It's definitely not a gamble.

When you press Cmd-Tab, first of all, if you hold it down for longer than about a second, it shows you the icons of the currently-open applications, letting you select which application you switch to.

Whenever you use Cmd-Tab to switch to an open application, it will always foreground all the open windows of that application that are on the active desktop/space.

When I'm doing something like you describe, where I know I'll be switching back and forth between a specific pair of windows of different applications (and I have a bunch of other windows of those applications open), my usual practice is either to size and position them where I can just see both at the same time (large screens ftw), or I'll pull them off into a separate space where Cmd-Tabbing between the two applications will be guaranteed to switch between just those two windows.

So, I have the opposite problem when I go back to using Linux/Windows: I mentally file all my windows into application buckets and it makes the alt-tab switcher for not-macOS seem to pick a random window.

I don't understand what's random about always switching to the last window you were using. It's a simple rule, no exceptions. Macos window/app switching rules are too complicated and full of special cases, which makes it harder to integrate into your work flow.

Because, basically, I don’t think in terms of switching windows, I think in terms of switching tasks/apps and some apps/tasks happen to have a bunch of windows.

I dunno. I just want a focus group on a desktop, where switching is related to the project I’m doing. For example one desktop vscode, iterm, browser. And another desktop about productivity.

The problem with switching is that you quickly get too many windows / apps.

I tried to have a user per group, but that does T work fast enough.

The best setup for me is 2 or 3 machines, linked with synergykvm

It's still easy to understand because it is just one rule, with no exceptions. Comparatively the OSX model is filled with arbitrary rules that depend on many factors (is another window of this app open in a maximised mode?, does the last desktop you were on have no windows?).

Even if, with time, you have become comfortable with it, it is still a more convoluted way to manage tasks.

Simple isn’t the same as convenient.

Sure, but Mac's solution is neither. At least in the modern world where almost everything is done in your browser.

I certainly don't do everything in a browser. I usually have at most 2 browser windows open (usually just one). For important browser-based apps, I just pin the tabs.

I actually find the macOS model to be more convenient (even though I didn't like it when I first tried it). It makes it very easy to switch away from an app that has multiple windows.

To be honest, I'm not sure there's an objectively better solution. I think it all comes down to the workflow and habits you've built around the model you use most often.

It's also pretty convenient to be able to switch between browser windows using cmd+`. I don't need to worry about getting other apps in between my browser windows.

I bet a good percentage of Mac users use actual applications for their work instead of browser-based app facsimiles. That's what comes of having a (reasonably) consistent, stable OS to work from.

So, my workflow basically involves switching between terminal, browser and emacs. With macOS’s scheme, if I switch from emacs->browser, I can always hit switch back to emacs without having to parse the switcher, even if I’ve opened a new browser window for some reason. On windows/linux, when I open a new browser window, alt-tab goes back to another browser window, not back to the other “task”.

This is the problem at root, yeah.

Application switching makes sense in a world where the application is the locus of interest and you tend to spend a long time in each app, only rarely switching to another. We haven't lived in that world for a very long time.