GNU Screen
Hacker ApprovedRanked 4 of 11 terminal multiplexers by recommenders
Long-standing terminal multiplexer for keeping sessions alive across disconnects, with a well-written man page and simple key bindings. Critics call it old, with weak UTF-8 support.
Long-standing terminal multiplexer for keeping sessions alive across disconnects, with a well-written man page and simple key bindings. Critics call it old, with weak UTF-8 support.
44 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 33
- criticize it
- 11
- approval share
- 75%
Recommended in 12 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 33 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 3 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 12 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Resumes sessions after reconnecting
“just running screen or tmux on the other end and just resume where you left of after quick reconnect”
Comment from 16 Jan 2026 in “Linux boxes via SSH: suspended when disconected” “Whereas with screen/tmux you can just pop it open again and see the whole session.”
Comment from 30 Jul 2026 in “Mitchellh starts a new company: Superlogical” “open my whole session in a terminal multiplexer (screen, tmux)”
Comment from 21 May 2026 in “Google Search as you know it is over” Logs and dumps session output
“One nicety there now is that you can easily get a dump of what's showing in the pty with screen -S -X hardcopy.”
Comment from 13 Apr 2026 in “Make Tmux Pretty and Usable” “starting everything from within GNU screen or tmux with logging turned on”
Comment from 11 Dec 2025 in “How can I read the standard output of an already-running process?” “script (or screen/tmux logging) will capture both though.”
Comment from 11 Dec 2025 in “How can I read the standard output of an already-running process?” Small, long-lived and stable
“Screen is only 280Kb (armv7), statically compiled with curses.”
Comment from 14 Apr 2026 in “Make Tmux Pretty and Usable” “been using it for 25 years, so far so good”
Comment from 13 Apr 2026 in “Make Tmux Pretty and Usable” “And I've used it ever since.”
Comment from 13 Apr 2026 in “Make Tmux Pretty and Usable” Detaching and reattaching works well
“Detaching is working just fine with `screen` as well.”
Comment from 1 Mar 2026 in “Ghostty – Terminal Emulator” “I do the dinosaur version of this, with screen and xpra. Works great.”
Comment from 18 Jun 2026 in “Emacs 31 Is Around the Corner: The Changes I'm Daily Driving”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Weak or missing UTF-8 support
“It was an attempt to bolt on UTF8 support, but it's not great.”
Comment from 13 Apr 2026 in “Make Tmux Pretty and Usable” “Screen does not have UTF8 support, tmux does.”
Comment from 13 Apr 2026 in “Make Tmux Pretty and Usable” Dated emulator lags modern output
“that emulator is decades old and lags far behind what modern programs emit”
Comment from 11 Jun 2026 in “Show HN: Boo – screen-style terminal multiplexer built on libghostty” “the venerable but ancient GNU screen”
Comment from 2 Oct 2026 in “Pi 1.0” Bug and codebase concerns
“I traced it back to a bug in screen, which I patched in my own screen fork.”
Comment from 2 Oct 2026 in “Pi 1.0” “I switched from screen to tmux due to rumor about the screen code base”
Comment from 14 Feb 2026 in “Vim 9.2 Released”
Other terminal multiplexers people recommend
The four most recommended other terminal multiplexers, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
See all 11 terminal multiplexers, rankedWhat people said
38 of the 47 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“All of these tools are great”
“It works for everything, not just your harness.”
“when combined with something like screen it's icing on the cake”
“the venerable but ancient GNU screen”
“I traced it back to a bug in screen, which I patched in my own screen fork.”
“Unless you actually need GUIs, you could just use screen/tmux”
“doesn't end up being very good IME”
“You can also just use the system console with tmux or GNU screen”
“before that I was using zellij and before that tmux and before that gnu screen”
“Whereas with screen/tmux you can just pop it open again and see the whole session.”
“allows gnu screen to work as it always has”
“not happy with cli based serial consoles like tio, screen etc.”
“The poling requires tmux (not screen nor dtach, as far as I could find)”
“I do the dinosaur version of this, with screen and xpra. Works great.”
“Old busted screen can do multiple windows per session.”
“that emulator is decades old and lags far behind what modern programs emit”
“open my whole session in a terminal multiplexer (screen, tmux)”
“Screen is only 280Kb (armv7), statically compiled with curses.”
“It was an attempt to bolt on UTF8 support, but it's not great.”
“And I've used it ever since.”
“What I don't see discussed is why tmux (and screen) are still a thing”
“Screen does not have UTF8 support, tmux does.”
“One nicety there now is that you can easily get a dump of what's showing in the pty with screen -S -X hardcopy.”
“been using it for 25 years, so far so good”
“that man page is one of the best-written man pages I've come across: informative, friendly and just the right level of detail.”
“any wise sysadmin would put that advice on every ~/.login or /etc/motd”
“Detaching is working just fine with `screen` as well.”
“horrors to copy and paste text under Tmux/Screen”
“find the key combinations very easy and intuitive”
“I switched from screen to tmux due to rumor about the screen code base”
“just running screen or tmux on the other end and just resume where you left of after quick reconnect”
“composing existing tools that provide that functionality (namely tmux/screen and Docker/Podman)”
“script (or screen/tmux logging) will capture both though.”
“starting everything from within GNU screen or tmux with logging turned on”
“That way you can easily take the above setup to any machine that you move to.”
“then you want tmux or screen or zellij”
“I actually use screen myself and it was one of the main inspirations for sbsh.”
“Not a big fan of screen and tmux except as their limited value to me”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.