3 ms·

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.

Probably, but I still don't know what this answer is!

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.