This is why you should be able to choose which side and position any tab is positioned along any window at any time, and change them at any time by dragging them to where you want.

Then you can assign meanings to each side, depending on your workflow, for example (this should be under user control, not set in stone, of course):

Tabs on the top for important stuff.

Tabs on the bottom for administrative stuff.

Tabs on left for things you haven't read yet.

Tabs on right for things you've already read.

Then drag the tab from the left to the right after you read something (like moving it from your "in box" to your "out box"), or pin its tab on the top or bottom of it's important and you want to keep it around and easy to find.

And if you really want, you should be able to hide the tab to save space.

And not only tabs for apps like browser and IDEs, but also the desktop window manager should support tabs on top level windows in a consistent manner, so you can drag tabbed windows in and out of other window frames, as well as arranging them in hierarchical outlines along the edges.

All this is super obvious, and saves a lot of time and effort, so it bewilders me why tabs like I described and implemented in the 1980's aren't universally supported on all desktops and applications by now.

It's not because they're patented. Adobe tried, and sued Macromedia over it, but that patent (illegitimate in my view, since it ignored the prior art, and was extremely obvious and not patentable) has long since expired.

https://www.metafilter.com/2805/Adobe-sues-Macromedia-over-i...