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There is no legitimate use for 100 browser tabs. It's like having getting 100 books out of a bookshelf and reading them all at once. Even if you do this, you

There is no legitimate use for 100 browser tabs. It's like having getting 100 books out of a bookshelf and reading them all at once. Even if you do this, you will only be reading few of them, not all 100 at the same time.

j45 2y ago
Just because you don’t didn’t mean it’s not possible. One example - one window per client with all their tabs open. Tab search tool (press T for search) means instant switch and load. There’s other tools and approaches that can help too, but this is one.
argiopetech 2y ago
Even better: I only read one at a time. But that doesn't mean my bookshelf shouldn't contain 100 books.
kstenerud 2y ago
No, you won't be reading 100 at the same time, but you'll be reading a few of them and switching between, keeping related tabs in the same window. I currently have about 40-50 tabs open, as I usually do. Works great!
- johnnyanmac 2y ago
  I have about 40 as well. Not really by intention, more due to the fact that tabs are so transient now with synced devices and windows and my own ADHD. I could tell you why every tab was opened but half the tabs would be at least 2 days stale. browser windows also further islate things. I'm one virtual desktop and I forgot for a week another desktop had 20 tabs open from a completely different task that is long finished.
  - kstenerud 2y ago
    I use them as a kind of informal "to look at later" list. Not quite important enough to bookmark immediately, but things I'll peruse later when I'm not busy - either reading, bookmarking, or closing.
peteforde 2y ago
Hard agree; if you have more than a half-dozen tabs open, you might be doing browsing wrong. Anyone not already using OneTab... it is my desert island "if I could only have one browser plugin". https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/onetab/chphlpgkkbolifaimnlloiipkdnihall?pli=1 https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/onetab/chphlpgkkbol... It lives in my left-most pinned tab, 24/7.
- imtringued 2y ago
  The moment you go on HN, skim the front page and open a queue of HN submissions to read, you already exceed your half a dozen tab rule. When I look at how many pinned tabs at work I have, all of which are mandatory, there isn't even a single tab left for actual browsing. I'm sure you're proud of completely impractical ideas such as opening a tab, bookmarking it, closing the tab, then five minutes later trying to find the bookmark to reopen the tab and then delete the bookmark, just to stay within a silly six tabs rule. Have you considered that maybe you're the one doing something wrong? Some humility and empathy could help you out.
  - doublerabbit 2y ago
    > The moment you go on HN, skim the front page and open a queue of HN submissions to read I don't do that. Open one, article, read, close and than open another. And there is no right or wrong way to web browsing. There are two types of people, those who use a bookmark bar and those who use tabs. Myself, I don't get mass tab usage. Use tab, close tab. Reopen if I really need that page again. I ensure that all usage for that tab is exhausted before. On very rare occasions have I needed to reopen that tab. If really need it, I'll bookmark it in the bookmark bar. Password managers, PAM, IMC and all other miscellaneous utilities are all things in my realm yet looking at my work screen now I only a total of three tabs open. Anything that would be useful to have open normally times out anyway. And my actual inbox is organised to where no email sits in the inbox. A new email gets copied to a folder via filter, marked as read. I then delete the email from the inbox once read knowing it exists elsewhere. Makes Mondays very easy to get in to work.
  - peteforde 2y ago
johnnyanmac 2y ago
It's more that it goes out out of control if your workflow involves "open new tab on click". start with a google search, tab in a potential ressult, repeat 4 more times and then put it on the back burner and try a different result. next thing you know you have 20 tabs scattered and maybe 5 are useful. But you don't want to just randomly close tabs in case you close the useful one. To use the book metaphor, its like you have 7 books scattered and in each book there's maybe 1-2 pages each you need. So it's not like you wanna just close the books and put them away without at least some bookmarks or note taking.
imtringued 2y ago
There is no legitimate use for more than 100 files on a computer.
- imp0cat 2y ago
  You forgot the "simultaneously opened" part.
  - yoavm 2y ago
    I guess the way I'm using my computer is also wrong now... $ lsof / | wc -l 8533
    - imp0cat 2y ago
      I was wondering who's gonna drag lsof into this conversation. ;) Surely you are aware of the fact that it shows a number completely irrelevant to this discussion.
  - TeMPOraL 2y ago
    Opened in the sense of "user working on/with them" corresponds to stuff displayed on your desktop. The mapping is then: Open tabs :: books on a bookshelf Tabs on screen :: books open on your desk Most people tend to have 0 or 1 books laying open on their desk at once. Similarly, most people tend to have 0 or 1 tabs visible on their screen at any given time. In special cases, people tend to have multiple books open on their desk, or tabs visible on screen, but that number is unlikely to be larger than 10. Having 100 books on a bookshelf or 100 tabs in a browser is not a problem.
isoprophlex 2y ago
I agree totally. Just because you need a couple of spatulas, a set of knives, some cutting boards, etcetera etcetera to have a functioning kitchen, doesn't mean you have to leave every tool lying around on the dinner table 24/7.
Etheryte 2y ago
I don't really agree, at any one time I have hundreds of tabs across multiple windows and it's great. I have a window for investing. Every few days or so I unminimize it, read through the latest stats, news, information about companies I follow, etc. I have a window for a new hobby I'm picking up, I use that window every weekend, it has quite a few tabs for stuff I'm learning or want to come back to later. I have a window for work stuff. Etc, lots of windows for lots of topics, every time I want to change context I just switch to the relevant window, it's great.
CalRobert 2y ago
I think it partially indicates how neglected bookmarks are as a feature
TeMPOraL 2y ago
> It's like having getting 100 books out of a bookshelf and reading them all at once. No, it's like having a bookshelf, period. How many books on yours have you actually read? How many you put there with intent to read, which never materialized? People are reluctant to admit it, but at least for me and those I know personally, 90%+ books they own are either waiting to be read (or re-read), or should've been long ago disposed of, but it's kind of a shame to throw away/give away a good book - surely you'll get to it soon! Literally the same thing with browser tabs, except it's digital (i.e. easier to acquire, easier to forget about).
- 29athrowaway 2y ago
  That is what bookmarks are for.
  - TeMPOraL 2y ago
    That's what they would be if the web continued to consist of only static documents, as it used to in 1991. Unfortunately, people figured they can run a program on each request and feed its stdout to client browser, ruining bookmarks in the process. Later, they figured they could run code client-side, adding final nail to the coffin of browser bookmarks. Bookmarks suck at being bookmarks because they're only an URL in a database. However the site looked like when you saved the bookmark, it's unlikely it'll look the same when you visit (you lose scroll position for starters) - hell, it may not exist at all anymore. Tabs keep state. That's what makes them good at being bookmarks. You switch to the tab, you see the site as it was when you left it before; you don't lose any state (at least within hours to days of a single session; tab unloading and session save/restore complicates this, but they still restore more state than normal bookmarks do).

