6 ms·

Firefox is worth it if only for the Ctrl-Tab going in recently used order. I hate using Chrome and needing to use the mouse to actually find a tab

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
layer8 4y ago
It’s mystifying why any browser would choose not to have that feature. It’s basic ergonomics of tabbing UIs.
- chrismorgan 4y ago
  Firefox is literally the only program of any kind that I can think of that even supports MRU Ctrl+Tab. Windowed UIs, sure, MRU is conventional, but tabbed?
  - layer8 4y ago
    All IDEs and editors I use support MRU order. IE also had/has MRU tabs.
  - SixDouble5321 4y ago
    Windows itself?
zamadatix 4y ago
Chrome uses an alternative tab workflow brought up by alt/cmd+shift+a which will bring up a list of tabs in last used order. You can then navigate via keyboard or just type to search tabs. That doesn't explain why the other method isn't at least an option in Chrome but I figured it was worth mentioning for those that missed the functionality.
chrismorgan 4y ago
Huh, you’re the first person I’ve encountered liking that behaviour. Since Firefox switched to MRU Ctrl+Tab by default, every Firefox user I know (whether a long-time user, one migrating from another browser, or someone for whom it is their first browser by virtue of their youth, and I have at least one in each category) has successfully found and toggled that option. I must admit, however, that I do have Tab Flip for Tree Style Tab, with Shift+F2 to switch between the current and most recently selected tabs (like Ctrl+6 in Vim to toggle between the most recent buffers), and have added similar elsewhere, with Meta+F2 to switch between most recent workspaces in the Sway or i3 window managers: bindsym Mod4+F2 workspace back_and_forth bindsym Mod4+Shift+F2 move container to workspace back_and_forth, workspace back_and_forth I wouldn’t want to be without at least this single-level MRU in my browser or window manager. (On more traditional window managers, you normally have Alt+Tab or ⌘⇥ and ⌘` which are all some form of more extensive MRU list, though I find macOS’s application-level treatment bizarre and extraordinarily frustrating because of how cripplingly limiting it is if you work with multiple multi-window apps and want to see a window of each. And yeah, it’s easy to see when reflecting on Alt+Tab why Firefox went the way they did with Ctrl+Tab, making it behave similarly. But I haven’t previously found anyone actually liking it.)
- jadyoyster 4y ago
  Before most-recent-order was the default I turned it on manually, so it's most certainly not every user.
- Hedepig 4y ago
  I shall be the second you've met. Its likely more useful for those who tend towards many tabs open at once
  - chrismorgan 4y ago
    Right now, I have 258 tabs open in my main window, of which I’m actively using at least a dozen, and will use another few dozen within a day or so. (Probably should go through and clean out a hundred or two.) Most of my family is some degree of tab hoarder as well (my eldest sister regularly has over a thousand tabs spread across a few windows).
tryauuum 4y ago
Funny enough, for me it's extremely uncomfortable when tab cycling doesn't represent the tab order I see on screen. I've always disable that feature and even have code to autodisable it on new installs
- Tmpod 4y ago
  You can achieve ordered cycling with Ctrl+PgUp/Down in most software, like Firefox. I use a mix of that and Tab to navigate through my tabs
- layer8 4y ago
  The benefit of MRU order is that you can use it blindly to go to the last-nth tab without having to eye-coordinate with the contents of the tab bar. It becomes an automatic muscle-memory thing.
  - tryauuum 4y ago
    how many tabs do you have open on average?
    - layer8 4y ago
      Usually less than a dozen, though I don’t quite see the relevance. I use MRU to switch between two to four (rarely more) related tabs. In code editors I often have several dozens of tabs open, and MRU is a crucial usability feature when coding, so I’d say that its usefulness is independent of the number of open tabs.
- doliveira 4y ago
  With MRU order the stack order becomes automatically grouped by subject, like actual function stacks.
tux3 4y ago
I really had to go and disable that. I use a lot of tabs, I switch between them often, and a few of them stay open for a while I have tree style tabs so my tabs are all already ordered in a vaguely meaningful way, but the recent use order of my last tabs is completely unpredictable to me! With this feature on ^tab might as well be random for how badly it confuses me.. I'm so glad Mozilla hadn't removed the opt-out yet.
bigpeopleareold 4y ago
I think Sidebery is better for tab management. The default tab UI is horrible for any non-trivial work.
nathanasmith 4y ago
As another big fan of MRU tab switching, there is an extension for Chromium based browsers that enables this feature: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/quick-tabs/jnjfeinjfmenlddahdjdmgpbokiacbbb?hl=en https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/quick-tabs/jnjfein...

