st vs xterm on Slackware -current, same font (Iosevka), bare shell, idle:
Code: st 5,500 lines / xterm 111,306 lines (20× larger)
RAM: st 28.3 MB RSS / xterm 22.0 MB RSS (xterm uses 22% less)
20× more code, 22% less memory.
Suckless optimizes for code size, not runtime size. Different things.
#suckless #xterm #linux #st #slackware
r1w1s1
npub1h4…zd0n9
2026-05-17 18:26:05 UTC
Author Public Key
npub1h4xcdfyq02gr0zs058eqya09t88vyz3yqqdt8vwf0vsz2ur244zs3zd0n9Published at
2026-05-17 18:26:05 UTCEvent JSON
{
"id": "d722e27119dd36eeb718cc64a5608834287e8908ff41ae0fc708d4bae1233aa0",
"pubkey": "bd4d86a4807a90378a0fa1f20275e559cec20a24001ab3b1c97b2025706aad45",
"created_at": 1779042365,
"kind": 1,
"tags": [
[
"t",
"suckless"
],
[
"t",
"xterm"
],
[
"t",
"linux"
],
[
"t",
"st"
],
[
"t",
"slackware"
],
[
"proxy",
"https://snac.bsd.cafe/r1w1s1/p/1779042365.152252",
"activitypub"
],
[
"client",
"Mostr",
"31990:6be38f8c63df7dbf84db7ec4a6e6fbbd8d19dca3b980efad18585c46f04b26f9:mostr",
"wss://relay.ditto.pub"
]
],
"content": "st vs xterm on Slackware -current, same font (Iosevka), bare shell, idle:\n\nCode: st 5,500 lines / xterm 111,306 lines (20× larger)\nRAM: st 28.3 MB RSS / xterm 22.0 MB RSS (xterm uses 22% less)\n20× more code, 22% less memory. \nSuckless optimizes for code size, not runtime size. Different things.\n\n#suckless #xterm #linux #st #slackware\n",
"sig": "d83ab1efca5a3547f064f4aaab41c18c4608535a8c569b6377d4d76ee8de09683764e2de7c3172563be36532412caecea6c76b327258bfdb5168836b16f432ce"
}