j45 2y ago

Just because you don’t didn’t mean it’s not possible. One example - one window per client with all their tabs open. Tab search tool (press T for search) means instant switch and load. There’s other tools and approaches that can help too, but this is one.

argiopetech 2y ago

Even better: I only read one at a time. But that doesn't mean my bookshelf shouldn't contain 100 books.

kstenerud 2y ago

No, you won't be reading 100 at the same time, but you'll be reading a few of them and switching between, keeping related tabs in the same window. I currently have about 40-50 tabs open, as I usually do. Works great!

johnnyanmac 2y ago
I have about 40 as well. Not really by intention, more due to the fact that tabs are so transient now with synced devices and windows and my own ADHD. I could tell you why every tab was opened but half the tabs would be at least 2 days stale. browser windows also further islate things. I'm one virtual desktop and I forgot for a week another desktop had 20 tabs open from a completely different task that is long finished.
- kstenerud 2y ago
  I use them as a kind of informal "to look at later" list. Not quite important enough to bookmark immediately, but things I'll peruse later when I'm not busy - either reading, bookmarking, or closing.

peteforde 2y ago

Hard agree; if you have more than a half-dozen tabs open, you might be doing browsing wrong. Anyone not already using OneTab... it is my desert island "if I could only have one browser plugin". https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/onetab/chphlpgkkbolifaimnlloiipkdnihall?pli=1 https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/onetab/chphlpgkkbol... It lives in my left-most pinned tab, 24/7.

