Having read this canonical article on TTYs, I'm not sure when kernel-mode TTY emulation (Linux console) is used instead of user-mode TTY emulation (e.g. xterm
).
Normally, I'm always using gnome-terminal
, xterm
, or some other user-mode TTY emulation, so how does kernel-mode TTY emulation fit into this picture? Is Linux console the first TTY that is started, which allows the user to subsequently run e.g. xterm
?
Kernel-mode terminal emulation:
User-mode terminal emulation (PTY):
/dev/tty*
) aren't used for anything useful, why do they still exist today?