That bloat correspond to additional features, but I agree, 99 % of the time fd is enough and awesome. The same goes for rg (Ripgrep) or perhaps ag (The Silver Searcher) compared to grep (GNU Grep): for ordinary CLI use rg/ag does everything, but for some scripts I need grep.
Also fzf (Command-line fuzzy finder) is also awesome, it is basically dmenu/rofi for the CLI, but even more powerful on some tasks due to the optional preview pane.
Edit
Remembered a few more of my favorite CLI/TUI applications, some less known than others. While some have been mentioned before, most are new to this thread, and I thought it would be nice to have all of them in one place.
| Command | Complements / Replaces | Alternative | Mention |
|---|---|---|---|
alacritty |
Any terminal | Any terminal | |
fd |
find |
? | Kresimir |
fzf |
? | dmenu/rofi (GUI) | keybreak |
rg (Ripgrep) |
grep |
ag (The Silver Searcher) |
freggel.doe |
bat |
cat |
? | flyingcakes |
hexyl |
hexdump |
? | j-james |
exa [2] |
ls |
lsd (LSDeluxe) |
|
delta |
diff |
Many | |
diskus |
du |
Some, but not this minimal | |
broot [2] |
? | CLI file managers | |
bottom |
top |
Many, but htop [2] and bpytop are popular |
fbodymechanic (bpytop) |
starship [2] |
The prompt (PS1) |
Pure POSIX greatness |