Multiple Terminals

Many Linux veterans have enjoyed and use the screen command. Screen was designed to allow you to use one terminal to control several terminal sessions easily. While screen has been a welcome and useful tool, a better one has appeared called Byobu which is an enhanced version of Screen. The name Byobu is a Japanese term for decorative, multipanel vertically folding screens that are often used as room dividers.

Picture this scene: You connect to a server via SSH and are working at the remote shell. You need to open another shell window so you can have the two running side by side; perhaps you want the output from top in one window while typing in another. What do you do? Most people would open another SSH connection, but that is both wasteful and unnecessary. Like Screen, Byobu is a terminal multiplexer, which is a fancy term for a program that lets you run multiple terminals inside one terminal.