User vs Group – What is the Difference Between Group and User in Ubuntu 14.04

Terminator is easy to install and it does exactly what it's supposed to do - it can split terminal windows both horizontally and vertically, according to user's requirements. It also allows to keep multiple tabs opened in case splitting one window is not enough.

Tmux lies somewhere between Terminator and screen, combining ease of use with basing on the plain terminal only.

Here are the advantages of tmux over Terminator:

• Portability - tmux works on all systems able to handle plain, old terminal.
• Scriptability - tmux can be scripted, so that setting up windows and panes takes nothing more than one or two keystrokes.
• Server-client architecture - tmux can be used to share sessions between users.
• Tweaks and options - both tmux and Terminator are easy to get with, but it's tmux that allows to go further and offers wide range of configuration hacks.¹

^{1Source: Łukasz Wróbel}

It's possible this is a compiz/nvidia bug.

I noticed very similar "screen flashing" that seemed tied to screen redraws, e.g. chunks of the screen would redraw strangely as the cursor blinked, or if I turned off the blinking cursor, would just fail to redraw at the right time.

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xorg/+bug/1314367/ describes the following workaround:

To fix it, you get CompizConfig Settings Manager (ccsm) and you go down to "Workarounds" in the "Utility" Category and check the box that says "Force full screen redraws (buffer swap) on repaint".

...which seems to have worked for me. At least for now.