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Comment by Xeamek | Hacker News Reader

Don't know about the need of INFINITE nesting, but damn is that frustrating when apps copy browsers-style tabs but don't provide the ability to rip one tab into a completely new window.

I'm not blaming apps creators, cause (AFAIK) this whole "tab into window" transformation is completely custom made by browsers and also at least somewhat hacky.

Would be nice for microsoft to notice and make a 'tab' a native component, and automatically handle transformation. Especially since their own, non-browsers apps like explorer, terminal or even notepad started to implement tabs. But without that ability to rip it out, it really feels unfinished.

If it was native, we could even stack tabs from 2 different apps next to each other, as if they were websites! ...full circle back to task-bar :[

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> If it was native, we could even stack tabs from 2 different apps next to each other, as if they were websites!

Haiku can do that:) I think I've seen it in X11 window managers as well but I don't recall...

i3 can do that.

So can XMonad, to some extent, though it’s not in the default configuration.

There is some previous art in mainstream OS’s about this, and it was all as great as you put it tbh

macOS made the tabbing native by giving windows (only of the same app) the ability to get merged into a single window with a tab bar (in Sierra https://www.macworld.com/article/228274/how-to-use-tabs-in-m...). It all has the same behaviors as Safari, including the one of “popping out” a tab into its own window. Apps that use the native window controls and the native window lifecycle manager get it for free and by default, but there is no way to get it otherwise (AFAIK), and apps can opt-out.

Windows 10 had this feature for a while in the Insiders build, called “Sets” (https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2017/11/tabs-come-to-every-w...), which made every window available to be tabbed together with any other window, from any app, no specific code or framework necessary. It worked very well and was neat af, but it got scrapped :( https://www.windowscentral.com/microsoft-shelves-windows-10-...

There is a reimplementation of this by Stardock https://www.stardock.com/products/groupy/

On a personal note, I’ve been using Arc’s implementation of Spaces and Tabs, and it feels super natural and productive. With some tweaking, I think this would be a great UX for window managers, and I’ve found myself really needing it for my whole OS. Maybe Stage Manager can get there at some point (although right now it is bad as hell).

> this whole "tab into window" transformation is completely custom made by browsers and also at least somewhat hacky. Would be nice for microsoft to notice and make a 'tab' a native component, and automatically handle transformation

As it is, it never seems to work quite right and is easy to activate accidentally. Dragging a tab slightly downwards in firefox, but not out of the window at all, only out of the tabbar region, will result in that tab being turned into a new window. I would expect new windows to be created only if you drag the tab outside of the current window, but that's not how firefox does it.

This is easy to do accidentally if you are being sloppy with your mousing, and particularly, if you're using a touchpad with libinput which sets "Tapping Drag Enabled" to 1 by default. Tap the tab button, put your finger back down on the touchpad and move the cursor... ooops you just dragged the thing you clicked!

I remember FVWM was able to put windows inside its panels so it was possible to make a tabbed window that contained different programs. It is very customizable and fun to play with when you have the time.

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