Comment 13 for bug 863399

Testing it now in Unity, and I will confirm my initial assessment that it is absolutely horrid.

WS1 - Firefox (maximized), Gedit, and a terminal
WS2 - Gedit and two terminals

Both instances of Gedit have different (but similar style) documents open, two of the terminals have different man files open, and the third terminal has a directory listing. Firefox is Firefox. :P

Using Unity's switcher, I have to stop and read the terminal previews or the Gedit previews to see if I'm selecting the one on the WS that I'm actually working with. It's doable for me on my monitor (17", 1400 x 900) but my Dad probably wouldn't be able to do it. Even with only two Gedit windows open, I'm often finding myself on the wrong WS when switching to one from another application. On an even slightly smaller monitor it would be questionable, and on a notebook I might not be able to do it at all. A way to limit the switcher to the current workspace really is essential.

My current personal solution while I'm in Unity is to use the shift switcher and scale plugins in Compiz. Both can be easily set with keybindings for both the current workspace and all workspaces, and give significantly larger previews. Unfortunately, that workaround won't work for people having issues with Compiz. (On a side note, the Compiz shift switcher isn't showing window titles under the preview, even though I have the option selected. I may hunt down/submit a bug report on that later.)

Justyn is correct - the current implementation for his case #2 is terribly deficient. As much as Unity is trying to be application-based, when it comes down to it, people actually do and arrange their work in windows, not applications, because windows are the visual and tangible medium that is available while applications are (to the 'average' user, at least) a more general concept.