imtringued 2y ago
The moment you go on HN, skim the front page and open a queue of HN submissions to read, you already exceed your half a dozen tab rule. When I look at how many pinned tabs at work I have, all of which are mandatory, there isn't even a single tab left for actual browsing. I'm sure you're proud of completely impractical ideas such as opening a tab, bookmarking it, closing the tab, then five minutes later trying to find the bookmark to reopen the tab and then delete the bookmark, just to stay within a silly six tabs rule. Have you considered that maybe you're the one doing something wrong? Some humility and empathy could help you out.
- doublerabbit 2y ago
  > The moment you go on HN, skim the front page and open a queue of HN submissions to read I don't do that. Open one, article, read, close and than open another. And there is no right or wrong way to web browsing. There are two types of people, those who use a bookmark bar and those who use tabs. Myself, I don't get mass tab usage. Use tab, close tab. Reopen if I really need that page again. I ensure that all usage for that tab is exhausted before. On very rare occasions have I needed to reopen that tab. If really need it, I'll bookmark it in the bookmark bar. Password managers, PAM, IMC and all other miscellaneous utilities are all things in my realm yet looking at my work screen now I only a total of three tabs open. Anything that would be useful to have open normally times out anyway. And my actual inbox is organised to where no email sits in the inbox. A new email gets copied to a folder via filter, marked as read. I then delete the email from the inbox once read knowing it exists elsewhere. Makes Mondays very easy to get in to work.
- peteforde 2y ago

johnnyanmac 2y ago

It's more that it goes out out of control if your workflow involves "open new tab on click". start with a google search, tab in a potential ressult, repeat 4 more times and then put it on the back burner and try a different result. next thing you know you have 20 tabs scattered and maybe 5 are useful. But you don't want to just randomly close tabs in case you close the useful one. To use the book metaphor, its like you have 7 books scattered and in each book there's maybe 1-2 pages each you need. So it's not like you wanna just close the books and put them away without at least some bookmarks or note taking.

imtringued 2y ago

There is no legitimate use for more than 100 files on a computer.

imp0cat 2y ago
You forgot the "simultaneously opened" part.
- yoavm 2y ago
  I guess the way I'm using my computer is also wrong now... $ lsof / | wc -l 8533
  - imp0cat 2y ago
    I was wondering who's gonna drag lsof into this conversation. ;) Surely you are aware of the fact that it shows a number completely irrelevant to this discussion.
- TeMPOraL 2y ago
  Opened in the sense of "user working on/with them" corresponds to stuff displayed on your desktop. The mapping is then: Open tabs :: books on a bookshelf Tabs on screen :: books open on your desk Most people tend to have 0 or 1 books laying open on their desk at once. Similarly, most people tend to have 0 or 1 tabs visible on their screen at any given time. In special cases, people tend to have multiple books open on their desk, or tabs visible on screen, but that number is unlikely to be larger than 10. Having 100 books on a bookshelf or 100 tabs in a browser is not a problem.

isoprophlex 2y ago

I agree totally. Just because you need a couple of spatulas, a set of knives, some cutting boards, etcetera etcetera to have a functioning kitchen, doesn't mean you have to leave every tool lying around on the dinner table 24/7.

Etheryte 2y ago

I don't really agree, at any one time I have hundreds of tabs across multiple windows and it's great. I have a window for investing. Every few days or so I unminimize it, read through the latest stats, news, information about companies I follow, etc. I have a window for a new hobby I'm picking up, I use that window every weekend, it has quite a few tabs for stuff I'm learning or want to come back to later. I have a window for work stuff. Etc, lots of windows for lots of topics, every time I want to change context I just switch to the relevant window, it's great.

CalRobert 2y ago

I think it partially indicates how neglected bookmarks are as a feature

TeMPOraL 2y ago

> It's like having getting 100 books out of a bookshelf and reading them all at once. No, it's like having a bookshelf, period. How many books on yours have you actually read? How many you put there with intent to read, which never materialized? People are reluctant to admit it, but at least for me and those I know personally, 90%+ books they own are either waiting to be read (or re-read), or should've been long ago disposed of, but it's kind of a shame to throw away/give away a good book - surely you'll get to it soon! Literally the same thing with browser tabs, except it's digital (i.e. easier to acquire, easier to forget about).

29athrowaway 2y ago
That is what bookmarks are for.
- TeMPOraL 2y ago
  That's what they would be if the web continued to consist of only static documents, as it used to in 1991. Unfortunately, people figured they can run a program on each request and feed its stdout to client browser, ruining bookmarks in the process. Later, they figured they could run code client-side, adding final nail to the coffin of browser bookmarks. Bookmarks suck at being bookmarks because they're only an URL in a database. However the site looked like when you saved the bookmark, it's unlikely it'll look the same when you visit (you lose scroll position for starters) - hell, it may not exist at all anymore. Tabs keep state. That's what makes them good at being bookmarks. You switch to the tab, you see the site as it was when you left it before; you don't lose any state (at least within hours to days of a single session; tab unloading and session save/restore complicates this, but they still restore more state than normal bookmarks do).