Can you live without tabbed browsing?

[Agathon]

I have to say I can't stand using any browser that doesn't support tabs anymore.

Does anyone else feel the same way? I mean it is just disgraceful that some browsers don't support it. In fact I'd like to see tabs become a more regular UI feature.

[Immortal Wombat]

I am stupid

[alva]

Don't really get it.
I guess that's option 3 isn't it

[Agathon]

Tabbed Browsing is a function that enables you to have several pages open at once without having separate windows. It's implemented in Netscape and a few other browsers.

Here's a pic of the open source browser Camino, which has tabs.

[ixnay]

Tabs are used in Opera. New windows are opened and have tabs at the bottom (or top, or right, or whatever) of the screen, as opposed to opening each new window in the taskbar like with IE.

I find it very nice and it certainly helps keep my taskbar clean.

[Hueij]

Dunno if I can live without tabs, I'm using Opera for a long time now, so I really don't know...

[Imran Siddiqui]

Yes.

I prefer to Alt-Tab my way through my (usually) two or three open browsers.

[Immortal Wombat]

Yeah, I always have multiple browsers open. Though WinXP does let you have them all under one thing in the taskbar, I just never use it - it confusles me.

[Hueij]

it confusles me

It used to confusle me to, but after using Opera nothing confusles me any more

[Asher]

I can use both. I really don't care one way or another.

I can see how awesome it'd be on the Mac when you're used to a braindead Dock, though.

In Windows is mostly a non-issue, since the taskbar lists all active windows so it's like having the tabs anyway.

Soon enough, you'll realize that the idea behind "tabbed browsing" can be extended to your whole computer, via the taskbar, and you'll wonder how you did without it.

And for the record, MS is moving away from MDI and will never implement tabbed browsing in IE. Look at Office, how it moved from MDI to MTI in 2000 and XP.

Usability studies have proven that MDIs are actually less effective in terms of functional use and ease of use. Hence why your Word docs now take up their own space on the taskbar rather than just a sub-window inside as Word taskbar entry. It's still under the same process, though.

[Hueij]

And for the record, MS is moving away from MDI and will never implemented tabbed browsing in IE. Look at Office, how it moved from MDI to MTI in 2000 and XP.

Any chance you'll give a translation that people like me can understand?

[Asher]

Originally posted by Hueij

And for the record, MS is moving away from MDI and will never implemented tabbed browsing in IE. Look at Office, how it moved from MDI to MTI in 2000 and XP.

Any chance you'll give a translation that people like me can understand?

SDI = Single Document Interface: 1 process (actual running engine/program/whatever), 1 document. Example: Notepad. You want to load more than one document, it'll load the program all over again. Been around for many, many years.

MDI = Multiple Document Interface: 1 process (actual running engine/program/whatever), multiple documents. So there would be one taskbar entry, and when you click it, it'd have a bunch of smaller windows inside it and you'd use the Windows menu to switch between them. MDI has been around for many, many years.

MTI = Multiple Task Interface. It's new, and developed as part of MS' goal of making the OS "task-based". It's rather agnostic as to what a program and document is. It separates windows by tasks (ie, what they're doing). Office 2000 and XP are the biggest programs right now that use it. Every time you create a new Word document, it uses the existing Word engine and just opens another taskbar entry specifically for that window, rather than clumping it under a generic "Word" entry.

[St Leo]

Any chance you'll give a translation that people like me can understand?

Microsoft's target UI demographic is people who haven't used computers for more than five minutes. Tabs confuse them.

In every OS, it Microsoft makes it harder and harder to do everyday tasks for experienced customers.

[Agathon]

Originally posted by Asher
I can use both. I really don't care one way or another.

I can see how awesome it'd be on the Mac when you're used to a braindead Dock, though.

Couldn't resist it, could you?

Since windows cascade on the mac rather than maximising to take up the whole screen, it's a case of grabbing the Window you want. Tabs are useful when you have seven or eight sites open at once. Putting them in the taskbar is dumb - it confuses them with other open windows and it's too far from all the other browser buttons.

I prefer tabs when I use Windows anyway for the last reason I stated.

[Asher]

Originally posted by St Leo
In every OS, it Microsoft makes it harder and harder to do everyday tasks for experienced customers.

That's bull**** and you know it, St. Leo.

Look at WinXP versus Win98. It's easier to do everything for new and experienced customers, mainly because you can always revert to the oldstyle if you want to.