Hm, can this be remapped? The ctrl+backspace combination already serves a useful purpose (delete last word).

This is not like a desktop, where you just move the "panel" anywhere you like. Moving the task switcher button would also require rearranging every other component on the screen, so there is a lot more to consider than "what would be the most comfortable position to access the task launcher".

I couldn't vote on something like this, without a complete proposal to evaluate all the pros and cons. I think it would be too late for it anyway, considering that applications are being designed with the current placement in mind (e.g. games and such placing their own custom buttons in the same positions, toolbars being placed on the bottom for easy access, etc).

As someone coming from Windows Mobile I certainly have no issue with where it is now.

I think one reason for having it in top corner is because you are less likely to hit it accidentally either in landscape or portrait mode. Plus its natural for Windows users to look there for close, minimise, etc.

At the end of the day I think it comes down to this:

1. Novice users will not be used to multitasking so they do not need it to be quite as readily available as experts.

2. Expert users will know the keyboard shortcut so they have a quicker way of multitasking anyway.

So I find it hard to argue for moving it, unless its a trivial thing to add a configuration option for it. Its certainly not worth the manpower doing a major rehash of the UI for it.

Is there a keyboard shortcut to jump between applications like Alt+Tab on the PC?

Even better would be to have a keyboard shortcut to switch between applications DIRECTLY, you would hardly need to use the task switcher then.

Basically, allow you to favourite your top 10 applications so that pressing say Ctrl+Shift+1 launches your favourite application 1, or switches to it if its already running. Similar to how you switch virtual terminals in desktop Linux.

i put a lot of thought into where the back button would be on liqbase.
it had always been a hardware button near lower left of my n810.

when i got hold of a device which did not have such an escape button, i had to choose a location.
the obvious easily reachable location is lower left.

thats exactly where it is now

now, when i get round to getting my larger format wall mounted display, this button location will be doubly fortunate! i will not get gorilla arm when using pressing it

im finding that it works best whether apps have horizontal toolbar or a vertical bar like old diablo

the way I wrote it i just avoid putting detailed active content behind it, but people can see through it to still have the feeling of space

I much prefer the button where it is now to being in the bottom left corner personally. I like that the top is universally used for window operations... so just moving the button down would be terrible for UI consistency. Either the whole bar or nothing at all, but I would still vote to keep it where it is now.