4 ms·

Looks like they've re-invented the concept of "windows." Isn't there a nifty piece of software provided by the OS called a window manager that's supposed to do

Looks like they've re-invented the concept of "windows." Isn't there a nifty piece of software provided by the OS called a window manager that's supposed to do this sort of thing?

moe 16y ago
supposed Emphasis mine.
Qz 16y ago
Key words: supposed to. nix has a million different options and no clear winner. OSX and Win have static ones that can't really be customized and are only upgraded at a glacially slow pace compared to browser development.
thefool 16y ago
I wish you could do all this with regular windows. Its also much more specialized for the type of stuff people do on the internet.
mbrubeck 16y ago
But unlike normal OS-level window managers - even ones with very nice features like Exposé - Tab Candy gives you a single overview of all your "windows" and the sub-windows (tabs) nested inside them. And you can interact with the "windows" and change their contents from the Tab Candy overview, which you can't do from Exposé or similar. And the naming, the simple physics for arranging spatial groups, etc., make this suitable for different use cases than ordinary windows. Try it out and see. I've been using the internal Tab Candy alphas for a while now (I am a Mozilla employee) and it really adds some useful new possibilities. In fact, I would love to see an operating system with a window manager that had more of Tab Candy's features. (GNOME hacker Jeff Waugh agrees: http://twitter.com/jdub/status/19052579869 http://twitter.com/jdub/status/19052579869)
- jberryman 16y ago
  I would love to see that too.
- abp 16y ago
  In fact, I would love to see an operating system with a window manager that had more of Tab Candy's features. (GNOME hacker Jeff Waugh agrees: http://twitter.com/jdub/status/19052579869 http://twitter.com/jdub/status/19052579869) Damn. Thats so awesome to read. Thank you.
docgnome 16y ago
That only works if your window manager actually manages your windows instead of just drawing them. StumpWM is a great example of what I'd call, doing it right. Plus it's hackable in CL so that's a plus. :-)
naner 16y ago
They haven't exactly reinvented desktop windows, it is just that the browser is turning into a full-fledged desktop. First you just had single windows and "multi-tasking" wasn't possible, you just opened new browser for every new thing you wanted to do and had history. Then they added the tab bar which is basically a taskbar. Now they're getting into virtual desktops and using zooming for navigating hierarchies. Of course, virtual desktops are used to some degree in a lot of places (mostly Linux desktops and OSX) and zooming isn't a new idea for the desktop but it hasn't been implemented in any of the big desktop systems like this before (AFAICT). The differences are that all applications (web pages) on this desktop are more or less the same size ("document" shaped) and we tend to have a ton more of them open at once then traditional desktop applications. And they are usually text-searchable. I've got mixed feelings about this. I've always thought tabs were cumbersome and didn't scale well but I don't really want to have to manually sort all of my tabs and push things around with the mouse, either.
- dekz 16y ago
  Thats why I think I would still continue to use multiple windows and spaces. It's easy to stay in the mindset of work, with work related tabs and an IDE in the space. Theres no temptation to look at "unproductive work" because it doesn't exist. Plus I'm using chrome but that's for other reasons.
- abp 16y ago
  They haven't exactly reinvented desktop windows, it is just that the browser is turning into a full-fledged desktop. Lol. I just imagined Chrome OS delivering all the niceness, smashing all other OS'es.
jrockway 16y ago
Most users don't have a usable window manager, though, so they decide to write one inside their pet application instead.

Looks like they've re-invented the concept of "windows." Isn't there a nifty piece of software provided by the OS called a window manager that's supposed to do this sort of thing?

moe 16y ago

supposed Emphasis mine.

Qz 16y ago

Key words: supposed to. nix has a million different options and no clear winner. OSX and Win have static ones that can't really be customized and are only upgraded at a glacially slow pace compared to browser development.

thefool 16y ago

I wish you could do all this with regular windows. Its also much more specialized for the type of stuff people do on the internet.

mbrubeck 16y ago

But unlike normal OS-level window managers - even ones with very nice features like Exposé - Tab Candy gives you a single overview of all your "windows" and the sub-windows (tabs) nested inside them. And you can interact with the "windows" and change their contents from the Tab Candy overview, which you can't do from Exposé or similar. And the naming, the simple physics for arranging spatial groups, etc., make this suitable for different use cases than ordinary windows. Try it out and see. I've been using the internal Tab Candy alphas for a while now (I am a Mozilla employee) and it really adds some useful new possibilities. In fact, I would love to see an operating system with a window manager that had more of Tab Candy's features. (GNOME hacker Jeff Waugh agrees: http://twitter.com/jdub/status/19052579869 http://twitter.com/jdub/status/19052579869)

jberryman 16y ago
I would love to see that too.
abp 16y ago
In fact, I would love to see an operating system with a window manager that had more of Tab Candy's features. (GNOME hacker Jeff Waugh agrees: http://twitter.com/jdub/status/19052579869 http://twitter.com/jdub/status/19052579869) Damn. Thats so awesome to read. Thank you.

docgnome 16y ago

That only works if your window manager actually manages your windows instead of just drawing them. StumpWM is a great example of what I'd call, doing it right. Plus it's hackable in CL so that's a plus. :-)

naner 16y ago

They haven't exactly reinvented desktop windows, it is just that the browser is turning into a full-fledged desktop. First you just had single windows and "multi-tasking" wasn't possible, you just opened new browser for every new thing you wanted to do and had history. Then they added the tab bar which is basically a taskbar. Now they're getting into virtual desktops and using zooming for navigating hierarchies. Of course, virtual desktops are used to some degree in a lot of places (mostly Linux desktops and OSX) and zooming isn't a new idea for the desktop but it hasn't been implemented in any of the big desktop systems like this before (AFAICT). The differences are that all applications (web pages) on this desktop are more or less the same size ("document" shaped) and we tend to have a ton more of them open at once then traditional desktop applications. And they are usually text-searchable. I've got mixed feelings about this. I've always thought tabs were cumbersome and didn't scale well but I don't really want to have to manually sort all of my tabs and push things around with the mouse, either.

dekz 16y ago
Thats why I think I would still continue to use multiple windows and spaces. It's easy to stay in the mindset of work, with work related tabs and an IDE in the space. Theres no temptation to look at "unproductive work" because it doesn't exist. Plus I'm using chrome but that's for other reasons.
abp 16y ago
They haven't exactly reinvented desktop windows, it is just that the browser is turning into a full-fledged desktop. Lol. I just imagined Chrome OS delivering all the niceness, smashing all other OS'es.

jrockway 16y ago

Most users don't have a usable window manager, though, so they decide to write one inside their pet application instead.