Byobu is an enhancement for the terminal multiplexers GNU Screen or tmux that can be used to provide on screen notification or status as well as tabbed multi window management. It is aimed at providing a better user experience for terminal sessions when connecting to remote servers.

Version 1.0, under the name Screen Profiles, came out of discussions at the 2008 Ubuntu Developer Summit about how to simplify the on screen notification of an administrator connected to a server.

The project was renamed to Byobu for its 2.0 release, from the Japanese byōbu folding screen. Byobu 3.0 reworked the build system to use automake and allow for porting to other UNIX operating systems. Byobu 4.0 introduced screen splitting, reworked the status notification system, and added support for tmux profiles. The most significant change that Byobu 5.0 introduces is a shift from GNU Screen to tmux as the default backend.

Originally written for Ubuntu, it has since been ported to multiple other GNU/Linux distributions and other Unix-like operating systems.

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