You might want to consider tmux (http://tmux.sourceforge.net/) as an alternative. Its cleaner (and, incidentally, BSD-licensed) codebase means that it's getting features that have been gathering dust on screen's to-do list for ages. Most notably, its dwm/XMonad-style layouts (http://tmux.sourceforge.net/tmux6.png) are really nice. AFAICT, screen doesn't even officially have vertically split windows yet, it's still an unofficial patch.
Either way, if you use Unix, learn to use screen or tmux. They're tremendouslyuseful. (Also: Noisy wireless connections are the new flaky dialup, when it comes to resuming shell sessions.)
I rephrased my comment - I think it's the cleaner codebase that makes the big difference. Its BSD license has some perks, though - for one thing, it's part of the OpenBSD base system now, which means security auditing and excellent maintainers. That will probably also lead to more features in the long run.
I was able to make tmux hang in a matter of a few minutes of playing with it (and not even trying hard). It's definitely got promise, but it also still has a way to go.
Started tmux, split the window a few times, ^B <space> a few times, and it hung. I've submitted a sample to the developer. (It's getting stuck somewhere around screen_write_copy.)
Grab a process that you forgot to start inside neercs
Great screensaver
Real time thumbnails of your shells
Special effects when closing a window
Various window layouts...
Either way, if you use Unix, learn to use screen or tmux. They're tremendouslyuseful. (Also: Noisy wireless connections are the new flaky dialup, when it comes to resuming shell sessions.)