dyork: Most of the furniture I've put together recently has been assembled with Allen wrenches, which have a hexagonal hole. I'm guessing they have less chance of shearing when tightening, since they have six contact points instead of four, and each of them has more material behind it. It also might have some advantage related to glide planes, but I'm very hazy on that.

Torx heads look like they have even less chance of shearing, and fewer pointy bits to wear down. Amusingly, Torx is a trademarked name, and everything puts (tm) after it, but there doesn't appear to be a generic term.

I just spent more time than I ever should have googling for screw information.