Products · Product
GNU Screen
Raised as a usability problem by 38 people on Hacker News over 17 years (2009–2025), in 34 threads.
No issue was raised by at least 3 people in 3 threads this year.
No issue was raised by at least 3 people in 3 threads in the last 5 years.
Every issue, all time, most people first
Scrolling history produces garbage; copy mode needs an awkward key comboUnreviewed
20092026- Scrollback search and browsing need awkward key combinations, so the user avoids it2024-02-05
- Scrolling requires an awkward switch into copy mode instead of just pressing PgUp2013-11-16
- Couldn't learn scrollback copy/paste keys because Screen doesn't let them be configured2012-04-10
Unreviewed issues were grouped by machine: Claude Haiku labelled each comment as a usability complaint, named what it's about and summed up the problem in a line, and a small model grouped similar problems. Nobody has checked them by hand. Expect mistakes.
The newest 41 complaints
- Default Ctrl-A hotkey clashes with SSH escape, forcing repeated config re-population2025-07-09
- No keyboard-driven copy/paste, forcing awkward mouse selection in terminal multiplexers2025-05-14
- Feels very slow and laggy, especially when running Neovim2025-05-14
- Unclear how to reply to an older thread not delivered to your mailbox2025-05-13
- C-a prefix conflicts with jump-to-line-start, forcing users to type C-a a2025-03-05
- Ctrl-space prefix key maps to NUL on Windows-origin machines, breaking the prefix2024-08-30
- Scrollback search and browsing need awkward key combinations, so the user avoids it2024-02-05
- Gets slow with many windows and lacks mouse support2023-08-18
- Setting up a status bar showing windows and time is unintuitive2023-06-06
- Too many infrequently used features and questionable UI, so the manual must be re-read constantly2022-04-03
- Terminal type selection confusion caused something to break that the user could not fix2020-04-28
- Default shortcut conflicts with other apps' shortcuts, breaking them while pairing2020-03-26
- Shares all monitors at once, distorting aspect ratio and pixelating the view2020-03-24
- Switching audio or video devices is slow; apps pick the wrong device and changing back is cumbersome2020-03-24
- Hard to remember how many Ctrl-A presses reach which nested session2018-09-16
- Users can get lost easily, especially after pressing ctrl+Z carelessly2018-08-04
- Screen's way of managing split windows is considered atrocious and awkward2017-02-04
- Default settings are terrible, so users must write custom config to make it usable2016-07-03
- Easy to accidentally hit ^A ^S, freezing the inner process until ^Q is pressed2015-06-21
- Scrolling requires an awkward switch into copy mode instead of just pressing PgUp2013-11-16
- Default Ctrl-a prefix conflicts with the common shell beginning-of-line shortcut2013-11-15
- Shared sessions use creator's resolution, making display too large and unusable for others2012-07-18
- Infrequent users must re-read the man page each time to use it2012-05-29
- Couldn't learn scrollback copy/paste keys because Screen doesn't let them be configured2012-04-10
- Split screens had horrible lag, making interaction slow2011-11-02
- Getting screen set up the way the user wanted was extremely frustrating2011-06-20
- Control-a default binding makes it unusable without a custom config file2010-12-22
- Ctrl-a default key sequence detaches session unexpectedly when editing commands2010-12-16
- Key bindings can't be changed to match Emacs style, so copy/paste is hard to learn2010-12-10
- Copy/paste bindings are unintuitive and hard to figure out at first2010-12-10
- Missed notifications because screen flashes the caption briefly and doesn't mark the active window2010-11-27
- Randomly switches to graphic charset mode and breaks arrow keys inside Terminal.app2010-10-29
- Nested screen escape shortcuts are confusing, so the user never gets comfortable with them2010-09-20
- Default setting leaves less and vi output clobbering the screen2010-09-20
- Scrolling history produces garbage; must press awkward key combo for copy mode2010-08-29
- Configuring screen is confusing; commenter never understood it and relied on copied snippets2010-02-03
- Hard to remember Control-A hotkeys, must keep looking them up2010-01-06
- Exiting copy mode is hard, and a screen left in it can stall the process running inside2009-10-26
- Scrolling back takes four keypresses with keys spread far apart, versus two in a normal terminal2009-09-28
- Becomes chaotic and unusable with many windows to switch between2009-04-22
- Default key bindings clash with emacs and bash, and status line is hidden2009-01-09