[rhexs]

Screen. Most of the time saved is not having to try to install whatever bizarre serial driver windows needs.

Also python if you need to programmatically connect and operate a device over serial. Quite easy.

[ahartmetz]

Yep, screen is the easiest. Minicom often gets confused, or at least confuses me with its weird UI. With screen I just run "screen /dev/ttyUSB0 115200".