Saturday, March 17, 2012

Application switcher extension for Gnome 3

Here's my new extension for Gnome 3: Right-click on Activities toggles that button to Applications. After that, either clicking on Applications or pushing the mouse into the hot corner brings up the Alt Tab options, which remain on screen until clicked with the mouse.


This extension allows the user to rapidly switch between applications without spending two or three seconds searching for an awkward key combination.

I think this extension is a useful addition to Gnome 3 functionality, perhaps even an indispensable one.

The only minor drawback is that I have no programming skills, so it's only a concept. Maybe somebody will read this and turn the specification into a real extension...

Update: Microsoft did... for Windows 10.


(The third icon from the left is Task View, which does exactly what my proposed extension would have done.)

2 comments:

  1. An issue here is that there may be no programmer who would want such an extension, they are probably all keyboard people. I can program and I can hit Alt Tab blind even when my hands where nowhere near the keyboard a second prior so I would have little use for this. Additionally, didn't Gnome 3 already let you switch tabs by going into the Activities area even back when this article was written?

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  2. Well I have to look at the keyboard, put my thumb on alt, move my fingers so I can look for Tab, and then put a finger on tab, which basically means I never use Alt Tab.

    Gnome switches windows from Activities area, but the animation is too much if you're continually switching between windows.

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