What is the difference between terminal, terminal emulator and console?

Question

linux

The morning began with a discussion, what is the difference between the console and the terminal in Linux?
I assumed that the terminal is a device that can output and read character values. The console is already a wrapper over the terminal. She knows how to use all sorts of buffers, highlight files, etc.
What are your opinions on this matter?

Answer 1

A console is a collection of devices that allows you to interact with a device.
Previously, the console could be a regular printer (in principle, it can now), then it will be a text console / terminal. Not to be confused with the text interface.
Terminal - In fact, it is also a device for input and output of information, but
> Console, this is already a wrapper over the terminal.
Fundamentally not true. As a result - the console, this is work directly with the device itself, the terminal is some kind of remote work. In a graphical environment, we run a terminal emulator that gives us access to the "console" of the current or remote machine.
The terminal is already an add-on above the console and by itself means more remote access from a low-power machine. Previously, these were very, very cheap devices, but slow.
Therefore, each user had his own terminal session divided by time and resource. (Actually it's pretty much the same now)

Answer 2

If you do not go into history (teletype as a terminal, etc.) and the wisdom of terminology (remote RS-232 display as a terminal) ... which Vladimir Zhurkin described in detail, then
: the console (just the console) is called those 6 (usually, but can be up to 63) text sessions (screens) that you can switch Ctrl + Alt + F2, Ctrl + Alt + F3, etc.
- in one (but maybe several) of these consoles (usually Ctrl+Alt+F1 or Ctrl+Alt+F7) a graphical X Window server session is running ... what you see as a GUI ...
- and in this graphical session , among other GUI programs, terminal emulators (gnome-terminal, etc.) can be launched different programs can be launched
- these windows or tabs of terminal emulators can be called terminal ... if you don't be careful with terminological virginity ;-) ... because there are no other terminals in modern Linux
- finally, in server Linux, there may be no graphics at all (X Window), and hence no terminals, but there can always and necessarily be up to 63 text consoles ...
One could generally use the console (text) and terminal (graphic) as synonyms, in user sense (what difference does it make to you? ;-) ) ... except for some subtle differences:
- many (but not all) messages from the Linux kernel and kernel modules are displayed in the text console, but are not displayed in the terminal emulator;
- the text console and the terminal emulator are Russified in completely different ways: what in the 2nd looks like text, in the 1st it can be like ... krakozyabry;
- if you throw out a Russian-language message from the Linux kernel modules even on a correctly Russianized console ... then again - krakozyabry;
PS Although, here is a historical paradox! - all text programs that in 99.9...% of cases run in a graphical terminal are called console applications . And even in Windows systems, where there is no text console at all - all the same, console applications ...

Answer 3

Terminal - what is displayed with Ctrl-alt-F1, Ctrl-alt-F2. Rather, these are virtual terminals. Terminal is a device.
Emulator - gnome-terminal, xterm, etc... An emulator is a program that provides terminal functionality.
Console is the common name for both.