Term.Everything — Run any graphical application directly inside your terminal, even over SSH.
Analyzed by Sai Pavan Gopularam · DevTools · Terminal Utilities · View on GitHub
- Stars: 8090
- Forks: 195
- Commits last 30 days: 0
- Health: Stale (last push 172d ago)
- Language: Go
- License: AGPL-3.0
What It Is
Term.Everything is a command-line program for Linux that lets you display any graphical application directly within your terminal window. Think of it like a remote desktop client, but instead of streaming a whole desktop to another screen, it streams individual application windows directly into your text-based terminal. It achieves this by acting as a Wayland compositor, a core component of modern Linux graphics.
This matters because it allows you to interact with GUI applications in environments where a full graphical desktop isn't available or desired, like on a remote server accessed via SSH. It solves the problem of needing to switch between a terminal and a separate VNC/RDP session for specific graphical tools, streamlining workflows for developers, system administrators, and anyone working primarily in the command line.
License Verdict
AGPL-3.0 License — Use with Extreme Caution — Commercial Use Highly Restricted • Strong Copyleft • Requires Source Disclosure
The AGPL-3.0 license is a strong copyleft license. If you modify this software and distribute it (even over a network as a SaaS), you are generally required to make your entire modified source code available to users. This makes building proprietary commercial services directly on top of it very challenging, as you'd likely have to open-source your entire application.
How to Use It
Term.Everything is a Linux CLI tool. You download a pre-compiled beta binary from GitHub releases. After downloading, you'll need to make it executable and then run it, specifying the GUI application you want to launch inside your terminal.
Prerequisites:
- Linux OS
- Go (for building from source)
- Wayland (for host system)
Estimated setup time: 5 minutes.
wget https://github.com/mmulet/term.everything/releases/download/v0.1.0/term.everything_linux_amd64
chmod +x term.everything_linux_amd64
./term.everything_linux_amd64 firefoxWhat I'd Build With This
Managed Terminal App Launcher for Remote Devs (micro-saas)
Offer a specialized service for development teams that need to run specific GUI tools (like a browser for OAuth flows or a GUI debugger) on remote Linux servers without full VNC/RDP. You'd provide a wrapper around Term.Everything, managing its deployment and session lifecycle, allowing developers to launch and interact with these tools via a simple command or web interface. Teams pay for the convenience, support, and pre-configured environments.
Effort: 1 Week Build Time · Target: DevOps Teams, Remote Software Engineers · Pricing: $99/month per team
Terminal-First Cloud IDE with GUI Support (saas)
Build a cloud-based development environment that is primarily terminal-driven but allows users to launch full GUI applications (like VS Code, Chrome, or a specific IDE) directly within their SSH session, powered by Term.Everything. The entire stack would be open-source (to comply with AGPL), but you'd charge for the managed hosting, powerful compute resources, persistent storage, and team collaboration features. This targets developers who prefer the terminal but occasionally need a visual tool.
Effort: 3 Months Build Time · Target: Open-Source Developers, Cloud-Native Teams · Pricing: $29/month per user
Secure Legacy Application Access for Enterprises (enterprise)
Provide consulting and custom integration services for enterprises that need to grant secure, terminal-only access to specific legacy GUI applications running on internal Linux servers. This avoids deploying full desktop virtualization solutions, reducing attack surface and resource consumption. You'd help integrate Term.Everything into their existing SSH infrastructure, manage application profiles, and provide support for specific enterprise use cases. The value is in integration, security hardening, and ongoing support.
Effort: 2 Weeks per Client · Target: IT Departments, Security-Conscious Enterprises · Pricing: $5,000+ per project
Sai Pavan Gopularam's Take
This tool is genuinely mind-bending and solves a real pain point for anyone deep in the Linux terminal. The ability to run a browser or IDE over SSH without VNC is powerful. However, the AGPL-3.0 license is a massive hurdle for any proprietary SaaS idea; you'd have to get very creative, perhaps charging for managed infrastructure around an entirely open-source stack, which could still pull in $5-10k/month for a niche service.
Watch Out For
- AGPL-3.0 License: The strong copyleft nature of AGPL-3.0 means that if you build a service around this and distribute it (even over a network), you'll likely need to open-source your entire derivative work. This severely limits proprietary commercial applications.
- Early Beta & Stability: The project is explicitly in a "Term some things" stage, with a roadmap to "Term everything." The README warns that "some apps or (even most apps) may fail to launch or even crash," indicating it's not production-ready for all applications.
- Performance vs. Quality Trade-off: The quality of the displayed window is limited by terminal resolution. While terminals supporting images (like Kitty, iTerm2) can render at full resolution, performance may degrade significantly, making it less suitable for highly interactive or video-intensive applications.
- Linux-Only: As a Wayland compositor, Term.Everything is inherently a Linux-specific tool and will not run natively on macOS or Windows. This limits its direct applicability to environments running Linux.
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