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> And if you still doubt me, remember: The two most popular operating systems in the world, iOS and Android, do not have windows. You have to keep mobile and d

> And if you still doubt me, remember: The two most popular operating systems in the world, iOS and Android, do not have windows. You have to keep mobile and desktop OSes separate. Mobile OSes are for use on-the-go and mainly focus on content consumption and getting most out of a pocketable touchscreen. Desktop OSes, in contrast, are for productivity. People understand browser tabs, how would a tabbed chat window be so fundamentally different? > Modern email clients also follow this design paradigm. Email clients are different. You don't usually jump between messages/threads back and forth like you do all the time in IM clients when you're actively chatting in several conversations at once. You open them one by one, read them, and go do something else after no unread emails are left.

yellowapple 2y ago
> You open them one by one, read them, and go do something else after no unread emails are left. On the contrary, I often have multiple emails open at once, since it's pretty common for me to need to reference information from other emails in the one I'm currently writing - usually to reference past conversations or lookup addresses that didn't make it into my contacts.
Dalewyn 2y ago
>People understand browser tabs My anecdata suggests they don't. I have tried teaching normal people how tabs work, but I might as well be speaking pig latin.
- grishka 2y ago
  They don't on phones because there they are hidden away and you have to know about them. I've seen relatives' phones with hundreds of tabs open simply because they had no idea mobile browsers do that by default. But on desktop, tabs are plainly visible all the time and it's very easy to discover how they work.
- pcdoodle 2y ago
  Is there a pinworm outbreak in your neck of the woods? All of these concepts (MDI / Tabs) easily fly with anyone we deal with on a daily basis.
  - Dalewyn 2y ago
    All I can tell you is that when normal people don't understand windows, you definitely are not going to get them to understand windows in windows (which is what tabs effectively are). I hate all these simplified designs we see in computers now just like most of the other weird people here, but those designs are not for a lack of good reasons.

yellowapple 2y ago

> You open them one by one, read them, and go do something else after no unread emails are left. On the contrary, I often have multiple emails open at once, since it's pretty common for me to need to reference information from other emails in the one I'm currently writing - usually to reference past conversations or lookup addresses that didn't make it into my contacts.

Dalewyn 2y ago

>People understand browser tabs My anecdata suggests they don't. I have tried teaching normal people how tabs work, but I might as well be speaking pig latin.

grishka 2y ago
They don't on phones because there they are hidden away and you have to know about them. I've seen relatives' phones with hundreds of tabs open simply because they had no idea mobile browsers do that by default. But on desktop, tabs are plainly visible all the time and it's very easy to discover how they work.
pcdoodle 2y ago
Is there a pinworm outbreak in your neck of the woods? All of these concepts (MDI / Tabs) easily fly with anyone we deal with on a daily basis.
- Dalewyn 2y ago
  All I can tell you is that when normal people don't understand windows, you definitely are not going to get them to understand windows in windows (which is what tabs effectively are). I hate all these simplified designs we see in computers now just like most of the other weird people here, but those designs are not for a lack of good reasons.