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

layer8 4y ago

It’s mystifying why any browser would choose not to have that feature. It’s basic ergonomics of tabbing UIs.

chrismorgan 4y ago
Firefox is literally the only program of any kind that I can think of that even supports MRU Ctrl+Tab. Windowed UIs, sure, MRU is conventional, but tabbed?
- layer8 4y ago
  All IDEs and editors I use support MRU order. IE also had/has MRU tabs.
- SixDouble5321 4y ago
  Windows itself?

zamadatix 4y ago

Chrome uses an alternative tab workflow brought up by alt/cmd+shift+a which will bring up a list of tabs in last used order. You can then navigate via keyboard or just type to search tabs. That doesn't explain why the other method isn't at least an option in Chrome but I figured it was worth mentioning for those that missed the functionality.

chrismorgan 4y ago

Huh, you’re the first person I’ve encountered liking that behaviour. Since Firefox switched to MRU Ctrl+Tab by default, every Firefox user I know (whether a long-time user, one migrating from another browser, or someone for whom it is their first browser by virtue of their youth, and I have at least one in each category) has successfully found and toggled that option. I must admit, however, that I do have Tab Flip for Tree Style Tab, with Shift+F2 to switch between the current and most recently selected tabs (like Ctrl+6 in Vim to toggle between the most recent buffers), and have added similar elsewhere, with Meta+F2 to switch between most recent workspaces in the Sway or i3 window managers: bindsym Mod4+F2 workspace back_and_forth bindsym Mod4+Shift+F2 move container to workspace back_and_forth, workspace back_and_forth I wouldn’t want to be without at least this single-level MRU in my browser or window manager. (On more traditional window managers, you normally have Alt+Tab or ⌘⇥ and ⌘` which are all some form of more extensive MRU list, though I find macOS’s application-level treatment bizarre and extraordinarily frustrating because of how cripplingly limiting it is if you work with multiple multi-window apps and want to see a window of each. And yeah, it’s easy to see when reflecting on Alt+Tab why Firefox went the way they did with Ctrl+Tab, making it behave similarly. But I haven’t previously found anyone actually liking it.)

jadyoyster 4y ago
Before most-recent-order was the default I turned it on manually, so it's most certainly not every user.
Hedepig 4y ago
I shall be the second you've met. Its likely more useful for those who tend towards many tabs open at once
- chrismorgan 4y ago
  Right now, I have 258 tabs open in my main window, of which I’m actively using at least a dozen, and will use another few dozen within a day or so. (Probably should go through and clean out a hundred or two.) Most of my family is some degree of tab hoarder as well (my eldest sister regularly has over a thousand tabs spread across a few windows).

tryauuum 4y ago

Funny enough, for me it's extremely uncomfortable when tab cycling doesn't represent the tab order I see on screen. I've always disable that feature and even have code to autodisable it on new installs

Tmpod 4y ago
You can achieve ordered cycling with Ctrl+PgUp/Down in most software, like Firefox. I use a mix of that and Tab to navigate through my tabs
layer8 4y ago
The benefit of MRU order is that you can use it blindly to go to the last-nth tab without having to eye-coordinate with the contents of the tab bar. It becomes an automatic muscle-memory thing.
- tryauuum 4y ago
  how many tabs do you have open on average?
  - layer8 4y ago
    Usually less than a dozen, though I don’t quite see the relevance. I use MRU to switch between two to four (rarely more) related tabs. In code editors I often have several dozens of tabs open, and MRU is a crucial usability feature when coding, so I’d say that its usefulness is independent of the number of open tabs.
doliveira 4y ago
With MRU order the stack order becomes automatically grouped by subject, like actual function stacks.

tux3 4y ago

I really had to go and disable that. I use a lot of tabs, I switch between them often, and a few of them stay open for a while I have tree style tabs so my tabs are all already ordered in a vaguely meaningful way, but the recent use order of my last tabs is completely unpredictable to me! With this feature on ^tab might as well be random for how badly it confuses me.. I'm so glad Mozilla hadn't removed the opt-out yet.

bigpeopleareold 4y ago

I think Sidebery is better for tab management. The default tab UI is horrible for any non-trivial work.

nathanasmith 4y ago

As another big fan of MRU tab switching, there is an extension for Chromium based browsers that enables this feature: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/quick-tabs/jnjfeinjfmenlddahdjdmgpbokiacbbb?hl=en https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/quick-tabs/jnjfein...