Ubuntu brings advanced Screen features

In my opinion, gnu screen is one of the best utilities for unix operating systems ever written. Not just because of what it lets you do explicitly, but the way it changes the way a unix system can be used. Using continuously-running apps in multiplexed windows did wonders for my communications and file management.<p>I even remember my screen windows from high school! (0-user,1-root,2-mutt,3-naim[aim client],4-irssi,5-7-misc) My friends who also used screen had their own window groups. I also remember my keyboard having the 'A' key significantly more worn than others.<p>I have since switched to GUI chat and email apps, but I instantly feel nostalgic whenever these articles pop up.

This is great news, finally word is getting out about one of the most useful utils.<p>Totally unrelated, but to those who like both emacs and screen, here's a quick tip: make screen use Ctrl-Z instead of Ctrl-A (and use Ctrl-Z Z when you need to send a suspend). Put this in your .screenrc:<p>escape ^zz

I'm pretty sure nothing that runs solely in-terminal can ever truly be brought "to the masses", unfortunately.<p>New Linux users, even those who are competent within Windows, are just too intimidated by a CLI.<p>That said, the simplified config for Screen is pretty nice, especially for those of us who regard mouse use as a cache-miss.

For those who wish their window manager was more like screen I recommend strongly recommend the ratposion WM.

this seems more like eye-candy / reading output from top / reading output from procfs ... rather than 'advanced features'

"Ubuntu's screen-profiles also offer a simpler set of default keyboard shortcuts for screen management that are intended to be easier to use and less likely to conflict with other programs and the user's graphical terminal program. "<p>Interesting - this would be a downgrade for me. For a while I used "escape ``" but have for years used the default of Ctrl+A. This is a pain for most users because they use emacs mode for the console and find that it gets in the way of their return-to-start-of-line shortcut. Whereas I did some time on ksh88 a few years back and now prefer vi mode for the prompt.<p>Last week I went to a customer site and for the first time met someone<p>Any theories on why vi is such a popular editor yet so trivial for console? I've been fluent in -o vi and -o emacs and genuinely think that -o vi is a better option, but know about the significant learning curve from my own memories.<p>I'd like to see tighter application integration with screen - being able to spawn windows, etc. It would also be nice to have a single hotkey combination that exactly emulates alt+tab under Windows.

On reading the title, I expected this to be about persistent multiplexed sessions in the window server. Adding window-dressing to gnu screen is a strange idea - does the target audience for screen really want this?

Anyone who has a 9.04 install handy: does this just write a modified .screenrc, or does it somehow refer to those configurations stored elsewhere and requires a customized screen build?

I dunno if I'd call that "advanced". More like "easier to use".<p>Don't get me wrong. It's nice (I personally disabled it because I want my apps to take the full terminal).

Wish screen-profiles was there in the hardy repository.

Quite honestly the only thing I use screen for is detaching programs to run while I am logged out.<p>I would rather have 10 terminal windows up if I'm simply doing multi tasking on the command line. It totally makes me feel like the guy from swordfish.