If you were put off trying the Warp terminal app on Ubuntu (or another Linux distro) due to the account and login requirement, there’s good news.
The team behind the Rust-based, AI-infused terminal tool has relented on the requirement that users sign-up for and log in with a Warp account before they can run a command.
As of this week, anyone can download Warp for for macOS or Linux (it’s coming to Windows soon) and access “all of the core features […] with a preview of more advanced features” without an account, and without logging in.
Although, having tried the latest build, it makes you say you don’t want to login twice in succession. Y’know, just to make sure you’re realllllly sure you don’t want to.
“We still think the best experience comes from logging in,” they add, but reason that “developers who try the app in a logged out state will see the value in what we’ve created” and signup for one.
However, Warp says it plans to ‘tweak’ —restrict, in other words— which features are available to users who don’t log in over the coming months.
For now, they encourage developers to “enjoy some AI on us.”
Is Warp worth using? It’s certainly not a run-of-the-mill terminal, and it’s not something pitching itself at non-developers.
I won’t rehash its pros and cons in full, but the login requirement certainly was enough of an irritant to put readers off wanting to try it when I covered the app back earlier this year.
Warp relaxing that requirement? May well result in more casual, drive-by testing from curious Linux users – though knowing at least some of features are to be put back behind a signup door in the ‘coming weeks’ may make some wonder ‘why bother?’.
Anyone who is interested can download Warp for Linux from the official website. Ubuntu users can choose from a DEB installer or a distro-agnostic AppImage for either a regular 64-bit Intel/AMD device or ARM64 systems, like the Raspberry Pi.