Which is exactly why various window managers on linux have "focus stealing prevention" settings. E.g. in compiz you can tell it how hard to prevent focus steali

Which is exactly why various window managers on linux have "focus stealing prevention" settings. E.g. in compiz you can tell it how hard to prevent focus stealing. On the strictest setting applications simply cannot steal focus. On lower settings it will prevent focus changing for a few seconds after typing or clicking. The window manager I use doesn't even have the concept of applications taking focus. When they try the window border simply turns red instead. It's great. Now if only they'd have some way to make newly opened windows not entirely clobber your window layout it'd be perfect.