> Solutions like tmux arguably exist because terminals have poor UIs
Whilst I totally agree with you, I think Tmux is a lot like vim in its power. Along the same note, I'd wager a gTmux, much like gVim would be q real nice way to multiplex terminals when we get the UI to beat the TUI.
I mean Terminator is basically gTmux, right? They aren't quite the same: tmux is a terminal multiplexer, Terminator is a terminal emulator with tabs and panes. Both approaches have benefits and drawbacks.
If you want keyboard only, I don't think GUIs can beat TUIs. But yeah, there's a learning curve.
The problem with GUIs is a very display-session centric view. tmux/vim work fine over SSH, Terminator/gVim don't. With tmux, your sessions are separate from your terminal instance. If your X session crashes, depending on how you started tmux, you just have to relaunch a terminal and reconnect to tmux. This is pretty invaluable. So this separation is powerful, and IMO very Unix-y.
The multiplexer v emulator is the key difference. At least for me. Exactly because of the ssh and session persistence you mean.
For the thing to replace the TUI, I'd expect something in between current terminals and X11. With the simple, limited (and thus easily remotable) data of the current terminal emulators, but with much more drawing capabilites than the current grid-limited ascii art.
I came to this idea when trying to get vim up to a full IDE. Trying to get even half of netbeans' interface into vim just takes so much space in the ascii grid. And anything dynamic moves half the screen a shitton.
Whilst I totally agree with you, I think Tmux is a lot like vim in its power. Along the same note, I'd wager a gTmux, much like gVim would be q real nice way to multiplex terminals when we get the UI to beat the TUI.