A shell is a program that interprets and executes the commands that you type at a command line prompt. When you start MATE Terminal, the application starts the default shell that is specified in your system account. You can switch to a different shell at any time.

MATE Terminal emulates the xterm application developed by the X Consortium. In turn, the xterm application emulates the DEC VT102 terminal and also supports the DEC VT220 escape sequences. An escape sequence is a series of characters that starts with the Esc character. MATE Terminal accepts all of the escape sequences that the VT102 and VT220 terminals use for functions such as to position the cursor and to clear the screen.