[falqun]

Hello, I use tab groups to be more productive.

Why, you ask, use tab groups instead of OS windows? The same reason you use tabs in the first place instead of OS windows, to have another layer in the toolkit. I don't want to have 17 windows kicking around for all 17 different topics I put on hold and treat like temporary bookmark folders till I somewhen use them again or declare finished. At time having like 500+ tabs combined (currently 220 - the plug-in even counts and is compatible with my TreeStyleTabs :).

Mostly I use it to keep tabs for tickets sorted, but I if there are topics/contexts not associated with a ticket I use it to track that as well. For example I have a tab group for breaks - I keep all the fun and non productive bits in there and later I can go back to work without loosing the sate of it.

[saurik]

So I have a ton of windows open--I just counted, and I have 95 windows open--and I'd certainly agree I'd love to have fewer windows open ;P. But like, each of these windows has a number of tabs in them, and there is only so much space to see tabs. (In fact, I have so many windows open, it breaks something in how Edge is allocating window handles and so when I reboot I have to do a song and a dance involving killing explorer.exe at the right moment to make them all load correctly. I hate how many windows I have open and would love to have fewer.)

And like, at least I'm using Edge (and so I have vertical tabs)... most people who talk about this feature use Chrome: I just don't see what the workflow is you are talking about where you are horizontally scrolling through a ton of tab groups at the top of your window without going insane.

Like, what actually is a concrete example? You said you have a tab group for breaks... how do you even get to that tab group if you have more than like two total tab groups and maybe like three tabs per group? What are you doing to make that workflow actually happen? When you want to enter your break, are you just remembering that your break's tabs are like three or four screens worth of tabs to the right of the tabs for the issue you are working on, and you start scrolling right?

(comment edited a bit later to add this paragraph) I haven't yet found a video of how this looks or works in Chrome but I'm realizing you can maybe shrink them down to the name? I am then wondering what the workflow is for how you choose which tab groups to put into a single window and whether you do keep them all collapsed and are constantly flipping between collapsed tab groups.

For my windows workflow, I am on Windows 10 (and refuse to downgrade to Windows 11) so I can see all of my windows--each of which has a short name I assigned it--on one of the task bars on one of my monitors. I can thereby find the window/groups easily and in each window I have the tabs (using Edge, so laid out vertically, but this would work the same and be just as reasonable with Chrome's horizontal layout) for that group. I can flip between windows with key bindings from the desktop and flip between tabs with key bindings from the browser.

In your example, you discussed having "17 topics" and "500+ tabs"; that's 30+ tabs per topic... I don't see how you are even going to put TWO tab groups in a single window, much less all 17! The Chrome user with their beloved tab groups... how are they handling this? All of the video examples I can find have like three tab groups and two tabs per group and it is already looking impossible to navigate crammed into the horizontal tab strip as the names of the groups are using up valuable real estate for the tabs themselves.

...That said, you say you are using TreeStyleTabs? That's really not "tab groups". I mean, I definitely understand the use case and workflow for TreeStyleTabs as you have a tree-view tab explorer (or at least did when I last used this kind of thing forever and a half ago). I would love a native version of that in a good browser. But that isn't what all of these people in the linked thread saying Firefox should just implement the thing Chrome has are trying to get, as that isn't what Chrome has ;P. "Firefox should land tree-style tabs (or even vertical tabs, for crying out loud, lol)" I 100% grok.

[mozarella]

> 95 windows open

You have a problem. First step is to admit it. Second step is to install firefox with OneTab and session manager addons. Third (optional) step is find some way to backup or export these to firefox so you can restore some sanity to your workflow. Save the windows that logically fit in single sessions using session manager. Send the rest (stuff like hacker news articles) to Onetab. Once you've done that, you can accept the fact that you sent most of these tabs to die and you will likely never open them again. But they are always there if you need to resurrect them ;) (Also good idea to back up your firefox profile folder(s)).

Happy Browsing.

[mid-kid]

I will never understand keeping so many tabs/windows open at all times either. I have max 4 different windows for different tasks, and when I find a moment, I sort through what I actually need, or simply bookmark an entire window, and close the rest.

There's a bunch of workflows that can avoid this. I've already covered bookmarking entire windows (and opening an entire bookmark folder in a new window), but there's also tonnes of addons in the way of session management. You are not doing 95 tasks in a single day, and I find properly closing them also brings the necessary closure to free up my mindspace.

[braiamp]

> I will never understand keeping so many tabs/windows open at all times either

Wait till we tell you about virtual desktop and that each virtual desktop has its own set of windows. Is turtles all the way down.

[OJFord]

> I'd love to have fewer windows open ;P. But like, each of these windows has a number of tabs in them, and there is only so much space to see tabs.

So why not use TST or similar (which you're obviously aware of)?

[saurik]

Selling me on Tree Style Tabs -- and thereby an analysis of the downsides I see to the specific browser/extension configuration I need to have to get such a feature in practice today -- seems very unrelated to why anyone uses or wants tab groups ;P. I have access to tab groups and am not using them, because I don't understand the workflow for them, and all the demos feel contrived: users for whom supposedly a mere five or six tabs are so many they need to be organized into groups.

(FWIW, it is certainly highly related to why all of these users aren't satisfied by using an existing extension that implements tab groups: most of the reasons people describe also apply to why I am happier figuring out how to live without an extension for this. I personally believe it would behoove Firefox to lean heavily into being the one truly hackable customizable browser--steering towards things Chrome would balk at--but they have been running in the other direction now for many years and I am sad.)

As I said: I would definitely support any of these browsers implementing native "tree style tabs", but I don't (at least, yet) understand the workflow people are using for "tab groups" a la Chrome (the feature in question on this post that people want Firefox to integrate). I do want to understand, though! I legitimately am curious how people are concretely using tab groups, as the feature doesn't make sense to me currently but apparently a lot of people want it...

[skeledrew]

In my case, I have a single window for Firefox (except for when I have another opened in privacy mode). I then have a - wide - variety of more or less topic-based tab groups. So when I'm doing something re AI, I switch to that group, or Emacs, or work, or Python, etc. Sometimes things get crossed, but eventually I send tabs I want to preserve/defer to their proper groups. If I open a new tab and start typing something that's very similar to an existing tab, I get the option to switch to it, even if it's in another group. And whenever I want to access and iterate on some particular topic, whether for 5 seconds or 5 hours, all the context is just a group switch away.

[OJFord]

I do similarly with Sidebery (a TST-like extension) which has 'panels' (groups of tabs or tab trees that you can tab between). A nice bonus is that you can assign containers to panels too, so they automatically open in the right place, you don't mix cookies between 'work' and 'personal' or whatever, etc

And for me having that as sort of 'super tabs' in the sidebar is nicer than flicking between multiple windows, but I can imagine some would prefer the more tangible separation.

[adr1an]

+1 sidebery

[OJFord]

I'm not trying to sell it to you, it's nothing to me what you use! I was just curious since you seemed to describe the same problem/pain that's why people use it, but you did mention it so it's not like you were unaware of it.

[gertop]

Your flow seems to make Alt-tabbing impossible? That's a pretty big part of most programmers' flow!

Admittedly on Mac, which you must be using, you can alt tab between apps I think.