My Tech Pivot

During breaks from my main DevOps studies, I’ve been exploring tools that improve my workflow. This week’s side quest: Tmux vs. Zellij.

Keep in mind, I’m still at the beginning of my tech journey. This is a beginner’s perspective based on my own experience learning both tools.

As I continue building a keyboard-driven workflow with Neovim, LazyVim, and Ranger, I wanted a better way to manage multiple terminal sessions. That led me to both Tmux and Zellij.

At first, Zellij was my favorite.

It felt easier to get started with. The key bindings are displayed at the bottom of the terminal window, so there was no need to memorize anything upfront. As a student, that simplicity mattered , it reduced friction and made it easier to focus on learning the workflow instead of the tool itself. I installed it on both of my systems and initially thought this would be my long-term choice.

Then I started thinking from a DevOps perspective.

In real-world scenarios, especially when SSH’ing into remote systems, I want tools that are reliable and quick to set up. Installing Tmux is as simple as sudo apt install tmux or sudo dnf install tmux. It’s available almost everywhere by default or through standard package managers.

Zellij also has straightforward installation instructions, but in my experience, it took a bit more time and effort to get running consistently across both systems.

That changed how I evaluated it.

If I’m working as a DevOps engineer and I need multiple terminal sessions on a remote system, I don’t want installation or setup to slow me down. I want something I can rely on immediately. That’s where Tmux started to make more sense for me.

Because of that, I’ve been spending more time learning Tmux bindings. Slowly, some of the commands are becoming second nature, and I find myself reaching for Zellij less often as a backup.

My goal is to become the strongest DevOps engineer I can be, and for that reason, Tmux currently fits better into the workflow I’m building.

That said, I still think Zellij has value, especially when I’m tired, working late, or just want something that “works without thinking.”

Right now, Tmux is my primary tool, and Zellij is my safety net.