. For command parameter name/value completions, these shells assume path/filename completion if no completion is defined for the command. Central to this experience are the shells, which act as the bridge between users and the Linux kernel I want to know fedora use bash so can i switch to fish or zsh and what are the advantage in those and disadvantages also i saw fish and there auto complete feature attract me. It aimed to be a convenient interface for Unix-based systems at the time… May 15, 2020 · Fish vs. At first I thought it's just another terminal, but turns out it's a customisation prompt like omz. Dive into the debate of fish vs bash. Jul 19, 2023 · A quick beginner's intro to popular Linux Shells - Bash, Fish and Zsh with their features, installation methods and guide for you. Hyperpolyglot Unix Shells: Bash, Fish, Ksh, Tcsh, Zsh grammar | quoting and escaping | characters variables | variable expansion | brace, tilde, command, and pathname expansion | special variables arithmetic and conditional expressions arrays | associative arrays functions | command resolution | arguments and options execution control Jun 13, 2025 · Terminal Showdown: Bash vs Zsh vs Fish for Power Users The command-line shell is the heart of productivity for Linux power users. But I just saw in some videos the cool features of zsh (code-complete, folder name suggestion during cd, nothing else). May 6, 2020 · When I set up my Windows computer, I had the chance to take another look at the shell I'm using. It's gotten better with time, but VSCode extensions still don't setup conda properly in my fish shell. Zsh is often combined with Oh My Zsh a plugin system and collection of plugins that enhance the shell. Moving from Zsh to Fish 🐠 I recently began experimenting with Fish after a long time using zsh and oh my zsh. 命令行 Shell 是与操作系统交互的核心工具，允许用户高效地执行命令、自动化任务以及运行脚本。 虽然市面上有多种 Shell 可供选择，但 Bash、Zsh 和 Fish 是最受欢迎的三大 Shell，它们各自拥有独特的功能特点。因… Jun 8, 2019 · Many of bash's shopt settings have a corresponding setopt in zsh. The three main ones out there are Bash, Zsh, and Fish. But lately I've encountered people promoting ZSH as as an alternative to Bash. Mar 3, 2017 · It's also the default shell on Apple's macOS, and is available for installation on Microsoft's Windows 10. As a user and fan of fish, I hesitate to recommend it to people because support and availability for fish is just not where other POSIX shells are. Zsh doesn't treat # as a comment start on the command line by default, only in scripts (including . Oh my zsh covers several aspects. If I need real horse power I reach for Perl or Python as needed. md Fish is nice because you don't have to spend a lot of effort, plus you can maintain a very minimal, readable configuration. I am of the understanding that these are mainly due to Oh My Zsh. sh/more Fish for bash users ¶ This is to give you a quick overview if you come from bash (or to a lesser extent other shells like zsh or ksh) and want to know how fish differs. This article explodes some advantages of Fish, such as pre-installed plugins, faster and simpler setup, along with a step-by-step guide to make your migration seamless and efficient. How do Fish and Zsh syntaxes compare to Bash here? Zsh remains close Apr 22, 2024 · Zsh also has a steeper learning curve than Bash, especially if you want to take full advantage of its advanced features. Over the time, I have tried out different popular shells 1: bash, zsh, and fish. It's easy to write pipelines, loops, command subs, etc because I'm used to bash already from script-writing. In this comprehensive guide, we’ll explore the key differences between ZSH and Fish shell. Discover the strengths and quirks of each shell to find your perfect command line companion. Which one is faster? starship is written in rust so maybe it has I've been a Bash user for as long as I've used Linux. This difference matters when you‘re writing scripts that need to run on multiple systems: # This works in both Bash and Zsh While both shells are powerful, use Bash for scripting due to its widespread compatibility, and switch to Zsh for a more interactive terminal experience. As of the time of writing, I’ve partly gotten used to Fish’s syntax differences in interactive use, and completely ported my old ZSH config. (I might be wrong) Nov 26, 2024 · Discover how switching from Zsh to Fish shell can enhance your productivity with faster performance, rich built-in functionality, and an user-friendly configuration experience. Which do you think is more powerful and or convenient? I know this sub would be biased to Fish Shell but still. For around one year now, I have settled for the fish shell. I'm comfortable with it and its limitations as a shell and as a scripting language. Bash vs Zsh vs Fish. Dec 13, 2022 · Since Fish by default comes with a lot of configurations already set, it is believed to be more beginner friendly than other sh options like Zsh. Plus, you'll learn if being POSIX-compliant actually matters Apr 5, 2022 · I changed my prompt configurator from Oh-My-Zsh to Starship. Initial performance Fish’s performance is a lot better than ZSH’s, and very similar to Bash. Сравнение SHELLs: BASH vs ZSH vs FISH. So if you have any kind of issue, you can easily find ressources online in the case of zsh because you can find a lot of ressources for bash. zshrc and such). I also share some of the many mistakes I made in trying to configure fish to behave a bit like a Explore the key differences between Bash, Zsh, and Fish shells to enhance your software development workflow. It adopts a different approach from Bash, focusing on readability and simplicity. Whether you’re writing scripts, managing systems, or navigating … None of them matter for gaming, it's merely preference and use case for your choices. OH-My-ZSH: https://ohmyz. Jul 5, 2025 · Why Do Most Developers Favor Zsh for Everyday Tasks Over Fish? Most developers favor Zsh for everyday tasks over Fish due to its extensive customization options and compatibility with existing scripts. Fish is much easier to setup, but the incompatibilities with bash discourage me from learning. Oct 1, 2024 · I’m still amazed at how quickly my shell instances start up now. In this post, I want to explain how I got there, why I am very happy with fish, and how I have configured it. We can verify that by firing up a container with limited CPU and memory, like so: docker run --rm -it --cpus 1 --memory 100m ubuntu bash And then we can install all the shells, as well as hyperfine, and see how they go: Aug 21, 2024 · Comparison of Bash, Elvish, NuShell, Murex, es-shell, fish, xonsh, PowerShell, Oil and Ion shells - comparison-of-shells. Discover which shell suits your workflow—scripting, customization, or beginner-friendly use. Aug 22, 2024 · Understanding the Differences Between Unix Shells: bash, csh, dash, ksh, shh, tcsh, and zsh Unix-like operating systems offer various command-line shells, each with unique features and I think bash is really standing in the way of progress, whether that progress is in the form of fish, zsh, oil shell, or something else, because so many people conflate "shell" with "bash", similar to how people conflate "Google" with "search" or "git" with "GitHub" (to some degree). Here’s why. My preferred user shell is zsh. What I haven't been able to figure out is what features ZSH brings to the table that Bash lacks.