A Fresh Start
I had been happily using Oh My Zsh with iTerm2 for years, specifically with the Powerlevel10k theme. It looked gorgeous with its segmented, color-coded design—everything I could want from a prompt. But when my old Mac died unexpectedly, I saw it as an opportunity: instead of simply cloning my dotfiles to a new machine, why not take a fresh look at what’s available in 2026?
I discovered that the terminal ecosystem had evolved significantly. The tools that felt cutting-edge five years ago now had faster, leaner alternatives that didn’t sacrifice beauty. I found that Starship with its gruvbox-rainbow preset could match (and even exceed) the Powerlevel10k aesthetic, but with 3-6x faster performance. This guide documents my journey.
Before & After: The Visual Difference
❌ The Old Way: Plain & Slow
user@machine ~ $
✅ The New Way: Beautiful & Instant
[macOS] [~/project-name] [master ✓] [⬢ v24.13.1] [🐍 v3.9.6] [ 14:30]
❯
Every segment is color-coded and tells you exactly what you need to know. Git status, language versions, current time—all at a glance, all rendering in milliseconds.
The visual feedback is instant. No waiting. No lag.
Why This Matters
Your terminal is where you live as a developer. ⌨️ You open dozens of tabs daily, type hundreds of commands, and spend more time there than most people realize.
That “dead time” waiting for your shell to initialize? It adds up.
When I switched, something clicked: The speed improvement wasn’t just noticeable—it was liberating. No more waiting. No more lag when I’m already thinking about the next thing. It’s a small quality-of-life improvement that compounds throughout your day.
Understanding the Tools
🚀 Starship
Starship is a modern shell prompt manager designed from the ground up for speed and simplicity. Unlike Oh My Zsh, which is a full framework with an extensive plugin ecosystem, Starship is laser-focused: it does one thing incredibly well—render your prompt in milliseconds.
Key features:
- ⚡ Written in Rust (hence the blazing speed)
- 🔄 Works across Zsh, Bash, Fish, PowerShell, and others
- 📝 Configuration in a simple TOML file (no shell scripts)
- 🔍 Auto-detects your project type and shows relevant info
- ⏱️ Renders in 10-15ms even in large git repositories
🎨 Nerd Fonts
Nerd Fonts are patched fonts that include thousands of icons. They turn your terminal into something visually rich: programming language logos, git icons, OS symbols. It’s not just pretty; it’s functional visual language.
Popular choices: FiraCode, MesloLGS, JetBrains Mono. Installation is simple—download TTF files and copy to your fonts directory.
💻 Ghostty
Ghostty is a GPU-accelerated terminal emulator built for modern hardware. It’s fast, beautiful, and highly configurable. Pairs perfectly with Starship to create a cohesive, responsive terminal experience.
The Speed Improvement: The Numbers
Here’s what actually changed for me—measured in real usage:
| Metric | Before 🐢 | After ⚡ | Improvement |
|---|---|---|---|
| New terminal tab | 1.2s | 200ms | 6x faster |
git status in repo |
150-200ms | 15ms | 10-13x faster |
| Shell startup | ~1s | 150ms | 6x faster |
| Memory usage | ~150-200MB | ~40MB | 4x lighter |
| Configuration | Multiple files + plugins | Single TOML | Much simpler |
The most noticeable improvement? In large git repositories where Powerlevel10k’s git status calculations would stall the entire prompt. With Starship, it’s always instant.
What I Realized After Switching
1️⃣ You Don’t Realize How Slow It Was
That 50-100ms render time felt normal until I experienced 10-15ms. Now going back feels like molasses.
2️⃣ One Config File Beats Plugin Chaos
With Oh My Zsh, I was managing ~/.oh-my-zsh/custom/ with plugin folders, wondering which ones I actually needed. With Starship, everything lives in a single starship.toml file. It’s liberating.
3️⃣ Speed Compounds Throughout Your Day
You open terminals constantly. A 6x improvement across 50 window opens per day = 5 minutes saved daily. That’s 25+ hours per year. It’s not just about the moment—it’s about the accumulation.
4️⃣ Portability Actually Matters
When my Mac died, I wasn’t panicked about recovering a complex setup. I downloaded Starship, copied one config file, and I was back to 90% of my old setup in minutes. With Oh My Zsh, that would have been an hour of fiddling.
5️⃣ The New Tools Are Genuinely Mature
Starship and Ghostty are young compared to Oh My Zsh and iTerm2, but they’ve matured remarkably. They’re not experimental anymore—they’re production-ready with active communities.
How to Set It Up
🟢 Option 1: Automated Setup (Recommended)
I created a setup script that handles everything—installs Starship, Ghostty, and applies the configuration:
curl -sSL https://gist.githubusercontent.com/trungh13/04eaa955e4907325191a37276fe86624/raw/mac-terminal-setup-feb-2026.sh | bash
Then:
- Download a Nerd Font from https://www.nerdfonts.com/font-downloads (FiraCode recommended)
- Reload your shell:
exec zsh - ✨ Done!
🔵 Option 2: Manual Setup
If you prefer step-by-step:
- Install with Homebrew:
brew install starship ghostty - Add Starship to your shell rc file
- Download and install a Nerd Font
- Copy the Starship configuration from the gist
Full details and configuration: https://gist.github.com/trungh13/04eaa955e4907325191a37276fe86624
The beauty is that everything is version-controllable. You can commit your config to GitHub and restore your entire setup on a new machine in seconds.
Should You Make the Switch?
✅ Switch if:
- ⚡ You value speed and responsiveness
- 🚫 You’re tired of managing complex plugin systems
- 🔄 You want a setup that’s easy to reproduce
- 📦 You work in large git repositories (where prompt lag is most noticeable)
- 🆕 You want a modern, actively maintained ecosystem
⏸️ Don’t switch if:
- 🔌 You heavily depend on Oh My Zsh plugins
- 🎨 You need extreme customization (Powerlevel10k has more options)
- 😊 You’re perfectly happy with your current setup
But honestly? Most developers find the speed alone is worth it. Once you experience a 10x faster prompt, going back feels painful.
The Takeaway
A beautiful, informative shell prompt isn’t just cosmetic—it’s a productivity tool. When your terminal is fast and responsive, you’re in flow longer. You don’t lose your train of thought waiting for it to catch up. That matters.
The modern terminal stack of Starship + Ghostty is genuinely better than the Oh My Zsh stack. It’s faster, simpler, more portable, and actively maintained.
It took my Mac dying to realize I should have switched years ago.
👉 Drop your questions or ideas in the comments!
Have you tried Starship? What’s your terminal setup? I’d love to hear about your experiences or any questions you have about making the switch!
🙌 Thanks for Reading!
If you enjoyed this tutorial or want to follow my future web development and development environment experiments, feel free to connect with me:
👤 Author: Trung Hoang
🔗 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/htrung1311
💻 GitHub: https://github.com/trungh13
I share projects, experiments, and hands-on lessons from real builds — from development tooling to modern web development.
Stay tuned for more! 🚀