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I also spend a lot of time in the terminal. What possible reason could I have to use a VT220 over not using it?

One reason against would be I guess the VT200 is a lot less pleasant to look at than an average display device one has laying around in 2020?




I find the VT520 more pleasant to look at than a LCD screen. The VT has a CRT and no backlight - when its dark, the screen doesnt "glow". The brightness and contrast are adjustable via two potentiometers, allowing eye-strain-less reading during the night.

The terminal bell makes an audible beep, i use that to signal stuff happening in IRC.

Probably because its a CRT, it also doesn't inhibit me from getting tired in the late hours like a phone or laptop does.

Last but not least, the hackability: You can interface the VT via uart, and thus can use it as user interface to an arduino or other retro computers. KVM-like switches are also easy to DIY for serial connections.


The smooth scrolling is also very nice, but you'll lose that when you use a terminal multiplexer :(


Not a terminal user, buy VTY and framebuffer. I use a sound bell with a tmux config for that, but with a sound file from the infamous Sun Multimedia mirror from sunsite. On being tired, I can set the laptop brightness too with light(1).


Where do you hang on IRC? I want to get back into IRC but not sure where to go.


I'm usually in #tildetel and #tilderadio. https://tilde.chat/


Cool thank you!




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