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I have a two monitor setup. Often the window opening behavior seems to be quite the opposite of what I'd like.

For example: I can have a web-browser in one monitor, and I open up a terminal in the other display and xdg-open something, then the new window will open on top of my browser, instead of it being on top of the terminal.

Similarly, I have the launcher on both monitors, but if I open a new window from the launcher, it seems like it typically opens in whichever monitor has focus at the time that it loads. This is problematic if it takes time to load, because again, I could have my web-browser open already and want to open something else. If I click on the launcher in the other monitor and then go back to my browser, it will open in the browser's monitor.

I'm pretty sure I'm using unity, although I'm a bit confused because this is my output when I follow the instructions for finding out given here:

$ cat /etc/X11/default-display-manager
/usr/sbin/lightdm
Dustan Levenstein
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  • Which monitor is the mouse pointer on when you run xdg-open? The app should open on the display where the mouse pointer is. – dobey Jan 07 '18 at 01:15
  • Also, the "display manager" is the login screen. Your description sounds like you're using unity, and if you're using lightdm you probably are, unless you've explicitly installed something else and logged into it instead. – dobey Jan 07 '18 at 01:17
  • @dobey You had me excited for a second there. I've tried it with the pointer on both monitors. The behavior does not seem to depend on which monitor the pointer is on. – Dustan Levenstein Jan 07 '18 at 01:19
  • Were you opening a web site URL with xdg-open? Or something else? I think if you already have the browser running, and it's configured to open a new window, it will open it on the screen the browser's already on. – dobey Jan 07 '18 at 01:21
  • @dobey another application. E.g., a spreadsheet on Calc. – Dustan Levenstein Jan 07 '18 at 01:21
  • For me it opens on the desktop that has the active window which is usually where the mouse pointer is. But I can move the pointer to another screen without clicking on anything and CTRL+ALT+T will open terminal on the screen with the last active window. – WinEunuuchs2Unix Jan 07 '18 at 01:21
  • @WinEunuuchs2Unix To be honest, I can't figure out what the rule is on my computer. I don't have a clear counterexample to last active window right now, so you might be right, with the caveat that it seems to be the last active window at the instant before the new window opens. Also I'm pretty sure I've had windows open over my browser when I didn't click on my browser, but I'm not reproducing that behavior right now. – Dustan Levenstein Jan 07 '18 at 01:39

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