I will collect his dust . <| sep |> With buffers , you have the current buffer , the alternate buffer , the next buffer , the previous buffer , the last buffer , the first buffer , the buffer with foo in its name , the buffer number n , the modified buffer , the list of buffers , and all those buffers are all distributed along a single dimension , making it easy to cycle through the list or jump to an arbitrary buffer . With windows , you get the current window , the previous window , the next window , the alternate window , the first window , the last window , the window number n , but you don ' t get the modified window , the window with foo in its name , the list of windows . Sure you can still use buffer commands but the dimension in which buffers live is detached from the dimension where windows live and you have to deal with two very different paradigms . You need to be extra careful if you want to maintain your workspace . The only way to avoid the necessary extra care and the additional cognitive load is to restrict yourself to window commands . With tab pages , you get the current tab page , the previous tab page , the next tab page , the first tab page , the last tab page , the tab page number n , but you don ' t get the alternate tab page , the modified tab page , the tab page with foo in its name , the list of tab pages . Sure you can still use buffer commands and window commands but you have yet another dimension to deal with . And your buffers can now travel across three dimensions . They can be loaded in zero or more windows in one or more tabs . The only way to avoid the necessary extra care and the additional cognitive load is to restrict yourself to tab page commands . Obviously , that additional cognitive load is not heavy enough to send you to the hospital but it is best avoided . Think of it as a tradeof you win some but you lose some . What you win may be more valuable to you than what you lose but it may not be .