Additionally, I can with very high confidence run TUI software inside an ssh session to one of my headless machines, and then further within gnu screen or tmux detach and later resume a session with everything I was doing. Even if I switch from my laptop to my desktop, or want to leave a bunch of stuff waiting for a week and come back to it later.

Once you get the key bindings for screen or tmux thoroughly memorized it's very easy.

Bubble Tea [1] is my favorite for one-off throwaway stuff in terminal. Wish [2] to make it available over SSH.

[1] https://github.com/charmbracelet/bubbletea

[2] https://github.com/charmbracelet/wish

I was going to post this but you beat me to it. I think we need the folks whom do not enter the terminal to start using it instead of the other way around.

Why this is preferable? I would rather have the apps I use represented as a list of apps in my system (drawing on a couple of decades of established UX conventions for how they are displayed and how I can interact with them), the web content I'm reading represented as tabs in my browser, and my terminal sessions represented in my terminal. You present the destruction of this simple separation of concerns as a benefit, but don't explain why it is one.

So you have a cluttered list of terminal tabs instead of a cluttered list of windows.

But with a worse UX?

Indeed, I've been on vacation this week, but wanted to continue working on some of my hobby projects while I'm in the mountains a bit. Being able to use tailscale to SSH into my home workstation and attach to Tmux with my full session of agentic development, server, notes, design, and everything else has been an incredibly fun experience.

Native UIs simply don't have the same flexibility.

Edit to add: I didn't bring my laptop; I'm working from Termux. Surprisingly effective! The code is all in a folder syncing with my phone via SyncThing, so I can try out the sites I'm working on directly on the phone.

If that's the only justification, a good window manager might turn out to be a lot more convenient.

Terminals are great for CLI. CLI integrated into GUI/TUI is absolutely amazing, but 99% TUI apps do not work like that, they're just awkward crutches foreign to the terminal, so you get no upsides and all downsides. Examples of good CLI integration I regularly use: Kate, Zed, Dolphin, Total Commander, pi. Only one of them is TUI, and honestly it's much worse off with it, since it has to display a ton of formatted text and sometimes pictures. It's really inconvenient and just looks like cargo cult rather than a necessity.

I built "ssh sshfighter.com" recently, enjoy!

I used to work like that (minus the Signal window) and have no desire to go back.

>or my browser

But then a load of others will complain about electron apps.

Further you then have an os within an os. You need to remember to look in your bookmarks, not your start menu. And you're basically throwing away the window manager too.

Couldn't you then just vibe code some window manager app that throws a bunch of your stuff into a tabbed window? Seems like the same thing.

and music