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Honest question: Is there any benefit of using tmux over a proper tiling window manager? Or, why would I want to delegate some of the window manager tasks to a

by joepvd 11y ago

Honest question: Is there any benefit of using tmux over a proper tiling window manager? Or, why would I want to delegate some of the window manager tasks to a terminal emulator?

jwhitlark 11y ago
Yes, there's lots of value to tmux outside of "window management", even if you only use it locally. That said, lots of the value is using it remotely.
dkns 11y ago
For me it's having two different terminals connected to same tmux session. I use tiling window manager and work on two monitors. Sometimes there is some stuff that I'm working on on my main monitor but I want to have quick look at the terminal. Because I have two terminals opened on both monitors I can just switch to the other one, press ctrl+f(my prefix)+number and have exactly same window as in my main terminal. For anyone wondering you can achieve above by typing tmux new-session -t and giving it number/name of your current session. Also there are minor things that are nice. Like if you need to open another terminal instance in the same directory as you're currently in.
mikekchar 11y ago
I use both a tiling window manager (xmonad) and tmux. The main reason I started using tmux was to do pair programming sharing the same terminal via ssh. If you pair program and have never tried this before, I highly recommend trying it. I live in Japan and even pair with people in London using tmux and vim. It's the next best thing to being there. After I started getting used to using tmux, I found that my workflow naturally separated between things I'm doing on my terminal and things that require X (like my browser). These days I use a separate workspace for X apps and terminal (occasionally moving them around). To make my life easy, I've added xmonad-like key bindings and window layout to tmux. Since other people are sharing: https://github.com/ygt-mikekchar/dotfiles/blob/taka/home/.tmux.conf https://github.com/ygt-mikekchar/dotfiles/blob/taka/home/.tm... I often work while travelling and when I'm on the road I often don't bother cranking up X -- just work in the Linux console. Using tmux I barely notice a difference in my workflow and it helps extend the battery.

by joepvd 11y ago

Honest question: Is there any benefit of using tmux over a proper tiling window manager? Or, why would I want to delegate some of the window manager tasks to a terminal emulator?

jwhitlark 11y ago

Yes, there's lots of value to tmux outside of "window management", even if you only use it locally. That said, lots of the value is using it remotely.

dkns 11y ago

For me it's having two different terminals connected to same tmux session. I use tiling window manager and work on two monitors. Sometimes there is some stuff that I'm working on on my main monitor but I want to have quick look at the terminal. Because I have two terminals opened on both monitors I can just switch to the other one, press ctrl+f(my prefix)+number and have exactly same window as in my main terminal. For anyone wondering you can achieve above by typing tmux new-session -t and giving it number/name of your current session. Also there are minor things that are nice. Like if you need to open another terminal instance in the same directory as you're currently in.

mikekchar 11y ago

I use both a tiling window manager (xmonad) and tmux. The main reason I started using tmux was to do pair programming sharing the same terminal via ssh. If you pair program and have never tried this before, I highly recommend trying it. I live in Japan and even pair with people in London using tmux and vim. It's the next best thing to being there. After I started getting used to using tmux, I found that my workflow naturally separated between things I'm doing on my terminal and things that require X (like my browser). These days I use a separate workspace for X apps and terminal (occasionally moving them around). To make my life easy, I've added xmonad-like key bindings and window layout to tmux. Since other people are sharing: https://github.com/ygt-mikekchar/dotfiles/blob/taka/home/.tmux.conf https://github.com/ygt-mikekchar/dotfiles/blob/taka/home/.tm... I often work while travelling and when I'm on the road I often don't bother cranking up X -- just work in the Linux console. Using tmux I barely notice a difference in my workflow and it helps extend the battery.