Mac OS X v. Linux (Was: Re: Ubuntu Boot Up Logo)

[John]

Eric Dunbar wrote:
> On 6/24/05, Eric Dunbar <eric.dunbar at gmail.com> wrote:

>>
>>I hate the way that alt-tab cycles through ALL the !#$!$%!$ windows
>>that are open on a system. I tend to have *a lot* of apps and windows
>>open (this is a consequence of being a Mac user for so many years...
>>the design of ALL Mac OSes (from 1986 on) encouraged multitasking
>>between different apps and, of course, right from day 1 (1984),
>>different windows within an app). It's much nicer to be able to swap
>>between three or four apps (which I often do) with a simple
>>command-tab (alt-tab equivalent) than having to command-tab through
>>EVERY !@#!% window that's open.
> 
> 
> Just as a follow-up. I find myself LIMITING the number of apps and
> windows that I have open in Linux because of the need to cycle through
> every open window than through apps. This is a consequence of ALT
> being a "sticky" key so alt-~ has yet to make its way into Windows
> (even though it would be soooo nice to be able to cycle through JUST
> ONE app's windows) and ctrl-tab being a poor solution since few apps
> actually obey command-tab properly (and it's too easy to confuse with
> alt-tab anyway).
> 
> This also means that I can do less at one time in Windows/Linux. Now
> that I think about it, this is a pretty major oversight on the part of
> Linux/Windows OS developers. There's no consistent, system-wide way to
> cycle through windows.

I don't know what you're talking about. I'm using KDE (and so not 
Ubuntu), and configure taskbar to show only windows on the current 
desktop. I also run kasbar which has grouped lists of open windows for 
all applications. atm I have only 28 applications open (I often have 
more) on eight desktops (I often have more of those too, on this system 
I have configured 18).

That's all in one VNC window. I often run VNC sessions to each of 
several differnet machines, a couple via dialup.

I've been using computers since punched cards wer the input medium of 
choice, and I could punch my own cards. I also have used typewriter 
keyboards, screens on mainframes & such so you should understand I am 
familiar with the use of keyboards.

I also used OS/2 where I could alt-tab & ^tab to navigate windows.

With kasbar, it's one mouse-click to open a list (somtimes more than one 
line deep) of Konqueror windows, then (often) moving the mouse cursor 
along examining previews of windows to choose the one I want.
Finding tabs in Konqueror, Mozilla, Firefox (I often have them all 
running together) is a bit trickier.

AFAICS neither Windows nor OS X offers the functionality I use every day 
in Linux.