I remember what it was like before tabs, when there was that Multi Document Interface (something like that) instead, so you had the main parent window but then each page was its own window within it that you could resize, minimise, maximise…

Like the AOL browser, come to think of it.

Tabs in Firefox were such an unfamiliar thing.

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immibis 15 hours ago | parent [-]

MDI was rightfully seen as a complete failure, but there was also SDI, where each open thing is a separate window. I don't know how we got from MDI in office apps being completely terrible, to MDI in browsers being the accepted norm.

	▲	debugnik 14 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		Actual MDI was so much worse than browser tabs, unrelated tabs can be merged into the same window or split apart into their own, instead of floating on top of an awkward background. The question is why aren't they a feature of the window manager instead of the application. We should be able to have windows with tabs from different applications.
	▲	adzm 15 hours ago \| parent \| prev \| next [-]
		Tabbed MDI is effectively just a better interface to SDI (for most situations) Actual MDI applications feel so dated. It made more sense when there wasn't a unified task bar kinda thing (which when you think of it, is kinda like tabs as well)
	▲	account42 15 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		Well websites and documents are not the same thing so it makes sense that a paradigm that works for one doesn't necessarily work for the other. I do find web-based document editors very annoying to use when they are in the same window as other tabs - at least web browser MDIs allow you do effortlessly separate tabs into a new window these days.