Zsh: More Than Bash

Note (2026): Oh My Zsh is now officially installed with: sh -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ohmyzsh/ohmyzsh/master/tools/install.sh)". The repository moved to github.com/ohmyzsh/ohmyzsh.

There is nothing more convenient than a good command shell, and zsh is probably one of the best. On most servers and work machines, bash is installed by default, and many people do not even think that a command shell can or should do anything besides launching commands. For example, it should help the user choose which command to run.

Installation

Installing the “basic kit” is as easy as can be. For example, in Ubuntu:

apt-get install zsh
usermod USER -s /usr/bin/zsh

Installing extra goodies is not hard either:

curl -L https://github.com/robbyrussell/oh-my-zsh/raw/master/tools/install.sh | sh

Result

For example, this is what zsh looks like for me: