Book Review: The Ultimate AI Guide for Linux Engineers

Even Linus Torvalds is fine with AI being used in Linux kernel development these days, and it's everywhere else in the Linux and tech world too. The time has come to stop ignoring AI and start using it as a tool and to use it well, especially if you are a professional sysadmin or DevOps.

That's why seasoned Linux professionals, Ezequiel Lanza and Eduardo Spotti wrote the book The Ultimate AI Guide for Linux Engineers that I am reviewing here. The book is published by Packt and you can find it on Packt, O'Reilly and Amazon.

Note that the book is written for people who already know and use Linux professionally. That means sysadmins, devops, SREs, system engineers, network engineers. The book collectively calls them "Linux engineers" and I like that term.

Basically, it is for the people who are more used to doing things the old way and unsure where and how to fit AI into their regular workflow.

A book for seasoned Linux professionals

The book opens with "Linux engineers have always been expected to do more with less," and that's the core idea of the book: using AI effectively to improve efficienncy.

The examples are good, and if you've managed servers and infrastructure before, you'll relate to them. That's what makes the book interesting: it's written from a sysadmin/DevOps perspective.

To reduce the risk of letting AI agents loose on your systems, the authors suggest best practices like role-based access, limiting operations to read-only wherever possible, and logging all AI actions for auditing.

There are also examples and sample code you can adapt for your own workflow with some modification, like an anomaly detector you could plug into your Linux observability stack.

Although the book has 12 chapters and runs over 300 pages, I find that the book is divided into four core sectors:

1. Foundational knowledge

The book starts by explaining AI, machine learning (ML), and large language models (LLMs) specifically in Linux contexts, covering the practical differences between training, fine-tuning, and inference.

This sets up the technical foundation for building an AI-ready Linux environment, with an emphasis on Python as the primary language and virtual environments and containerization for safe, reproducible workflows.

2. Intelligent automation and LinuxOps agents

A major focus of the book is the shift from static automation to intelligent automation. AI-assisted automation shows how to combine AI with traditional tools like Ansible, Bash, and systemd to generate safe, validated commands from natural language intent.

The book also teaches how to build autonomous agents that can perceive system problems, reason through multi-step plans, and execute tasks while following least-privilege principles and safeguards.

3. Intelligent observability and RAG

The authors push for moving from passive monitoring to a "dialogue model" of observability, through log dialogue pipelines. So, instead of manually grepping through logs, you build pipelines that compress and correlate multi-source logs into actionable knowledge.

The book also covers building RAG systems that index system logs, internal runbooks, documentation, and past incident reports to give you context-aware answers instead of hallucinated ones. This is where AI actually shines. When it has context, its analysis is far more accurate.

4. Production deployment and security

To move these concepts into real-world use, the book covers scaling and securing AI workloads on Kubernetes: managing GPU resources, implementing autoscaling based on inference-specific metrics, and optimizing performance through techniques like quantization.

It also lays out a full security stack, including threat modeling for AI, PII (personally identifiable information) redaction, prompt injection defenses, and using Open Policy Agent (OPA) to enforce strict guardrails on agent actions. This part matters more than people think; it's usually the part companies skip, right up until they end up trending on social media over a security incident.

The book ends by looking at the future of AI-driven Linux workflows, and the need to balance autonomy with human oversight.

💡

Each chapter comes with practice exercises and additional external resources. There is an accompanied GitHub repo that has the codes and pipelines discussed in the book.

Verdict

Overall, The Ultimate AI Guide for Linux Engineers is a practical, Linux-first handbook designed to help system administrators, SREs, and DevOps professionals fold AI into their daily workflows. Instead of focusing on theory, it lays out a roadmap for evolving from traditional shell scripts to intelligent, autonomous systems.

This book isn't for you if you're completely new to Linux or just a casual desktop user. You may still learn something, but unless you're managing servers, containers, and infrastructure, you probably won't find it as engaging or useful.

I think every Linux professional should start looking for ways to use AI in their workflow. The book gives you ideas, it gives you scenarios and guides you through them. If you ever wanted to start using AI but was unsure because of all the noise around it and didn't know where to begin, the book is definitely worth a read.

The best engineers will not be replaced by AI but will be the ones who know how to use it effectively.

Still unsure? To determine whether the book is for you, I advise checking it on the O'Reilly website. It has chapters of the books and you can expand those chapters to see the sections of those chapters.

This will give a clearer picture if you are still indecisive if you should get the book.

Get it from Amazon

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Murena Just Made The Fairphone (Gen. 6) Better!

We are used to seeing Murena roll out new devices every now and then. Their whole sales pitch revolves around a de-Googled, privacy-focused Android experience. Not everyone is sold on that approach, sure, but the company has managed to stick around for quite a few years now, which says something.

The latest addition to their lineup is the Fairphone (Gen. 6+) with /e/OS. It sits right next to the standard Gen. 6 model, which is still on sale. The new variant packs better hardware and carries a higher price tag to match.

The new device

The three colorways: Horizon Black, Cobalt Blue, and Forest Green.

The most significant change is the Snapdragon 7s Gen 4 processor, paired with 12GB of RAM. The base model makes do with the older Gen 3 chip and 8GB of RAM. Though storage stays at 256GB across both, expandable via microSD up to 2TB.

Everything else on the hardware carries over from the base model, including the 6.31-inch 120Hz LTPO OLED display, the 50MP main camera with a 13MP secondary and 32MP selfie shooter, the 4,415mAh removable battery with 30W charging, IP55 water resistance, and Gorilla Glass 7i to protect the display.

There's also a new Cobalt Blue colorway that ties into Fairphone's fair-mined cobalt supply chain efforts. It joins the existing Forest Green and Horizon Black options. The modular design is unchanged, so you can still swap out 12 key components with a regular screwdriver.

The software itself has not changed for this launch. It is still the same privacy-first build Murena has been refining for a while now.

That means no Google tracking baked into the OS, an Advanced Privacy widget that lets you control what data individual apps can see, and a running Wall of Shame that calls out installed apps leaking the most personal information.

The founder and CEO of Murena, Gaël Duval, spoke about the device, saying that:

With devices like Fairphone (Gen. 6+) with /e/OS, users can have a truly ethical device both in terms of hardware and software.

When I developed Mandriva Linux back in the 90s, it was my mission to make the operating system usable for the everyday, non-techie user. This is my goal with Murena – to give the average user access to smartphones that do not hold their privacy to ransom.

Get yours

Pricing depends on which region you order a Murena Fairphone (Gen. 6+) from. For EU, it costs €699, more than the €649 Murena charges for the standard Gen. 6. In the US, the Fairphone (Gen. 6+) is priced at $699, which is more than the standard Gen. 6's $649 price tag.

People who order during the limited-time launch window of 18 August-1 September 2026 get a few extras. In the EU, that's two free accessories of your choice, where you get to pick from a case, screen protector, finger loop, card holder, or lanyard. US buyers get a case and screen protector bundle.

Everyone gets a year of 1TB Murena Workspace and a year of Murena MDM.

Availability differs by region too. The device is shipping now in Europe, with the US listed as a backorder.

Buy Now

Closing thoughts

The ethical smartphone market is still tiny, and it mostly survives on partnerships like this one. Fairphone builds the hardware, Murena handles the software, and together they keep proving that a privacy-first phone does not have to mean a phone stuck in the dark ages.

Whether that is enough to pull people away from Google remains the same open question it was the last time Murena updated their lineup.

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This Solo Dev Already Built a Popular Distro. Now He's Trying It Again

Atomic distros work differently from the Fedora or Ubuntu install you're probably used to. Instead of layering individual packages on top of each other, the entire base system ships as one image, and updates land as a whole swap rather than a slow stream of package changes.

As a result, you get a system that's hard to break, where updates apply cleanly or not at all, rolling back a bad patch is easy, and there's no dependency hell to wade through since every install starts from the same known-good state.

The trade-off is flexibility. You lose the ability to tinker with individual system packages the way you can on a traditional distro, and anything outside the base image needs a workaround instead of a quick apt install or dnf install.

stillOS wants you to consider the upside of that trade-off. It calls itself a "maintenance-free" Linux desktop, built on an AlmaLinux 10 base with bootc handling the atomic updates.

Behind it is Cameron Knauff, who goes by the name "PizzaLovingNerd" in the Linux community, and this isn't his first distro.

His earlier project, risiOS, a Fedora-based distro aimed at smoothing out the rough edges for new users, picked up a solid following before it was absorbed into Nobara Linux, freeing him up to start stillHQ and, down the line, stillOS.

It has potential

I tested stillOS 10.2 on a virtual machine in GNOME Boxes, running on my Fedora Workstation setup. Installation felt familiar right away. stillOS uses the same Anaconda installer AlmaLinux ships with.

If you've installed Fedora, RHEL, or any of their downstream distros before, you already know the steps involved here.

Onboarding is quick and doesn't waste your time. A short welcome screen kicks off Quick Setup, which walks you through installing apps, picking a browser, and grabbing essentials before dropping you onto the desktop.

Once you boot into stillOS, you will see that while the desktop is GNOME underneath, the distro ditches the usual top-panel layout for a taskbar-first interface, closer to Windows 11 than anything GNOME ships by default.

The taskbar carries the usual options like the app drawer, pill-shaped workspace switcher, an update notifier, pinned apps, the calendar, the clock, and quick settings.

Unlike vanilla GNOME, stillOS' version lets you drop icons straight onto the desktop.

Right-clicking gives you quick access to creating new folders and documents, undoing an action, selecting everything, arranging icons, opening the terminal, and some important settings.

The file manager keeps most of that same right-click menu, folders, documents, select all, opening a terminal, alongside the usual "Properties" entry found on Nautilus (Files).

The document creation option is the one that I find very useful, as that’s something I miss on the vanilla GNOME experience. The catch is that it only hands you three formats through ONLYOFFICE: docx, pptx, and xlsx. Considering what The Document Foundation has been pushing for lately, a locked-down proprietary-only shortcut feels like an odd choice.

Installing LibreOffice and removing ONLYOFFICE didn't fix it either. The shortcut still generates files in those same formats; it just opens them in LibreOffice instead.

The file manager looks different too, even though it's the same GNOME Files under the hood. When you launch it, the app opens a "Computer" page that lays out your folders, disks, and removable media in one clean view.

The default app selection is generous. You get ONLYOFFICE, Gear Lever, Warp, Mousam, and a good spread of the usual GNOME-focused apps alongside them.

stillOS also ships its own lineup of "still" branded tools. stillTerminal is the default terminal app, built around a customized ZSH setup with container and SSH support.

stillCenter is the curated app store, pulling from Flatpak and other sources with its own stillRating system grading how well an app runs with stillOS.

stillControl handles GNOME layout customization, letting you switch between 12+ preset layouts and manage extensions without digging through GNOME Tweaks. Then there's stillOS Forums, which isn't a native app at all. It's the community forum wrapped as a SWAI web app, so it behaves like part of the desktop instead of a browser tab.

Running other software worked without any surprises. I selected Zen Browser during onboarding specifically to see how it handled a non-default browser, and it ran cleanly, without any visual bugs, lags, or crashes to speak of.

The pill-shaped workspace switcher held up well through all of this too, letting me flip between workspaces and open apps without any lag or fumbling. Though this was a given seeing that it is a well-tested component from GNOME.

And before you assume that this is some obscure Linux distro that will fade into irrelevance very soon, know that development is still quite active. The recent stillOS 10.2 release introduced most of what's covered above.

Cameron says that:

stillOS has now reached the point where it fits that initial vision. There is obviously more work to do, and there always will be, but the foundation is here. Now I want to focus on building the community around it.

The goal is to keep stillOS innovative while also building a Linux system that literally anyone can use. Those ideas do not have to conflict. Linux can try new things without becoming confusing, and it can be approachable without becoming boring.

Download it now

You can grab the latest stillOS ISO from SourceForge, which lists all the images released by the project so far.

stillOS (SourceForge)

Once you're up and running, know that updates aren't handled through AlmaLinux's usual dnf-based flow.

Instead, you can rely on the distro to handle it for you, as it checks for updates automatically 15 minutes after boot, then every 24 hours after that for as long as your machine stays on.

If you can't wait, then you can run the following command in the terminal to force an update check:

sudo bootc upgrade

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The Xen Project is Serious About Safety, So It Formed a Committee

Xen is a hypervisor that runs on various kinds of hardware, where a crash can have massive consequences. It is deployed in fields like automotive, industrial automation, robotics, and avionics. These are all safety-critical fields where certification matters.

So far, it has been on a good trajectory with increasing adoption and enhancements that keep it relevant for enterprise use. What it hasn't had is a structured, collaborative way to help the companies building on it actually get certified for that kind of work.

It has launched the Xen Safety Committee, a group tasked with building the safety documentation and test evidence that member companies can lean on instead of starting from scratch.

The committee's job covers software safety requirements, architecture specifications, MISRA-related engineering, DFMEA analysis, testing frameworks, tooling, code coverage, and process documentation.

Founding contributors AMD, EPAM, and Renesas are credited with doing most of the legwork for the above, forming the initiative's early foundation.

The point is to stop every company from solving the same problem on their own. Sharing this foundation should cut costs, avoid duplicated effort, and get products through certification faster for anyone building on Xen.

Nothing changes about how Xen itself gets built. Source code, licensing, and the existing open contribution and review process stay exactly as they are. The Safety Committee runs as a parallel governance layer, not a replacement for how maintainers already work.

Though joining the committee isn't all that open. Organizations will need to sign up for the right kind of membership. More on that below. 👇

A call for new members

Membership at Xen Project works like most Linux Foundation projects. It funds shared infrastructure, test environments, events, and coordination, while day-to-day technical decisions stay with maintainers through open contribution.

Paying to join doesn't buy influence over the codebase. 🤓

AMD, ARM, AWS, Boeing, EPAM, Ford, Honda, Renesas, Vates, and XenServer are all listed as current members. These represent chipmakers, cloud providers, automotive, aerospace, and a few other sectors.

A new membership tier, "Premier Plus" sits above the existing tiers, granting voting representatives on both the Xen Advisory Board and the Safety Committee, a say in setting priorities and roadmap, and access to the committee-managed safety artifacts.

This way, instead of producing every requirement and test in house, members can hand the committee's existing artifacts to their own safety assessors for audits and assessments.

Speaking on the topic, Kate Stewart, Vice President, Dependable Embedded Systems, The Linux Foundation, stated that:

Systems with safety considerations need a trusted hypervisor to provide the foundation for other open source components, such as Zephyr and Linux, to support mixed criticality embedded applications.

The Zephyr and Xen projects have been exchanging best practices over the last few years as a pathway to achieve safety certification of open source components. We welcome the Xen Safety Initiative to accelerate the journey of Xen achieving formal certification.

---

Suggested Read 📖: Proxmox Virtual Environment Officially Runs on ARM64

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I Found an Easy Way to Make GNOME More Colorful

One thing that always comes up in the GNOME vs KDE debate is how easy it is to customize KDE. You can surely customize GNOME but not to the extent of KDE.

But that doesn't deter us GNOME users from trying new looks and visuals, does it? In that regard, I recently came across a super cool GUI tool that lets give an altogether different look to your GNOME desktop.

Take a look at the screenshot below. Looks like Archcraft or Omarchy, right?

That is the magic of Rewaita, a GUI app worth adding in your customization toolbox.

Rewaita: Add custom color tint to GNOME Adwaita

Rewaita is not a standalone theme or icon. It keeps GNOME’s familiar Adwaita design but replaces its colours and adds optional visual effects like changing the transparency to windows.

As you open Rewaita, it very helpfully gives you a user guide to help you through the process of changing the theme on GNOME.

Once you're through that process (that I'll describe later), it gives you a good range of choices that include 14 light themes and 24 dark ones (all hail dark mode), followed by 6 Window Control themes. Many of these themes are well-known standard themes around Linux, like Breeze, Nord and Catppuccin, etc.

Which is great because they're all tried and tested to suit the popular tastes of Linux users. After all, most Linux ricing screenshots you see on various communities use those color themes.

The Window Control themes are more of the same that include Breeze, Mint and MacOS-styled button themes.

All you need to do is choose the theme, and the change is immediate in all newly opened windows.

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Under the hood, it generates CSS overrides and related assets inside directories such as

~/.config/gtk-3.0/
~/.config/gtk-4.0/
~/.local/share/themes/

Note that it will only affect GTK applications. Qt (from KDE) and Electron apps may not adhere to the changed color theme.

Using Rewaita

To activate Rewaita, you have to ensure a few things first.

Make sure you have the gnome-shell-extensions package installed, which allows you to extend the capabilities of GNOME.

And then the User Themes extension (I would also recommend installing the Extension Manager, that makes it easier and more fun to explore various extensions that GNOME has to offer), as well as the GNOME Tweaks application (where you actually choose the theme).

Get Rewaita

When you're done with all that, finally install Rewaita, which is available on Flathub. If you prefer terminal, here is the command:

flatpak install io.github.swordpuffin.rewaita

Other ways of installation on distributions such as Arch, OpenSUSE, and NixOS are listed here.

After that, go into Rewaita and choose a theme. Once you do that, reboot your system, go into GNOME Tweaks and choose Rewaita as the Shell theme.

Flatpak Override

Since Flatpak applications are treated separately sandboxed, these settings are not applied to them by default. You can, however, make them apply by overriding the settings:

sudo flatpak override --filesystem=xdg-config/gtk-3.0:rw
sudo flatpak override --filesystem=xdg-config/gtk-4.0:rw

The first command takes care of GTK-3.0 applications, the second does that for GTK-4.0.

More customization options

If you desire a more manual and methodical approach, you can even choose the exact colors that you want there to be on the interface on the Custom tab.

Accent colors, interface colors, button colors, successful, dangerous or warning action colors, etc. can all be manually chosen, alongwith manual color naming and extra CSS code. You can even save these settings as themes on your system for future use.

Fine Tuning

The Fine Tune section is another wonderful aspect where you can put in use some extra settings apart from the colors on your system. These include things like transparency, window borders, sharpening corners, etc. There's an option to toggle Rewaita running in the background in case you swap between light and dark modes throughout the day.

Firefox

You can choose to apply the theme to your Firefox window as well (great edge for the full open source application pack) by enabling 'Generate Firefox CSS Theme' in the Fine Tune tab. After that, Firefox only needs to be fully quit and restarted for the settings to apply.

Wrapping Up

Rewaita is really, really, really convenient. It makes it extremely easy not to only apply pre-made themes, but also create custom themes of your own with colors and CSS code.

More options are just a toggle switch away, and the user guide that is present right as you open the application is extremely helpful, telling you all that you need.

Thoughtfully constructed and beautifully applied, Rewaita is a must use for anyone wanting to make GNOME look aesthetically pleasing.

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Ubuntu is Growing Faster on Windows Than on Linux

Back in April, Jon Seager, Canonical's VP of Engineering, spoke with The Pragmatic Engineer (paywalled), telling them that Ubuntu inside Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) is growing faster than native Ubuntu desktop installs. He expects WSL to pull ahead within months.

Jon was speaking on the topic of how AI is reshaping Ubuntu when the topic of WSL came up, where he pointed out that:

In a year, the growth in our WSL numbers is significantly higher than the growth in Desktop usage numbers. WSL enables Windows users to “install” Ubuntu for use within their Windows environment.

Once installed, users interact with Ubuntu through the Terminal app, and what you’re running literally is Ubuntu. Your home directory is mounted with Ubuntu and you can pull windows out of this terminal to your desktop; as in actual windows as on-screen windows.

I expect to see more Ubuntu WSL users than “native” Ubuntu users over the coming months. This is especially true for anyone doing ML or AI work. We’re already hearing from lots of devs who have no choice but to get a Windows machine from their employer, but then find themselves needing to do AI or ML work. With WSL, this is a lot simpler.

Canonical doesn't seem bothered

Ubuntu Pro, Canonical's paid security and support subscription, already covers WSL instances the same way it covers native installs. Subscribers get to take advantage of up to 15 years of CVE patching, toolchain coverage for Python, Go, and Rust, and fleet management.

Simply speaking, a WSL user on Ubuntu Pro and a data center running Ubuntu Server are the same kind of customer to Canonical; the company gets paid either way.

And, as you saw earlier, Jon also points to why demand keeps climbing. Plenty of developers don't get a say in their work laptop, and once AI or ML work lands on their plate, WSL becomes the easiest way to get a working Linux environment without a fight over IT policy.

Craig Loewen, WSL's product manager at Microsoft, called the Ubuntu Pro arrangement a "fantastic partnership" when it launched, further stating that:

This work will benefit enterprise developers who use WSL to build production Linux solutions.

What does it mean for native Linux?

This is where it gets tricky if you are rooting for the Linux desktop specifically. If WSL quietly satisfies the demand that would otherwise push developers toward dual-booting or switching entirely, does that take pressure off IT departments and hardware vendors to ever approve native Linux at all?

Canonical isn't asking that question, but its own VP describing the shift like a win makes the case for native Linux adoption weaker. Running Ubuntu on bare metal will still be better than WSL for anyone who wants full hardware control, maximum performance, and a Linux-first setup.

But if the fastest-growing way to use Ubuntu is inside a Big Tech operating system, then that's something worth thinking about.

Via: Windows Latest

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Looking Beyond Tmux and Screen: 8 Terminal Multiplexers Worth Trying

Whether you're a developer, system administrator, or simply someone who spends a lot of time in the terminal, juggling multiple terminal sessions can be messy and frustrating.

A terminal multiplexer helps you keep everything organized, letting you manage several sessions from a single interface while making your workflow much more efficient.

While tmux and GNU Screen are the names most Linux users are familiar with, there are many more similar terminal multiplexer tools available. As someone who like to explore new tools, I spent some time and came up with this list for you.

📋

Many terminal emulators let you split your screen into panes, but splitting a screen isn't the same as multiplexing it. For this list, I am focusing on tools that offer real session value beyond arranging windows.

Zellij

Zellij describes itself as a terminal workspace rather than just a multiplexer, with an emphasis on delivering a polished experience from the moment you launch it.

It aims to provide sensible defaults while still leaving plenty of room for customization.

Zellij

One of the things that sets Zellij apart is its focus on usability. Built-in layouts, a plugin system, and collaborative sessions are all part of the experience, but the project's philosophy is that you shouldn't have to trade simplicity for advanced functionality.

This makes it approachable for newcomers while still offering enough flexibility for users who want to tailor their workspace.

While this is not a ranking list, Zellij is the first one on this list because I have used it on a daily basis for the past several months.

