GNU Bourne Again SHell Alternatives

    GNU Bourne Again SHell is described as 'Bash is the shell, or command language interpreter, that will appear in the GNU operating system. Bash is an sh-compatible shell that incorporates useful features from the Korn shell (ksh) and C shell (csh). It is intended to conform to the IEEE POSIX P1003.2/ISO 9945' and is a well-known app in the OS & Utilities category. There are more than 10 alternatives to GNU Bourne Again SHell for a variety of platforms, including Linux, Mac, Windows, BSD and Cygwin. The best alternative is fish, which is both free and Open Source. Other great apps like GNU Bourne Again SHell are Zsh (Free, Open Source), IPython (Free, Open Source), dash (Free, Open Source) and Levinux (Free, Open Source).

    This page was last updated Oct 23, 2021
    1. Fish is a user friendly command line shell for UNIX-like operating systems such as Linux.
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      Almost everyone thinks fish is a great alternative to GNU Bourne Again SHell.
    2. Zsh is a UNIX command interpreter (shell) which of the standard shells most resembles the Korn shell (ksh); its compatibility with the 1988 Korn shell has been gradually increasing.
      Almost everyone thinks Zsh is a great alternative to GNU Bourne Again SHell.

    4. IPython

      • Free • Open Source
      • Mac
      • Windows
      • Linux
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      IPython is an interactive shell for the Python programming language that offers enhanced introspection, additional shell syntax, syntax highlighting, tab completion and rich history. It is a component of the SciPy package.
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    5. DASH is a POSIX-compliant implementation of /bin/sh that aims to be as small as possible. It does this without sacrificing speed where possible. In fact, it is significantly faster than bash (the GNU Bourne-Again SHell) for most tasks. DASH stands for Debian Almquist Shell.
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    6. Levinux – A Tiny Version of Linux for Education Levinux (download ~20 MB) is a tiny virtual Linux server that runs from USB or Dropbox with a double-click (no install or admin rights required) on Macs, Windows or Linux PCs—making it the perfect learning environment, and way...
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    8. KornShell

      • Free • Open Source
      • Linux
      • BSD
      • Cygwin
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      The KornShell language was designed and developed by David G. Korn at AT&T Bell Laboratories. It is an interactive command language that provides access to the UNIX system and to many other systems, on the many different computers and workstations on which it is implemented.
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      KornShell vs GNU Bourne Again SHell opinions
      pros, cons and recent comments
      lunolas Efficient and light, with all required features for a good interactive shell
      Positive comment • over 4 years ago

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    9. Nu Shell

      • Free • Open Source
      • Mac
      • Windows
      • Linux
      • BSD
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      This project has reached a minimum-viable product level of quality. While contributors dogfood it as their daily driver, it may be unstable for some commands. Future releases will work fill out missing features and improve stability.
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    10. Xiki makes the command line friendlier and more powerful. Xiki Shell (xsh) lets you use Xiki from command line, in a way that augments your current favorite shell (bash or zsh).
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    11. win-bash is a Windows port of the famous GNU bash (see GNU Bash homepage).

      Discontinued

      The project is no longer developed since 2016. Last version, 1.1, released in March 2011, can be still downloaded from SourceForge.

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    12. Xonsh is a Python-powered, cross-platform, Unix-gazing shell language and command prompt. The language is a superset of Python 3.4+ with additional shell primitives that you are used to from Bash and IPython. It works on all major systems including Linux, Mac OSX, and Windows.
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    Showing 10 of 22 alternatives