Linux

Ok, just to clarify, my original struggle was to understand what made tmux different from using some terminal app and just split the screen xD

Not every terminal emulator has window splitting capabilities. Some, like Alacritty, specifically expect you to run a program like tmux if you want this functionality. Splitting within tmux also makes it vastly easier to multitask on a remote host via SSH: if you run a remote tmux, every split window is already running on the same remote host, no need to log in again and again.

I created a tmux tutorial here -> https://lemmy.run/post/46783

What if we put a terminal in your terminal, so you could terminal while you terminal?

Decoupling the terminal from the shell also means you can keep your shell open while closing your terminal window. This can be useful on servers, or for long running commands that you want to be able to check on.

I guess the best analogy is a "virtual desktop" but for the terminal.
It's is a program which runs in a terminal and allows multiple other terminal programs to be run inside it.

Each program inside tmux gets its own "page" or "screen" and you can jump between them (next-screen, previous-screen etc).
So instead of having multiple terminal windows, you only have one and switch the screen/page inside it.

You can detech from the program and leave it running - so next time you log on to the server, you can re-attach to it and all your screens/sessions are still there.

Not super useful on your local machine - but when you have to connect to a remote server (or several) is really shines. Especially if you have to go through a jumphost. You can just connect to your jumphost, start tmux, then create a "screen" for each server you need to connect to - do your stuff and deattach. Next time, just re-attach and all your stuff is there.

Did that help?

Tmux is no different from a terminal app that split the screen in terms of "multi window" functionality. However it's not a graphical software, so you can start it remotely (eg. over ssh), and detach/reattach to it later without loosing what you where doing.

I didn't see this mentioned, but by far the thing I depend on tmux for the most is being able to quickly copy and paste text from the terminal. e.g. grabbing a file name from the output of git diff. How does everyone else do this?

Another cool one is being able to attach to a session on my phone to check on something, and have it automatically resize without disconnecting my desktop.