Comment 5 for bug 835499

Which desktop shell are you referring to with the new issue?

Personally I think in Unity the indicators to the left of the icons on the launcher are already a good way of attaining as to whether you still have windows open - even if the windows are on a different workspace they appear, and allow you to switch to the workspace by clicking on the indicated icon. I consider your suggestion to be already somewhat implemented on Unity, and adding another feature to work out how many windows you have open would be decreasing simplicity, but if you are willing to write the code for it and prove me wrong - please do!

I agree this was a problem with the old "Ubuntu Classic" (GNOME 2 Panels) environment, but that isn't going to be included with Oneiric (it is being replaced on disk by Unity 2D for fall-back on old hardware).

I still think this is more of a feature request than a bug (I believe a bug is when an application does not perform as intended, or crashes, for example Ubuntu was designed to not warn you that you have windows open in the way you are saying). I agree usability problems to blur the line a little bit though, but this doesn't make Ubuntu unusable and some people may not agree with your suggestion.

Also, this would likely get more attention from people willing to implement it if it was posted on a mailing list, forum or Ubuntu Brainstorm/blueprints.

You can continue trying to push it as a bug if you wish, but personally I would mark it as invalid or opinion (I'm not going to do so though).