Well..
Some folks relate "terminals" to ancient stuff ...
(that specially fits folks which like systemd bizarre way of things...)
Terminals are indeed the core protocol pathways...
Needless to say that rollback way down 80s and early days
where terminals were pretty much defined in the core OS
like screen, keyb, lines, tapes.
Mincom predates all the above. It dates back mid 90s
but indeed early 90s terminals for core protocol handling
https://salsa.debian.org/minicom-team/minicomIt just evolved as a complete solution to whatever
protocol you may need by ncurses and any external applet.
Activelly maitanined.
No crappy UI to mess your life
Can run standalone even from a REAL INIT system V
No useless stuff around
Still "THE" complete set of options
That includes from MODEM setup to KERMIT like
Can not think of a more robust and tested applet.
Putty is kinda juvenile compared to Minicom
Paul