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Question to all commenters who ask for tabs: all modern desktop environments offer powerful window management, which includes navigating between windows of the

Question to all commenters who ask for tabs: all modern desktop environments offer powerful window management, which includes navigating between windows of the same application, hiding inactive windows, etc. What's so good about having different documents/sessions in tabs instead of separate windows?

tourist2d 3y ago
Probably the same answer as to why you would want tabs rather than separate windows in a web browser.
- teo_zero 3y ago
  Probably, but I still don't know what this answer is!
- layer8 3y ago
  I actually mostly use separate windows in a web browser, in order to utilize the normal window manager functions (like arranging windows side by side by keyboard as needed), and never quite understood the appeal of tabs. I would understand it more if tabs were a window manager-level feature.
  - csydas 3y ago
    I think it depends on how tabs are implemented; browser tabs are temporary hold spaces for me, further context within a workspace that I'm exploring. Maybe it's separate research pages for a specific topic, some scratch space, etc. Real browser tabs I like because if something ends up becoming a new main focus, I drag it to its own window and now it becomes its own workspace with its satellites tacked onto the window as tabs. I can close/re-open them pretty fast with browser history, and it becomes very easy for me to quickly jump in/out of mental work spaces. However, what I cannot stand are non-browser native tabs that are becoming (?) standard in most web apps. It is very restricting in my opinion and defeats the point of tabs, and instead ends up cluttering the space far too much. The big CRMs are a perfect example of this as it slows down everything so much for me as everything is trapped in a single window, it's very difficult to isolate or preserve tabs, and you lose access to the history. Terminal on MacOS introduced tabs some time ago and the paradigm still doesn't sit right with me. More or less it's unobtrusive enough (and I enjoy that Apple at least preserves certain accessibility options while shuffling tabs around), but I just can't quite get to the same head-space with Terminal as I can with browsers, probably because CLI is much more concise by nature and has some already pretty good systems in place for multitasking from a single window.
jwrallie 3y ago
I think windows can map to tabs and shortcuts to bookmarks, so a browser could disappear inside a window manager easily, the concept exists already but I think it could be explored better. If the window manager allows for tabs, programs would not have to implement it.
uberduper 3y ago
My terminal tabs get titles that I can see. My terminal tab shortcuts are consistent with other apps like browsers. I have workflows that depend on me creating a new tab with a bunch of envvars set and having those envvars replicated to any pane/split I create within that tab. I use tabbed layout for grouping some things in i3/sway/hyprland like chat apps. It works well but those are things I just open once and don't think about again. Terminals are opened and closed constantly and I don't want to have to think about, or fix, new window positioning. A new tab in the existing window is going to be exactly where I expect it to be and have no impact on the positioning of any other window.
mfranc42 3y ago
GNOME doesn't certainly offer that. Maybe, it's just me. But I was unable to handle more than 3 windows at the time. Escaped to sway to solve it.
SkeuomorphicBee 3y ago
> What's so good about having different documents/sessions in tabs instead of separate windows? Different hierarchical levels that I can use differently to organise stuff in my mental model: - Desktops/workspaces: completely different projects. - Windows: different tasks within a project. - Tabs: different documents/sessions needed for a single task.
Tommstein 3y ago
I don't know, do you use tabs in your web browser or do you open a new window for every webpage?
- teo_zero 3y ago
  For cursory tasks like reading a news? Tabs or simply clicking on the link is OK. For pages I have to work in, or even copy data from? new window.

tourist2d 3y ago

Probably the same answer as to why you would want tabs rather than separate windows in a web browser.

teo_zero 3y ago
Probably, but I still don't know what this answer is!
layer8 3y ago
I actually mostly use separate windows in a web browser, in order to utilize the normal window manager functions (like arranging windows side by side by keyboard as needed), and never quite understood the appeal of tabs. I would understand it more if tabs were a window manager-level feature.
- csydas 3y ago
  I think it depends on how tabs are implemented; browser tabs are temporary hold spaces for me, further context within a workspace that I'm exploring. Maybe it's separate research pages for a specific topic, some scratch space, etc. Real browser tabs I like because if something ends up becoming a new main focus, I drag it to its own window and now it becomes its own workspace with its satellites tacked onto the window as tabs. I can close/re-open them pretty fast with browser history, and it becomes very easy for me to quickly jump in/out of mental work spaces. However, what I cannot stand are non-browser native tabs that are becoming (?) standard in most web apps. It is very restricting in my opinion and defeats the point of tabs, and instead ends up cluttering the space far too much. The big CRMs are a perfect example of this as it slows down everything so much for me as everything is trapped in a single window, it's very difficult to isolate or preserve tabs, and you lose access to the history. Terminal on MacOS introduced tabs some time ago and the paradigm still doesn't sit right with me. More or less it's unobtrusive enough (and I enjoy that Apple at least preserves certain accessibility options while shuffling tabs around), but I just can't quite get to the same head-space with Terminal as I can with browsers, probably because CLI is much more concise by nature and has some already pretty good systems in place for multitasking from a single window.

jwrallie 3y ago

I think windows can map to tabs and shortcuts to bookmarks, so a browser could disappear inside a window manager easily, the concept exists already but I think it could be explored better. If the window manager allows for tabs, programs would not have to implement it.

uberduper 3y ago

My terminal tabs get titles that I can see. My terminal tab shortcuts are consistent with other apps like browsers. I have workflows that depend on me creating a new tab with a bunch of envvars set and having those envvars replicated to any pane/split I create within that tab. I use tabbed layout for grouping some things in i3/sway/hyprland like chat apps. It works well but those are things I just open once and don't think about again. Terminals are opened and closed constantly and I don't want to have to think about, or fix, new window positioning. A new tab in the existing window is going to be exactly where I expect it to be and have no impact on the positioning of any other window.

mfranc42 3y ago

GNOME doesn't certainly offer that. Maybe, it's just me. But I was unable to handle more than 3 windows at the time. Escaped to sway to solve it.

SkeuomorphicBee 3y ago

> What's so good about having different documents/sessions in tabs instead of separate windows? Different hierarchical levels that I can use differently to organise stuff in my mental model: - Desktops/workspaces: completely different projects. - Windows: different tasks within a project. - Tabs: different documents/sessions needed for a single task.

Tommstein 3y ago

I don't know, do you use tabs in your web browser or do you open a new window for every webpage?

teo_zero 3y ago
For cursory tasks like reading a news? Tabs or simply clicking on the link is OK. For pages I have to work in, or even copy data from? new window.