Ubuntu – the status of GNU screen

gnu-screentmux

Two answers in this question state that screen is unmaintained. However, the GNU repository of screen shows an upload this year after 6 years, and 14.04 has two newer versions than the earlier Ubuntu releases (one in the main release, and one in backports, from 14.10). Unmaintained software get dropped from Ubuntu, but screen remained even after a six-year period of inactivity. So what is the status of screen in general, and in Ubuntu? Will it remain (reasonably) maintained, or should I switch to tmux or other alternatives?

Best Answer

Amadeusz Sławiński, GNU Screen’s new primary upstream maintainer uploaded 2 versions this year:

From the 4.2.0 announcement:

With this I also plan to put v.4 into maintenance mode and start developing v.5 with cleaned up source code, new features

Clearly the project is not unmaintained, but as many other projects it requires contributors to fix bugs and work on new features.

Sources: