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I've tried a number of times to switch to zsh, ostensibly for oh-my-zsh. My main issue is that bash is the default almost everywhere so it's more work to change

I've tried a number of times to switch to zsh, ostensibly for oh-my-zsh. My main issue is that bash is the default almost everywhere so it's more work to change it than it is to just be "happy enough" with Bash. I used to work on a fairly underpowered ARM5 and I could feel the impact of most prompt customisations on the speed of the system, especially on initial login. That feeling is still there - mainly because I haven't found the right SD card for my Raspberry Pi. To avoid this becoming a complete ramble - are there any advantages to switching to zsh as someone who's reasonably comfortable with bash? Hell, even OS X switched (and boy, t/csh was a shock when using FreeBSD).

lake99 11y ago
This is a difficult question to answer. I switched a long time ago, when bash did not provide the kind of completions that zsh does. Nowadays bash is catching up. Try these things in bash (with completions installed): 1. cd to a git repository and type "git [TAB]". Do you see a list of git-specific completions? 2. cd to a directory that has a makefile and type "make [TAB]" do you see a bunch of make targets? 3. cd to a directory that has some PDF files and some other files. Type "okular [TAB]" (or whatever you use to view PDF's. Do you see just the PDF files as completions? 4. Same as 3, but try other programs like python, perl, etc. How well do bash completions keep up with zsh completions? I'd be very surprised if bash supports completions for programs that zsh has missed. In general, switching from bash is very easy. Your muscle-memory from bash transfers very well to zsh. You may want to change the prompt to look similar to your bash prompt, so you'll feel at home. Translating my bashrc and bashprofile took just a few minutes. I tried oh-my-zsh and it did not feel right for me. If this is the reason you're switching, all I can say is that zsh offers benefits even without it.

lake99 11y ago

This is a difficult question to answer. I switched a long time ago, when bash did not provide the kind of completions that zsh does. Nowadays bash is catching up. Try these things in bash (with completions installed): 1. cd to a git repository and type "git [TAB]". Do you see a list of git-specific completions? 2. cd to a directory that has a makefile and type "make [TAB]" do you see a bunch of make targets? 3. cd to a directory that has some PDF files and some other files. Type "okular [TAB]" (or whatever you use to view PDF's. Do you see just the PDF files as completions? 4. Same as 3, but try other programs like python, perl, etc. How well do bash completions keep up with zsh completions? I'd be very surprised if bash supports completions for programs that zsh has missed. In general, switching from bash is very easy. Your muscle-memory from bash transfers very well to zsh. You may want to change the prompt to look similar to your bash prompt, so you'll feel at home. Translating my bashrc and bashprofile took just a few minutes. I tried oh-my-zsh and it did not feel right for me. If this is the reason you're switching, all I can say is that zsh offers benefits even without it.