So I'm running metacity with a fresh install of Fedora Core 3.  I have
repeatedly been annoyed when I am in the middle of typing something,
and an application I have been waiting to start springs open and
steals the keyboard focus.  This causes the text I'm in the middle of
typing to be unexpectedly spread across multiple windows.  This is
especially bad if I'm in the middle of typing a password, but mostly
it's mostly a minor annoyance that sometimes causes incorrect
operation when a certain application gets keyboard input I don't
intend for it.

The metacity philosophy is to favor Doing The Right Thing over adding
preferences whenever possible.  The downside to changing the current
behavior (new windows do not grab focus) is that many users may assume
that the application they have just started, when it is done loading,
will be ready and willing to accept keyboard input without delay.

I don't know how technically feasible it would be to only change focus
to a new window if the window that currently has focus has not gotten
keyboard input for a certain period of time (a second or two)?  I also
don't know how well that would work in practice.  So maybe a
preference is desirable.  Or maybe I just need to get used to halting
keyboard input faster when new windows appear.  I guess it depends
what problems, if any, other people have in using the interface over
the long term, and why.  Thanks for reading.