Why I like the taskbar (a.k.a. window switcher)

[Mikeb85]

So how can one be faster with a keyboard in the following setup e.g.:

2 terminal windows (TA, TB)
2 nautilus windows (NA, NB)

When the first terminal window TA is focused, how do I fast switch to 2nd nautilus window NB with the keyboard?

[/I]

hold alt- tab ` `

It's not just about how quick you are with a mouse vs. keyboard, but having to switch between the 2 all the time.

When I work, my left hand is always on the keyboard, so I use hotkeys to switch apps even if my other hand is on the mouse anyway. Taking focus off what you're doing, looking for the window you want, etc..., takes time, simply holding alt and pressing tab or ` doesn't require me to look for anything on the screen.

[beew]

The speed is secondary, it is not lilke one more mouse move or one more key stroke is going to make a big difference, and most important parts of the work get done when you are thinking, rather than typing or moving your hands otherwise anyway.

The issue is really what you feel comfortable doing, and I can tell a lot of "average users" (that Unity is supposed to cater to) are not comfortable with remembering hot keys, why should they? What the hell is "alt+tab", "ctr+alt+shift left/right"? That is just so random and arbitrary and makes no sense unless you are used to it. I think point and click was invented to get away from having to memerize a bunch of nonsensical key combos that only geeks would be interested in learning and empower the "average users", apparently that is the goal of Unity too, so it will be a failure if you have to do most of the things efficiently in unity using hot keys,--and speed is definitely NOT a priority to such users, ease of use and "natural-ness" is and Unity doesn't feel very natural for a few things if you use point and click a lot, though not fatally.

So, with all the contradictions that are embodied by Unity I am in a very strange position. I use Unity myself and am quite comfortable with it, I will definitely recomend it to people who are interested in playing with computers, but not for the "average user" that Unity is supposed to target. For such people I will recommend Xubuntu or Lubuntu + Compiz if the machines can support it. In my definitely non scientific tests it is the computer semi illiterate users coming from Windows,--the crowd Unity is supposed to target,--who are more likely to freak out over Unity than the intermediate ones, the intermediate users have some experience in tinkering and not so averse in learning about their computers.

[Copper Bezel]

Well, yes, but Canonical has characterized its target audience as the earlivangelists, in any case.

What the hell is "alt+tab"

I can't consider someone computer literate who doesn't know what Alt+Tab does. They don't have to use it - I rarely do under Compiz and find it little or no use in Shell.

The issue is really what you feel comfortable doing

Absolutely, and I don't think it gets said enough, so QFT. Working is the thing that happens before and after you select the window. The shell of choice has a very limited impact on productivity.

[beew]

I can't consider someone computer literate who doesn't know what Alt+Tab does. They don't have to use it - I rarely do under Compiz and find it little or no use in Shell.
.

Computer literate or not, many computer users don't know. Maybe they are just "average users"?

Yes I think "feeling comfortable" is very important and cannot be overstated. That is where the so called "design experts" fail. The users don't care about minor "inconsistencies" like having a switcher in the Unity bar (instead of expose) and launcher buttons that can be clicked to minimize open winows. Very few would notice such things as "inconsistencies" and only the "design experts" would be upset about it.

Being such flawed creatures of habit the users will be much more annoyed about not finding functionalities that they are used to and would expect.

The failure in Unity is not so much of its specifics, it is open source so third parties will fill the gap, but that its design philosophy represents the tyranny of the pseudo experts, which has failed in many other arenas of life.

[dniMretsaM]

So which task-switchers are you talking about and which do you use?

I am referring mainly to Alt+Tab in KDE, but it's not the only one that does that.

So how can one be faster with a keyboard in the following setup e.g.:

2 terminal windows (TA, TB)
2 nautilus windows (NA, NB)

When the first terminal window TA is focused, how do I fast switch to 2nd nautilus window NB with the keyboard?

With the mouse, it's just one click - in the taskbar.
(and at least my mouse moves fast...)

Alt+Tab.

@beew: I agree with most of what you said. If someone doesn't want to learn a ton of hot keys, stick with the taskbar. That's just comman sense. If your comfortable with the way you do something, keep doing it!

[Copper Bezel]

Yes I think "feeling comfortable" is very important and cannot be overstated. That is where the so called "design experts" fail. The users don't care about minor "inconsistencies" like having a switcher in the Unity bar (instead of expose) and launcher buttons that can be clicked to minimize open winows. Very few would notice such things as "inconsistencies" and only the "design experts" would be upset about it.

Being such flawed creatures of habit the users will be much more annoyed about not finding functionalities that they are used to and would expect.

In practical terms, you're correct. I'm a snob, and I'm going to be biased toward the designer mentality in every case, but these odd little conventions do hang around on the basis of inertia. With that said, Alt+Tab itself is one of those conventions that users have come to expect. I think that with the success of Android and iOS, which got to design their interfaces from the ground up and make their own conventions, UI designers feel freer to try to start fresh and enforce a consistent methodology over a familiar one with a lot of calcified old workarounds and sort of metaphor-level cruft. In the long run, I do think that will have been the better decision, even if it causes some squabbling in the immediate sense. But I'll freely admit that that's an idealistic perspective to hold.

[beew]

I think that with the success of Android and iOS, which got to design their interfaces from the ground up and make their own conventions,

Well I don't have one of those, must be really out. Can't see the point, when I go out I don't want to be connected to the digital world. I use phone just to talk to my friends the old fashion way

[Copper Bezel]

I don't have any, either. = ) But Gnome 3, Windows 8, and even OSX Lion to a certain extent wouldn't look and work the way they do without the influence of tablets, and Unity is ostensibly designed to work as a pathway to a tablet OS interface in the future, although it's a complete mystery to me how they're going to accomplish that with everything depending on hover states. (Shell needs to lose the menu bars, but as an interface, it's tablet-ready otherwise, with nothing dependent on hover states or middle clicks, some use of flick gestures and the like already, and a lot of big buttons that don't interfere with one another.)

Edit: But my real point is not whether these are "tablet OSs" but instead whether or not the developers are feeling empowered by the fact that tablets are already making people rethink the way computers ought to work. It's less that tablet conventions are having an impact on the desktop, although they obviously are, and more that they've eaten away at the foundations of the desktop metaphor, making it possible for designers to propose new ways of interacting with devices, whatever the form factor. That sounds like a sales pitch because a lot of those words have positive connotations, but I mean it in the most neutral sense possible.

[Bazon]

@#25:
I don't believe alt+tab is really faster in the case I described:

1. To get from TA to NB, multiple pressings of tab are necessary,
2. for alt-tab, you have to wait until the computer rendered the alt-tab-animation and your eyes understood it (which is the window I want to go to?)
The taskbar is just there and always readable.