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KDE4 allows grouping of windows together and these grouped windows are then shown as one window container. It is also possible in applications such as Dolphin to create multiple tabs within a window. I think this can become very confusing for the user as shown below:

[img]http://img197.imageshack.us/img197/7918/snapshot1cb.png[/img]

This example shows that there are three grouped windows and each grouped window contains four tabs. That's sixteen tabbed windows and three grouped windows. Navigating this is very cumbersome and confusing for users. I believe that if a window has the ability to provide tabs (like Dolphin), then when a user tries to run another instance (Dolphin) the system should just provide focus back to the original window (Dolphin) and not open another instance. It could in this instance even create a new tab within that window.

Furthermore, the default behaviour in KDE is not to group windows. Grouping windows as default would be more useful for the user as it makes managing windows in the task manager easier. This feeds in to the fact that tabs in a window are also not shown as seperate thumnails or items within the task manager. Currently you can have multiple tabs open in an application but it appears that there is only one item in the task manager. This could be improved.

Please let me know what you think of this idea for improved window and task management...