[CentOS] Gnu Screen - terminal issues

[Les Mikesell]

On 3/4/11 12:15 AM, Dr. Ed Morbius wrote:
>
>
>> I do like the way gnome collapses the icons in the task bar when you
>> have enough of them - and pops up the list so you can see it.  It
>> makes it easy to find the terminal session connected to some
>> particular remote host.
>
> WindowMaker has a windowlist.  Even better.  I usually last 1-4 hours
> when I periodically try GNOME.  KDE and XFCE I might last a few days.
> Then it's back to the One True Window Manager.

I don't care about the mechanism so much as having everything I do on one 
screen, under one window manager.  So all of my terminal sessions collapse in 
one place that becomes a popup list.  Likewise all of my firefox windows (and 
for this reason I like separate windows better than tabs).

>>> I'm really just fine with terminal windows and SSH-forwarded apps if
>>> those are necessary.
>>
>> But why do you need screen, then?
>
> Terminal multiplexing, session persistance, scrollback/logging, split
> screen (top running in the top panel, shell underneath, etc.), workflow
> organization (similar processes are grouped in a screen session).

But all of that just happens by itself in a GUI screen and isn't limited to text 
mode.

> I'm writing this mail in mutt, in a screen session with multiple
> mailboxes open, each to its own screen window.  It's like a multi-tabbed
> GNOME or KDE terminal, except that the session persists even if the
> controlling terminal is killed, or X dies altogether.

Yes, but you are limited to text mode apps.  I actually have a GUI session that 
persists even if my local connection breaks.  And it performs pretty well when I 
pick it up remotely.  And I can't recall a time when the server side of the X 
connection ever died.

> Screen is one of those amazingly powerful Linux tools, once you stumble
> across it.

But NX/freenx does the same and more.  The only down side I can see is the time 
for the initial screen draw over a slow connection.

-- 
   Les Mikesell
     lesmikesell at gmail.com