[Bug 51242] Re: New windows shouldn't steal focus

[jmspeex]

Bug #43760 was more about the fact that evolution shouldn't make
warnings pop all the time. I think this bug is more fundamental in the
sense that even if popping up a window is justified, it is *never* (I
still haven't found a counter-example) justified to make the new window
steal focus. It's a very dangerous thing to do. Most (older) window
managers used to have an option to control that. Not only did metacity
remove that option, but it left the bad behaviour as the only option
available.

Here's another case to consider -- a bit unlikely, but quite catastrophic.
1) My system has a high load and is slow
2) I fire up a terminal, but it takes a long time before showing up
3) I go back to another terminal and in some directory, I type "rm -rf *"
4) A fraction of a second before 3) happens, my new terminal pops up and steals focus (without me noticing)
5) I just deleted my entire home directory because I didn't notice 4) fast enough.

I'd basically call this a user-based race condition.

-- 
New windows shouldn't steal focus
https://launchpad.net/bugs/51242