Make tmux pretty and usable (2024)

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

Overall Themes

  • Tmux is widely seen as powerful but unfriendly by default: great once tuned, awkward out of the box.
  • The thread centers on usability (keys, scrollback, copy/paste), theming, and whether tmux is still the right tool versus newer multiplexers or smarter terminals.

Tmux vs Alternatives (Zellij, screen, native terminals)

  • Many switched from tmux to Zellij, praising its default UX, pane/tab handling, mouse support, and vim-like keybindings.
  • Others returned to tmux due to Zellij crashes, missing features (e.g., status bar toggling, window previews), or its stance against tmux-style keyboard copy/multiple buffers.
  • Screen is mentioned as smaller and long-proven; tmux offers better UTF-8 and saner defaults, but screen remains attractive on very constrained systems.
  • Some argue modern terminals (kitty, Wezterm, KDE Konsole) with built-in tabs/panes and scripting can replace tmux entirely.
  • Size matters on embedded devices: Rust-based tools like Zellij are criticized for large static binaries.

Core Use Cases & Session Persistence

  • Main tmux use: detaching/reattaching SSH sessions, working on headless VMs, and surviving flaky connections or mobile devices.
  • Some want only persistence, not panes/tabs; lighter tools suggested: dtach, abduco, shpool, zmx, mosh, etc.
  • Others integrate tmux tightly with editors/IDEs (vim/neovim, Emacs) and use project “sessionizer” scripts, fzf switching, or byobu.

Customization, Keybindings, and UX

  • Frequent rebinding of the prefix (Ctrl‑a, Ctrl‑Space, Ctrl‑s, Ctrl‑z, backtick) and pane navigation to vim-style keys.
  • Some warn against heavy customization because it breaks muscle memory on stock servers; others maintain dotfiles or scripts to deploy configs quickly.
  • Control mode (-CC) with terminals like iTerm2 is praised for making tmux panes look and behave like native tabs, though the protocol is called ugly and support is limited.

Scrollback, Copy/Paste, and Mouse

  • Many complaints about tmux scrollback and copy, especially with mouse mode, browser terminals, macOS Terminal, and OSC52 issues.
  • Workarounds: vi-style copy-mode, custom keybindings, mouse-on configs, plugins (for fuzzy extraction or hint-based copying), and mapping system clipboards.
  • Zellij is criticized for lacking robust keyboard-based copy and multiple buffers, which is a dealbreaker for heavy keyboard users.

Aesthetics & Theming

  • Default bright-green status bar is widely disliked; users apply themes, powerline-style bars, color-coded hosts/root, or hide the bar entirely.
  • Some view prettification as nice but secondary; others say tmux only becomes “usable” after substantial theming and config.