I guess I would actually like all apps to quit on close. Apps that need it should be able to run in the background (sans any indicator that they are still running).
If all apps auto save and restore their state only very few apps actually need to run in the background: mail clients, music players, RSS readers, …
The dock could then show all apps with open windows (including hidden or minimized open windows) and Cmd-Tab could show recently used apps (including apps that are not running).
For this to work seamlessly all apps need to be able to auto save and restore state and all apps need to be sane about whether or not they need to run in the background. That’s certainly a daunting task and it’s understandable why Apple can’t (and won’t?) jump right to that.
If all apps auto save and restore their state only very few apps actually need to run in the background: mail clients, music players, RSS readers, …
The dock could then show all apps with open windows (including hidden or minimized open windows) and Cmd-Tab could show recently used apps (including apps that are not running).
For this to work seamlessly all apps need to be able to auto save and restore state and all apps need to be sane about whether or not they need to run in the background. That’s certainly a daunting task and it’s understandable why Apple can’t (and won’t?) jump right to that.