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this post was submitted on 03 Jan 2025
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Linux
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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
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I'd recommend
tmuxfor that particular use. Screen has a lot of extras that are interesting but don't really follow the GNU mentality of "do one thing and do it well."Tmux / Screen is like the emacs/vim of the modern day Linux I think.
Screen is more than capable, but for those who have moved to Tmux, they will absolutely advocate for it.
When tmux was first released I was already so used to screen that I never really considered switching. What would some convincing arguments be for me to make the effort to switch now?
The thing that got me to switch was being able to maintain my pane layout between connections. The various window and pane management niceties (naming, swapping, listing and the like) got me to stay. Now you can keep your screen, but you'd have to pry tmux from my cold, dead, tty.
This was a few years ago so maybe it has improved, but I found that screen would crash and lose my session history and layout too often. That was bad enough, but when it happened it had some bullshit error message about a dungeon roof falling in. I don't mind some comedy in code or even the interface, but don't make light of the user losing their stuff. I tried tmux and it is much more stable than screen was.
Tmux was purpose built for terminal multiplexing. You can assign session names for organizing and manipulating multiple instances. Send keys to and read output from detached sessions. It's easy to script.
Was screen not purpose built for terminal multiplexing?
Sorry, it was, just not for exploring all of those instances at once. Should have called out the tiling function. Screen also built in a serial terminal emulator and started playing with a few other things.