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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 lon

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).
  - abyssphenom 4y ago
    Get the "tab stash" extension, you can stash your tabs instead of nuking them. That way you can go back a few months and find things that would be tougher to find through history or other means.
    - jhatax 4y ago
      Yet another tab management (YATM) recommendation here. I use the OneTab extension to help me manage tabs. In a recent update, they added the ability to: A) name tab groups; B) lock specific groups which mimics the capability of bookmark folders (clicking a link doesn’t remove it from the group). The extension has helped me reduce the number of open windows on my laptop, among other productivity improvements.
  - rntksi 4y ago
    I used to do this too, then I got a bookmark save service (Pocket). Now whenever I see something that I have the reaction of keeping the tab around, I just save it and close it instead. Makes browsing lighter. I do still have around 20 tabs open normally, mostly things that don't fit in the "bookmark save" workflow, but definitely better than the 100+ tabs it used to be before.
Aardwolf 4y ago
Huh, this is the first time I heard that FF supports MRU, and it's amazing (well except that it's only current window, see below)! I don't know why it was turned off by default. MRU should always be the default, this is also what IDE's do, and alt+tab does with main windows. What is even the point of ctrl+tab cycling to next tab? You got to press it dozens of times to go back to the original tab... Why would anyone use that? You can use ctrl+pgdn and pgup to go to next/previous which is more sensible for this. So disappointingly, now I turned this feature on in FF, and I'm disappointed to see that it only cycles through most recent tab of current window. I wish it would go through any window. I have always dozens of windows with dozens of tabs each, and I find myself sometimes just opening the same URL again due to not bothering trying to find back a tab I was in just a few minutes ago due to not having a ctrl+tab that goes to most recent tab in any window.
- tjoff 4y ago
  alt+tab is a very different operation. ctrl+tab cycling to the next tab is essential for many ways of surfing the web. For instance, research a topic and tap up many tabs. Now go through them one by one. And in the process of doing so you might want to tab up even more. At this point cycling to the next tab becomes a way to navigate the history, but where you have the context of each step preserved. MRU in this context is a nightmare. MRU for tabs doesn't make any sense to me, that purpose is served by switching to another window instead (which is, and should be, MRU).
  - Aardwolf 4y ago
    But ctrl+pgdn already goes to next tab, so ctrl+tab doesn't need to do that same thing, MRU is what multi-document programs (like text editors with multiple open files, IDE's) usually do for ctrl+tab. And this for good reason: this allows to cycle through the most recent documents the easiest, following usage patterns. This usage pattern also applies to browsers (and as said, ctrl+pgup/pgdn already do prev/next tab for the other usage pattern) finding back your tab amongst the many open ones is a nightmare without some form of easily accessed recently used list that also works across windows

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).
- abyssphenom 4y ago
  Get the "tab stash" extension, you can stash your tabs instead of nuking them. That way you can go back a few months and find things that would be tougher to find through history or other means.
  - jhatax 4y ago
    Yet another tab management (YATM) recommendation here. I use the OneTab extension to help me manage tabs. In a recent update, they added the ability to: A) name tab groups; B) lock specific groups which mimics the capability of bookmark folders (clicking a link doesn’t remove it from the group). The extension has helped me reduce the number of open windows on my laptop, among other productivity improvements.
- rntksi 4y ago
  I used to do this too, then I got a bookmark save service (Pocket). Now whenever I see something that I have the reaction of keeping the tab around, I just save it and close it instead. Makes browsing lighter. I do still have around 20 tabs open normally, mostly things that don't fit in the "bookmark save" workflow, but definitely better than the 100+ tabs it used to be before.

Aardwolf 4y ago

Huh, this is the first time I heard that FF supports MRU, and it's amazing (well except that it's only current window, see below)! I don't know why it was turned off by default. MRU should always be the default, this is also what IDE's do, and alt+tab does with main windows. What is even the point of ctrl+tab cycling to next tab? You got to press it dozens of times to go back to the original tab... Why would anyone use that? You can use ctrl+pgdn and pgup to go to next/previous which is more sensible for this. So disappointingly, now I turned this feature on in FF, and I'm disappointed to see that it only cycles through most recent tab of current window. I wish it would go through any window. I have always dozens of windows with dozens of tabs each, and I find myself sometimes just opening the same URL again due to not bothering trying to find back a tab I was in just a few minutes ago due to not having a ctrl+tab that goes to most recent tab in any window.

tjoff 4y ago
alt+tab is a very different operation. ctrl+tab cycling to the next tab is essential for many ways of surfing the web. For instance, research a topic and tap up many tabs. Now go through them one by one. And in the process of doing so you might want to tab up even more. At this point cycling to the next tab becomes a way to navigate the history, but where you have the context of each step preserved. MRU in this context is a nightmare. MRU for tabs doesn't make any sense to me, that purpose is served by switching to another window instead (which is, and should be, MRU).
- Aardwolf 4y ago
  But ctrl+pgdn already goes to next tab, so ctrl+tab doesn't need to do that same thing, MRU is what multi-document programs (like text editors with multiple open files, IDE's) usually do for ctrl+tab. And this for good reason: this allows to cycle through the most recent documents the easiest, following usage patterns. This usage pattern also applies to browsers (and as said, ctrl+pgup/pgdn already do prev/next tab for the other usage pattern) finding back your tab amongst the many open ones is a nightmare without some form of easily accessed recently used list that also works across windows