Maybe it should be an optional or custom feature which you can add/have seperately.

Why don't you just use the workspace switchers? That is what they're for, limited desktop space.

<ctrl><alt> + <arrow left or right>  It's really easy to get used to. Faster than using the mouse.
You can also use <alt><tab> for window management.
If you really use thunar often...you could add a shortcut key to open it.

Point taken. Although I have 9 workspaces open already. And I use all the hotkeys too, including alt-1 thru alt-9 to switch between tabs. So yes, I'm the guy who is uses his mouse less. And I like tabs for the same reason that I like workspaces, simply because it creates a faster and less cluttered desktop.

Yes, I've installed mod-pcmanfm too, or spacefm as it is now known, just for a look. And it looks promising, although still buggy. But yes, I may switch to that one day...

Like I said above, I think that tabs do work well on netbooks. But that's just my opinion...

I like tabs, because they work well with the limited desktop space on my netbook

Have a look on pcmanfm-mod
http://igurublog.wordpress.com/downloads/mod-pcmanfm/

Moving a mouse around the screen takes much longer than tabbing and alt tabbing

I'm keyboard-centric like you, but I think that there is lot of (most ?) PC users that are mouse-centric

<ctrl><alt> + <arrow left or right>  It's really easy to get used to. Faster than using the mouse.

You can also use <alt><tab> for window management.

If you really use thunar often...you could add a shortcut key to open it.

Lets say I have different groups of files (three A, B, & C) I want to move to different places from the same directory (Z).

Thunar shortcut x2

First window, goto Z select, copy, paste

<alt><tab> , find destination  paste A

Repeat that until all the files are moved.

I don't understand why tabs would help?

Moving a mouse around the screen takes much longer than tabbing and alt tabbing

There are always simpler ways than this with just one thunar window open, but it's your choice.

Where do you think the concept of tabs came from? It came from tabbing.

But it is also easy to see how someone who mainly works on a desktop with a big LCD monitor doesn't understand tabbing is a necessary feature. But on a smaller screensize, tabbing is darned useful.

Thunar tabbing aside, I think xfce is an ideal desktop for using on a netbook. So thanks be unto the devs for that.

I guess devs will consider  your suggestion, but they have the choice to take it or leave it.

Regards.

No, you didn't. But Dear Nick suggested I stop whining and develop a fork. Fair comment if you only usually ever hear from developers. I would encourage you to speak to non-Vulcan users a little more.

> I get your point and believe me, developers spend most of their time working for other people: for example bug fixing is very often work to improve the experience of the others as developers very often can't reproduce the bugs... But you also have to understand that if a developer does not believe in a particular metaphor, you can't expect him to give dozens of hours to implement it.

I appreciate that. And as a user I shouldn't have to come on a forum, prone myself and leave offerings of thanks as though granted court momentarily in the great court of the developer. I appreciate their hard work by using their software. It goes without saying that the developers are mighty for lo! their works are great.

Don't fall into the trap of thinking that I haven't got better things to do. I'm doing my bit as an OSS user by giving feedback. After discovering that Thunar didn't do tabs, I did a search for xfce file managers that did do tabs and the most frequent result of note to me were notes from people asking for Thunar to implement tabs. So it appeared to me that if I were to add my vote, I ought to put some thought into it - to explain to you why it is important to me.

But the trouble with the OSS model is that real users get discouraged from making real usage reports by over-sensitive developers and community forums that do not welcome constructive criticism by engaging it in deserving debate about the matter at hand - i.e. the specific questions of usability. It always digresses into a side-debate about the etiquette of how one should address the court.The OSS community needs to grow up. We love your software, for gadsakes - that's why we use it. But its not about you - it's about the software, which is about the user experience, which is about the job the user is trying to do with the computer, which is about whatever purpose they are pursuing in life, which in only a small proportion of cases involves developing software.

Now if I were to draw anything important from this particular experience it is the realization that developers don't work on desktops - they work in IDEs. Other users - who work with documents - work on desktops. They often require quite a detailed and configurable environment - you'd find it as hard to imagine the finesse with which someone organises their desktop work environment as a non-Vulcan would find it hard to imagine the complexities of an IDE. The closest to perfection I ever came was Ubuntu 10.10 with Nautilus and Gedit. Tabs were key advantages for both these programs. (This matter of tabs being something browsers do and therefore not appropriate for file managers, because file managers are superior tools for superior developers, is just the sort of prideful nonsense that overlooks the simple needs of non-Vulcan users). Then Ubuntu 11 happened. It basically involved developers dumping on users an idea of what they thought would make life *easier* for them, as though the developers assumed the computer-equivalent of their reading age were infant and they therefore should be given a desktop environment in the style of a Fischer Price toy. My whole working life has been turned upside down because some developers on some far away planet determined that I would work better if I operated my computer with club fists. I've consequently been doing something a user should never be required to do - take time away from work to try out different desktop environments and file managers in the vain hope that I might recover my well-established working pattern and get back to work. Well I have got better things to do. And I appreciate this is not your problem. But I hope as developers of an environment that seems to be sticking to its guns and avoiding this fad for ridiculous desktops that *are not backwards-compatible to users*, that you will take note.

Anyway, there are lots of light file managers you can use besides thunar. So at least you aren't restricted there.

Exactly!

I never said that, come on...

I get your point and believe me, developers spend most of their time working for other people: for example bug fixing is very often work to improve the experience of the others as developers very often can't reproduce the bugs... But you also have to understand that if a developer does not believe in a particular metaphor, you can't expect him to give dozens of hours to implement it.

Jannis and Nick spend a huge amount of time to improve the experience of the whole community and just because they don't want to implement tabs doesn't mean they don't care about community, it means they don't care about tabs. So be fair.

Anyway, there are lots of light file managers you can use besides thunar. So at least you aren't restricted there.

And honestly tabs on a file browser are really not easy to use and inefficient, for example for drag and drop, I find it far more efficient to tile my thunar windows to have them all visible at the same time.

http://wiki.xfce.org/wish_list