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

[Eric Dunbar]

On 6/24/05, Eric Dunbar <eric.dunbar at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 6/23/05, Michael Beattie <mtbeedee at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> > This may be true but I have used OSX since Jaguar and Panther and
> > Expose since it was available and I find it lacking in functionality
> > as I wrote before.  And the dock just takes too long to switch between
> > multiple windows of different apps.  I would also love to have alt-tab
> > work correctly instead of alt-tab and then alt-` to get to the right
> > window.
> 
> 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.

Eureka:
I hereby propose that ALT-~ be reserved to cycle through windows in a
particular app in Linux. Let's do something that Windows hasn't and
that will make Linux more usable!

Eric.