Here's my problem: if I have 4 console windows open at the same time, and they're all hidden behind other windows, how do I switch to that one console I want? In Windows 98, each one had a button on the taskbar that didn't move, and it was one click on a known location to bring my desired window to the foreground and give it focus. In OS X, clicking on the dock icon won't help. I could alt-tab, but since I have 20 windows open, it will take a while. I could start minimizing windows until I see it, messing up my workspace. I could move windows around until I see it, messing up my workspace. I could use Expose, which is useless, since all the command windows look the same at 200px square. Is there something I'm missing?

You are missing:

(a) Right click on the terminal app in the dock for a list of open windows.

(b) Use command + backtick to cycle between windows in the same application.

(c) Just use tabs in the terminal app instead of opening separate windows.

So it's kind of hard to take this as a legitimate usability complaint.

Also, I am kind of doubtful that you have actually used OS X. If you had, you would surely know that you cannot use Command+Tab to switch between multiple windows within the same application. I.e., it is not even an inefficient way of doing this, it is simply not a way of doing it at all.

Those are all much less efficient than a single click on a known location. The point is that it's harder to do than in the environment that's familiar to me, not that it's impossible to do. This creates a little bit of frustration each time I have to do it.

I was suggesting that I could cycle through all open windows with Command+Tab, not those in the same application. Isn't that what Command+Tab does?

>Isn't that what Command+Tab does?

No, it switches between applications, not windows, which you would know if you'd ever actually used OS X. Why are you complaining about an OS which you've never even used?

Click and hold on Console in the dock - a preview [with window titles] of all 4 windows will appear - click on the one you want. (Snow Leopard -- don't remember whether it was there on Leopard or not]

Command-` cycles between windows of only one application. Would that do?

It works, and it's slightly better than alt-tab, but the point is that it's much less optimal than on Windows 98.