[dedward]

The ability to detach and re-attach to screen has been there since day one... that's probably one of the largest reasons most people use it. Terminal software these days can handle multiple sessions just fine - the benefit is being able to detach and re-attach.

Multiple terminals in one session was more critical back when we were using dumb terminals and whatnot - where you couldn't multiplex locally.

[colomon]

Just so it's clear, I meant specifically the '.bashrc runs "screen -DR"' part, ie automatically going back into the screen rather than needing to explicitly run screen -DR like I used to. (I don't seem to be able to edit my original comment at the moment.)

[slavik81]

That's not something screen-specific. You can put whatever you want into .bashrc and it will be automatically run each time you open a new shell. pseudonym just suggested you could use it to automatically run a screen command.