...but every major desktop platform has easily accessible configuration settings for you to change this behavior, eg. for Windows 7 I can just: right click

...but every major desktop platform has easily accessible configuration settings for you to change this behavior, eg. for Windows 7 I can just: right click task bar > properties > taskbar buttons: never combine ...to switch back to a window centric approach, and this combined with the ability to use virtual desktops (even on Windows with a 3rd party app) with the taskbar only showing windows from that desktop, and going even further if you like, using a multi display setup where each display has a task bar showing only the windows from that display (like having "# of virtual desktops" * "# of display" actual virtual desktops) (note: I HATE this but know people that swear by it), you can easily manage even ~50 windows without becoming visually or mentally crowded, with no need for the app-centrick view that makes you click around all the time... ...the point being that unity should try and learn more from the nice and clean but yet easily costumizable interface of Windows 7 Disclaimer: I'm mainly a Windows user, touching a Mac from time to time, and using Xfce when on *nix because it just works and doesn't stand in my way...