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I think this is one of many problems that would go away if window managers simply provided tabs as first-class objects. I am tired of every app having to "supp

I think this is one of many problems that would go away if window managers simply provided tabs as first-class objects. I am tired of every app having to "support" tabs, and inevitably see quirky behavior. Not only would this fix alert problems, but we'd gain a lot of other capabilities. The biggest one for me would be, inter-application tabs: why shouldn't my tab stack be able to alternate between mail, terminals, editors and web browsers, for instance?

TheNewAndy 16y ago
Are you aware of the window managers that do provide this? I've tried them, and I never really liked it. But I don't think you need to be complaining, because what you are asking for already exists, and switching over shouldn't be hard.
- makecheck 16y ago
  I know that some window managers are capable of it. Though I use Macs primarily, so I want Apple to fix it. :) Realistically though, cross-platform products like Firefox would need Windows and all Unix/Linux window managers to handle this too, in order to completely avoid home-grown code to mimic tabs.
- derefr 16y ago
  Tab Candy. I know that right now it's a Firefox feature, but it should be a window manager.
- rincewind 16y ago
  fluxbox had this 5 years ago
cookiecaper 16y ago
Isn't that essentially the same thing as the taskbar? I think people appreciate tabs because they can still get to their separate programs easily from the taskbar, but inside the application itself we can also easily switch between contexts (spreadsheets, web pages, etc.) Windows 7's new taskbar has some features that go in the direction of exposing those application-level contexts to the system-wide taskbar. Try Fx4 on Win7 and each tab acts like a new Firefox window, and Win7's new stacking mechanism makes it so you can easily switch to other apps even if you have 100 tabs open.
- sudont 16y ago
  Right, there's this type of application:window divide in OS X which is really nice. There's two levels of window switching, between-applications and between-app-windows that beats the pants off of the "traditional" taskbar model seen in XP and most Linux distros. Mixing windows and applications in alt-tab generally just causes tons of problems in trying to guess which is on top of the stack, not to mention that application switching screws up window switching. I hear Windows 7's taskbar is much more dock-like, which would be a serious benefit, I get actual headaches from working with XP at work 9 hours a day.
  - pierrefar 16y ago
    OS X which is really nice... beats the pants off of the "traditional" taskbar model seen in XP and most Linux distros That's a matter of personal preference. I personally loathe the way OSX forces me to decide between Apple-Tab vs Apple-Tilde. I just want to switch. But to be fair, it's absolutely annoying and stupid Microsoft Office applications decide they need two entries in the stack. For example, why does having n Excel workbooks open require n+1 entries? No other applications do that as far as I know.
    - ryne 16y ago
      Same with MSN Messenger but they fixed that in the latest version.

TheNewAndy 16y ago

Are you aware of the window managers that do provide this? I've tried them, and I never really liked it. But I don't think you need to be complaining, because what you are asking for already exists, and switching over shouldn't be hard.

makecheck 16y ago
I know that some window managers are capable of it. Though I use Macs primarily, so I want Apple to fix it. :) Realistically though, cross-platform products like Firefox would need Windows and all Unix/Linux window managers to handle this too, in order to completely avoid home-grown code to mimic tabs.
derefr 16y ago
Tab Candy. I know that right now it's a Firefox feature, but it should be a window manager.
rincewind 16y ago
fluxbox had this 5 years ago

cookiecaper 16y ago

Isn't that essentially the same thing as the taskbar? I think people appreciate tabs because they can still get to their separate programs easily from the taskbar, but inside the application itself we can also easily switch between contexts (spreadsheets, web pages, etc.) Windows 7's new taskbar has some features that go in the direction of exposing those application-level contexts to the system-wide taskbar. Try Fx4 on Win7 and each tab acts like a new Firefox window, and Win7's new stacking mechanism makes it so you can easily switch to other apps even if you have 100 tabs open.

sudont 16y ago
Right, there's this type of application:window divide in OS X which is really nice. There's two levels of window switching, between-applications and between-app-windows that beats the pants off of the "traditional" taskbar model seen in XP and most Linux distros. Mixing windows and applications in alt-tab generally just causes tons of problems in trying to guess which is on top of the stack, not to mention that application switching screws up window switching. I hear Windows 7's taskbar is much more dock-like, which would be a serious benefit, I get actual headaches from working with XP at work 9 hours a day.
- pierrefar 16y ago
  OS X which is really nice... beats the pants off of the "traditional" taskbar model seen in XP and most Linux distros That's a matter of personal preference. I personally loathe the way OSX forces me to decide between Apple-Tab vs Apple-Tilde. I just want to switch. But to be fair, it's absolutely annoying and stupid Microsoft Office applications decide they need two entries in the stack. For example, why does having n Excel workbooks open require n+1 entries? No other applications do that as far as I know.
  - ryne 16y ago
    Same with MSN Messenger but they fixed that in the latest version.