TUIOS

While most terminal multiplexers focus on helping you manage terminal sessions, TUIOS takes that idea a step further by presenting itself as a terminal window manager.

TUIOS tries to bring concepts you'd expect from a tiling window manager, such as workspaces, automatic tiling, and window management, into your existing terminal.

TUIOS

The workflow is centered around a modal interface inspired by Vim, letting you switch between managing windows and interacting with terminal applications.

Alongside features like a command palette and workspace organization, TUIOS also supports automation through tape files, making it suitable for users who want to build repeatable terminal workflows instead of just juggling multiple shells.

Wezterm

You probably know WezTerm as a feature-rich terminal emulator. But there's more to it than meets the eye.

WezTerm includes a built-in multiplexer, allowing you to create and manage persistent sessions without relying on a separate tool.

Wezterm as a Terminal Multiplexer

It integrates multiplexing directly into the terminal and supports local domains. While it lets you connect to remote domains over SSH and other tmux like features, this requires you to spend some time configuring.

Kitty + Abduco

If you're already using Kitty as your terminal emulator, you don't necessarily have to switch to a traditional multiplexer. Pairing it with abduco gives you a lightweight way to keep terminal sessions running in the background while letting Kitty handle everything on the frontend.

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Kitty with Abduco

It's a simple combination that sticks to the Unix philosophy of using small tools that do one job well.

The primary job of abduco is to detach and reattach terminal sessions, leaving the rest to your terminal emulator.

Kitty complements this nicely with features like tabs, splits, and a polished interface, giving you a workflow that feels familiar while still providing session persistence.

tmate

Rather than reinventing the multiplexer experience, tmate builds on tmux and adds secure session sharing, making it easy to collaborate, troubleshoot problems, or provide remote assistance without asking someone to install extra software.

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Tmate

The biggest addition is the ability to generate a connection string that others can use to join your session.

By default, these shared sessions are relayed through tmate's public servers, although you can host your own relay if you prefer to keep everything under your control. If you never need to share your terminal, however, plain tmux is likely the better fit.

Boo

At first glance, boo might look like just another GNU Screen alternative. In reality, it's a fairly different take on terminal multiplexing.

Built on Ghostty's terminal emulation library, boo keeps track of the actual terminal state, allowing it to recreate a session exactly as you left it, even after you've detached and reattached.

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Boo

The project also leans into automation. Besides keeping sessions alive, it includes commands that let scripts and AI agents inspect or interact with detached sessions without needing a live terminal connection.

Okena

Okena combines terminals, tabs, panes, and projects into a single interface, with a strong focus on helping you pick up exactly where you left off.

Close the application, reopen it later, and your workspace is restored much like you never left.

Okena

That persistence model is what makes Okena different. Unlike tmux or GNU Screen, it doesn't keep sessions running in the background after the application closes, nor is it designed for detached SSH workflows or remote session management.

Instead, the emphasis is on restoring your local workspace, making it feel more like a modern development environment than a server-backed multiplexer.

Seance

Seance, built with GTK4 and libadwaita, takes a desktop-first approach to terminal session management. It feel more like a modern Linux application than a traditional keyboard-driven multiplexer.

Seance. Video Credit: Seance

It offers a clean interface with configurable key bindings, workspace management, and session persistence across restarts, so you can reopen the application and continue where you left off.

However, it isn't designed around detached server sessions or remote SSH workflows. Instead, it focuses on providing a polished experience for managing terminal workspaces on your local Linux desktop.

Wrapping Up

As you can see, there's no shortage of ways to organize your terminal workflow. Some of these tools have been around for decades, while others are reimagining what a terminal workspace can look like. The thing is that there's no single "right" choice. It all comes down to how you work.

Whichever you choose, learning to use a terminal multiplexer is one of those skills that pays off over time. Once it becomes part of your workflow, your muscle memory, there is no going back to normal terminal sessions.

By the way, you might be interested in exploring various terminal emulators as well.

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