Setting Default Byobu screens

As @Jorge Castro mentioned in a comment, the reason your ~/.byobu/windows configuration isn't working is because byobu is now based on tmux (the "Terminal Multiplexer"). As mentioned by @Hai Vu, there is a workaround that allows you to use screen as byobu's backend, but it isn't overly complicated to switch to tmux.

You'll want to edit the .tmux.conf file located in your user's .byobu folder (~/.byobu/.tmux.conf). Here you will want to write commands to construct your terminal windows using the commands found in the tmux manual. Here is a simple example that can help get you started:

new-window -ad -n Git
new-window -ad -n "Project Build/Run"
new-window -ad -n PostgreSQL

Here I have inserted three commands into the .tmux.conf file. As defined by the manual:

The configuration file is a set of tmux commands which are executed in sequence when the server is first started.

So in this case, when you start Byobu, you should see three pre-created windows with the titles "Git", "Projected Build/Run", and "PostgreSQL" (from left to right). Hope this helps.

I found that if you run

byobu-select-backend

and choose screen, then it works. Selecting tmux as backend does not work. I am still trying to find out how to create windows with tmux backend. If I know how, I'll update this post.