this post was submitted on 07 Apr 2026
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For me it's preferred this way. I have plenty of tabs open, often switch between multiple of them and when I tried to use "switch to last used" I got confused almost instantly. I just kept losing track of where I was and what I wanted and what will be "last one" next time.
The default way I always see tab bar and know exactly where ctrl+(shift+)tab will get me and what is next/last.
It works just like Alt-Tab though. Are you sure it's not just a getting used to it thing? Besides, you still have Ctrl-PgDn for next tab.
I didn't know about ctrl+pgdn, but even if I did, it's impossible to do it left handed without lifting right hand from mouse or left hand from usual placement.
As far as OS goes, I barely ever use alt+tab. I almost completely switched to Meta+ number keys where I have pinned windows I use the most. Alternatively I do meta+tab to show KDE overview.
You can also use Ctrl-1 to 8 if you don't have a lot of tabs open, that does work with the left hand. Point is, there are tons of ways to switch to next/previous tabs, both with the keyboard and with the mouse, but the only way to switch to the last used tab is disabled by default. Even though it's much more intuitive IMHO because it aligns with the way most OSes switch between applications. I frequently switch between a few tabs and a few apps, so I use both Ctrl-Tab and Alt-Tab a lot on multiple OSes. If this had been the default from the start I believe everyone would just be used to it and find it logical.