Kovid Goyal: Linux, Window Managers, and GitHub Controversies

From Linkarzu Podcast | Neovim, macOS, Emacs, Linux, Terminals and more. by Linkarzu

December 3, 2025 · 1h 30m · Season 1 · Episode 38

About this episode

Kovid Goyal discusses his work on the Kitty terminal and Calibre, along with insights into open source and workflow optimization.

Kovid Goyal is the creator of the Kitty terminal and the Calibre e-book reader. We had an interview around 4 months ago. After that interview, I became a fan of the myth, the legend. So much so that I switched back from Ghostty to Kitty as my main terminal. Well, not just because, but because he implemented a feature I was missing in Ghostty: Sessions. So I was able to replace my beloved tmux with kitty and I've been running without tmux for a few months now, it's been good. Video: https://youtu.be/SY8L-cj4x6k What's the best way to support me? https://linkarzu.com/about/#youre-a-fraud-why-do-you-ask-for-money-isnt-youtube-ads-enough Timeline: 00:00:00 - Highlights 00:02:31 - 2nd time 00:03:24 - choose-files kitten image and video preview demo 00:07:30 - Does it replace the open file dialogue on macOS or just Linux? 00:09:13 - Why do you create all these protocols and tools? 00:10:34 - The itch of improving your workflow. Do you over optimize? 00:12:06 - What file manager do you use, yazi or something else? 00:13:12 - How is Calibre pronounced? 00:14:20 - The name Kitty 00:15:36 - How and why did you get started with computers? 00:16:07 - Mother PhD got ZX Spectrum 00:16:58…

People in this episode

Host: Linkarzu

Guest: Kovid Goyal

Topics covered

Linux
Window Managers
GitHub Controversies
Open Source
Terminal Emulators
Product Development

Keywords

Kovid Goyal
Kitty terminal
Calibre
Linux
Open Source
tmux
Ghostty
window managers
GitHub

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Calibre, Kitty, Ghostty, tmux, Caltech, Sony

Products: PRS-500

Places: macOS, Linux, ZX Spectrum