Currently, with vertical tabs enabled (which rocks), tab groups are shown as a horizontal icon strip in the same sidebar on top of the tab tree. When you have 2-3 tab groups, it's fine but if it's getting close to 10 and above (which is normal for thorough grouping), this strip turns into a line of dots which is unmanageable (zero information and poor tab group selection UI). Using a drop-down arrow doesn't help a lot as it's too much movement and, again, zero information about the tab group names until you do it.
I'm proposing a very simple UI-only fix that doesn't break the internal Orion tab group = window model - display tab groups vertically above the current group's tab tree rather than in a horizontal strip. This way, all tab group names are always visible, easily clickable, easy to rearrange tabs between tab groups and so on.
So, now, with 10+ tab groups, we have this in the sidebar (square brackets is the section name in dimmed/smaller font):
-----------------------------
([#] * * * * * * * * +) v
[Tab Group Name]
Tab1
+ Tab1.1
+ Tab1.2
Tab2
+ Tab2.1
+ Tab2.2
-----------------------------
I suggest:
-----------------------------
TabGroup1
TabGroup2
…
TabGroupN
+ (new tab group)
[Tab Group Name]
Tab1
+ Tab1.1
+ Tab1.2
Tab2
+ Tab2.1
+ Tab2.2
-----------------------------
So, basically a horizontal icon strip turned into a vertical name list. Should be easy to do.
Optionally (via a sidebar's check box) tab groups can be integrated into the tab tree itself (also UI work only, no model changes):
-----------------------------
[TabGroup1]
Tab1
+ Tab1.1
+ Tab1.2
Tab2
+ Tab2.1
+ Tab2.2
[TabGroup2]
Tab1
+ Tab1.1
+ Tab1.2
Tab2
+ Tab2.1
+ Tab2.2
...
-----------------------------
with optional collapsing (and auto-collapsing) of inactive tab groups to save vertical space:
-----------------------------
[TabGroup1] >
[TabGroup2] v
Tab1
+ Tab1.1
+ Tab1.2
Tab2
+ Tab2.1
+ Tab2.2
...
-----------------------------
This will give you almost Safari 26 like experience (but better as there is no auto-collapsing there which is a bit annoying).
I would really like to give Orion another attempt of phasing out Safari here (Orion is getting better and better while keeping the same macOS compatibility and effectiveness level) but this is a show stopper for me as I use a lot of tab groups.
PS. I'm aware of https://orionfeedback.org/d/6931 but that one is way too long already and discusses way too much. My request is much simpler and concrete.
