Since the first time I brought this topic up, I have made a lot of discoveries about it. For many people, including me, this scroll-wheel/tab-cycling is very problematic and wreaks all kinds of havoc, while working.
Firefox, on Windows and Linux, has this “feature” turned off (or disabled).
Chrome(ium) on Windows also has this “feature” turned off (or disabled).
Only Chrome(ium) on Linux has this “problem” and there are many, many people who have been complaining about it for over a decade now.
Well folks, I found the reason why it is like this. The “reason” behind this terrible decision, that has negatively affected unknown numbers of people, for over a decade, is because Nigel Tao thinks it should be this way, is because some other of his GTK apps do it.
That is it. Now, everyone who is looking for the solution, will know why this is the way it is. Maybe from here we can finally get a solution (that doesn’t involve compiling my own). The discussion:
Issue 155053: Scroll-wheeling, whilst over the tab-strip, now switches tabs on GTK/Linux. (Closed)
Created: 11 years, 4 months ago by Nigel Tao
Modified: 9 years, 6 months ago
Evan Martin
11 years, 4 months ago (2009-07-03 16:06:26 UTC)
+tab strip master
James Hawkins
11 years, 4 months ago (2009-07-06 18:13:49 UTC)
What is the motivation for this change? This feature isn’t in Chrome for Windows or Firefox for Linux. [emphasis mine - VK]
Nigel Tao
11 years, 4 months ago (2009-07-07 12:25:45 UTC)
As mentioned in the bug report (1), this is indeed not native Windows behavior, but it is native GTK behavior. For example, the GNOME text editor (gedit), browser (epiphany), and terminal emulator (gnome-terminal) all change tabs when scroll-wheeling over the tab-strip. The fact that Firefox (for Linux) does not makes Firefox feel (to me) less like the rest of my desktop. [Yep, that is it - VK]
tony
11 years, 4 months ago (2009-07-09 21:12:32 UTC)
BTW, this seems a bit different than the native gtk+ tabs. On Gtk+, it doesn’t wrap around but on the chrome tab strip, it does. [YES, this guy Totally Gets It - VK]
The End,
VK
PS: I spent a lot of time formatting all of these comments to make it easier to read. Please don’t delete because it is long. Thank You.