Comment 8 for bug 863399

Okay wow, there is a lot of stuff being written here...

So here are my points, in no particular order:

0) I have perhaps one of the most complicated use cases of alt-tab anyone has imagined. I do programming, visual design, and 3d modelling simultaneously, plus web browsing, chatting and email. Usually I have between 10 and 15 applications open at any moment, and maybe twice as many windows. I make heavy usage of workspaces (9 of them) and even heavier usage of alt-tab. That said, it took me about a week of trying to get used to the new alt-tabbing setup, but after I did, I find it a much less frustrating experience. The reason for this has not to do with how long it takes me to use alt-tab (I think my measurements were that I spend like 1.2x times longer alt-tabbing now) but rather I never feel "lost" inside my alt-tab anymore. I can always see the whole picture, so I never feel like I am hitting tab waiting for the right thing to happen. The entire experience feels much more predictable and easier to plan your workflow. I think thats what sells me on this scheme, I feel like I have a birds eye view of whats happening, not a reactive view where I hit tab to see if the right window highlights on my desktop.

1) Unity is application based, not window based. We try to enable some window based management features, but not to the detriment of the application based view. You're going to have to drink that kool-aid sooner or later if you want to be happy.

2) Obviously if we did a special mode for alt-tab that was applications on the current workspace only, we would not change the current look and feel. This would be entirely inconsistent and make people wonder why the interfaces are different. If you notice in the latest unity, the previews are quite large in the switcher (up to 400px tall). The proposed solution of highlighting the actual window may get confusing when windows are partly offscreen (or mostly offscreen).

The bias option I suggested before should fix the primary reasons people want a workspace limited switcher. A quick alt-tab press will, for example, focus your previously focused window on the current workspace. I don't pretend this means it works keypress for keypress identically to the previous switchers, it doesn't, it never was intended to.