Alt+tab window switcher excludes dialog windows

[Alan Jenkins]

Environment: Ubuntu classic, desktop effects disabled.

Dialog windows are not listed in the alt+tab window switcher. When switching to an application with an active dialog, the main window gets the focus.

Expected behavior: the KDE desktop manages to get this right: it switches to the active dialog instead.

I first noticed this with update-manager, where the "dialog" window (the "downloading" window) seems to be a modal dialog, so the main window was not responsive, *and yet it was not possible to switch to the modal dialog window*!

But it's also true of the gedit "open" dialog, which is not modal.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 11.04
Package: metacity 1:2.30.3-0ubuntu8
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.38-10.46-generic 2.6.38.7
Uname: Linux 2.6.38-10-generic x86_64
Architecture: amd64
Date: Fri Aug 19 08:50:47 2011
ProcEnviron:
 LANGUAGE=
 PATH=(custom, user)
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: metacity
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to natty on 2011-06-19 (60 days ago)