Agh! I just today switched from Zellij to Byobu.
It was for the cool system monitor status bar. And drag-resize panes.
But you can win me back with floating panes that don’t disappear when I click on panes behind them! And a way to detach ghost sessions.
Multi-modifier keyboard shortcuts would go a long way too. I should have checked the changelog before starting to write this post.
There’s a lot that I really like about Zellij. Session focus indicators, stylish border characters, panes and tabs. It’s very classy.
Zellij and Byobu? Byobu is less pretty but more functional, probably because it’s a front-end for existing mature technologies (screen/tmux). I’ve seen it described as more or less just a list of presets for tmux, so presumably you could get the same effect by spending a few hours customizing base tmux.
Zellij feels new and hip (special fonts for pretty borders and buttons) but some aspects don’t feel quite finished (like how it’s missing multiple modifier keys to avoid keyboard shortcut collisions, how it’s not in major distribution repositories, no drag-resize panes (that I’ve found, at least)). It feels inevitable that Zellij is going to overtake the incumbent multiplexers and soon but for the moment I just really wanted that system monitor status bar.
Both have panes, tabs, sessions, degrees of gpm functionality. Zellij has the other-user-focus indicator, Byobu has the status bar and renamable tabs. Byobu will automatically reattach if a session is found, Zellij needs a few lines in .bashrc first. Both can save and load layouts but Zellij needs you to write the layout to a kdl file somewhere while Byobu can do it with one keypress (not sure if that survives across sessions though). I get the impression that permanent config in Zellij requires more manual config file manipulation, which isn’t necessarily a negative, but feels more like having to learn a new programming language for something you’ll set up once and then immediately forget about.
Both have more pros than cons and I’m sure I’ll continue bouncing back and forth as I refine my understanding and opinions.
A quick thought experiment for how I think Zellij could close the distance:
Preset layouts, or community layouts that are easily shared
Live system resource monitor status bar (I spent weirdly long looking for a single-row live terminal resource monitor that I could just set up in its own pane and just couldn’t find one)
Of course, being able to bind multiple hotkey modifiers, though I’ve read on the github issue that that’s not necessarily a trivial feature)
More mouse functionality (though I might be in the minority there, haha)
Maybe a TUI interface for setting config items
Looking at this list, it’s really just a bunch of things that would suit my own personal workflow, haha.
Wow, thank you so much for the very thorough answer! I’ve been interested in both and having the point of view of someone who has experienced both is extremely useful. I appreciate it a lot.
Agh! I just today switched from Zellij to Byobu.
It was for the cool system monitor status bar. And drag-resize panes.
But you can win me back with floating panes that don’t disappear when I click on panes behind them! And a way to detach ghost sessions.
Multi-modifier keyboard shortcuts would go a long way too. I should have checked the changelog before starting to write this post.
There’s a lot that I really like about Zellij. Session focus indicators, stylish border characters, panes and tabs. It’s very classy.
This may not be the place but would you mind sharing how they compare in your opinion ?
Zellij and Byobu? Byobu is less pretty but more functional, probably because it’s a front-end for existing mature technologies (screen/tmux). I’ve seen it described as more or less just a list of presets for tmux, so presumably you could get the same effect by spending a few hours customizing base tmux.
Zellij feels new and hip (special fonts for pretty borders and buttons) but some aspects don’t feel quite finished (like how it’s missing multiple modifier keys to avoid keyboard shortcut collisions, how it’s not in major distribution repositories, no drag-resize panes (that I’ve found, at least)). It feels inevitable that Zellij is going to overtake the incumbent multiplexers and soon but for the moment I just really wanted that system monitor status bar.
Both have panes, tabs, sessions, degrees of gpm functionality. Zellij has the other-user-focus indicator, Byobu has the status bar and renamable tabs. Byobu will automatically reattach if a session is found, Zellij needs a few lines in .bashrc first. Both can save and load layouts but Zellij needs you to write the layout to a kdl file somewhere while Byobu can do it with one keypress (not sure if that survives across sessions though). I get the impression that permanent config in Zellij requires more manual config file manipulation, which isn’t necessarily a negative, but feels more like having to learn a new programming language for something you’ll set up once and then immediately forget about.
Both have more pros than cons and I’m sure I’ll continue bouncing back and forth as I refine my understanding and opinions.
A quick thought experiment for how I think Zellij could close the distance:
Preset layouts, or community layouts that are easily shared
Live system resource monitor status bar (I spent weirdly long looking for a single-row live terminal resource monitor that I could just set up in its own pane and just couldn’t find one)
Of course, being able to bind multiple hotkey modifiers, though I’ve read on the github issue that that’s not necessarily a trivial feature)
More mouse functionality (though I might be in the minority there, haha)
Maybe a TUI interface for setting config items
Looking at this list, it’s really just a bunch of things that would suit my own personal workflow, haha.
Wow, thank you so much for the very thorough answer! I’ve been interested in both and having the point of view of someone who has experienced both is extremely useful. I appreciate it a lot.
Try them both! Let me know if you have a different experience.
Hopefully i can grab some time to take both for a spin soon!