Compact text-based workspace overview (Super+Tab) — complementary to Activities Overview

Desktop
1

Hi everyone,

I’d like to propose an addition to desktop switching: a compact, text/icon-based overview of all workspaces and their running apps, bound to Super+Tab.

GNOME already gives us two switchers: Alt/Super+Tab for cycling apps, and the activities overview for a full spatial view of windows and workspaces. But I’ve seen people complain about the difficulty of remembering what windows/programs are running on each desktop when there are plenty of them, leading to confusion and loss of workflow. As far as I am aware, if you’re working across several workspaces and just want to quickly answer “what’s running where,” the Overview is the only option, and it requires visually scanning through workspace thumbnails one at a time.

Bearing this in mind, I’d like to suggest a feature for your consideration:

  • Holding Super and pressing Tab opens a compact popup listing every workspace as a header, with the apps running on it listed underneath (name/icon, no live thumbnails or background rendering). For instance:
Workspace 1
 - Firefox
 - Settings

Workspace 2
 - Steam

Workspace 3
 - LibreOffice

Workspace 4
 - Spotify

 [+] New workspace
  • While still holding Super, pressing Tab repeatedly moves the selection down through the workspace list (wrapping at the end).
  • Releasing Super switches to the currently selected workspace.
  • A trailing entry represents creating a new workspace, keeping compatibility with GNOME’s dynamic workspace model (this isn’t meant to require static/fixed workspace counts).

What this is not meant to replace

  • It doesn’t replace the Activities Overview, which remains the tool for spatial window management, drag-and-drop between workspaces, and visual browsing.
  • It doesn’t replace Alt+Tab / app switching, which stays focused on individual windows/apps.
  • This is purely an additional switcher optimized for one job: fast textual orientation across workspaces, without the visual overhead of rendering thumbnails or animating the overview, allowing the user to have a quick overview of what’s where.

I’m not a developer, so I can’t speak to implementation feasibility (e.g., how this interacts with the existing switcher popup infrastructure), but wanted to put the concept forward for feedback. Happy to iterate on the interaction model based on what’s realistic within GNOME Shell’s architecture.

Thanks for reading! If this already exists as is, please tell me and feel free to signal how can this be activated. I truly enjoy this desktop environment and i think it is an evolution over the traditional “windows-esque” desktop experience.

2

remembering what windows/programs are running on each desktop when there are plenty of them

In which situations do you need to know if an application is already running? What is the underlying usecase? If I don’t remember if an application is running, I can just try to launch it, and usually it should focus the existing window if that application is already running. So I don’t understand which problem this proposal is supposed to solve.

3

Not sure why I’m getting this. I’m only on this list to see threads
concerning Evolution, nothing else.

poc

4

For instance, if I have 3 firefox windows in 3 different desktops and i try to launch it, it will show me one of the windows, without telling me where are the others or giving me the options to pick another one.

Or for another example, I tested opening 3 pdfs on GNOME Papers/Document viewer each on a different window and spreading them on different desktops.

If i type papers to launch the application, it will focus on the last focused papers window.

if i type the name of the document, it will either open another window with the document (not showing any recent unsaved annotations/highlightings done on the previously open window for the same document for example) or focus the window i am truly targeting (as long as i am already at the correct desktop, so it doesn’t help finding the window i want).

If I use alt+tab, it will allow me to alt tab until i reach the desired papers window i want, which is nice, but it won’t tell me in what desktop is this window in. Sure, I can look at the top left and see which desktop I’m on, but it would require me to press super key to see activities overview and only then understand which windows are within it.

There’s a fourth way as far as I know in which you can right click an icon on the dock and it will showcase all the open windows, which is pretty good, but still doesn’t tell you in which desktop it is without having to select it

The proposed overview could allow the user to see all the contents of all the desktops in a compact way so that they know “oh this is the desktop where i let my project A content on, this is where i let my project B content on, so I’ll Super+tab to the ‘desktop X’ without needing to launch the activities overview and scroll through/use the mouse to right click the app to find this out”

This isn’t exactly a problem I face because I tend to maximize the use of tabs on the same window and I organize my windows throughly, but I’ve read some comments on youtube videos about this issue and thought this could be a possible way to solve it. Then again, I would understand if you told me it may introduce bugs and issues with the system without adding enough benefits to justify implementation.

5

I am sorry, I messed up and evolution was tagged on the post. I removed it but it probably notified you. My bad.