Comment 1 for bug 1293088

This issue has been reported before, and is tracked in
- Bug #170550 (sf1106380) “open blank document on 'close'”
  <https://bugs.launchpad.net/inkscape/+bug/170550>

Note that this behavior was implemented as designed (Inkscape being a document-centric application). 'File > Close' (Ctrl+W) closes the current document window, and if it is the last open window, the application quits.

Due to popular demand, the next major version of Inkscape (0.91) will open a new empty document if the last open document is closed with 'File > Close' (Ctrl+W) (instead of quitting the application). The behavior of 'File > Quit' (Ctrl+Q) remains unchanged - it will close all open document windows and quit the application.

Linking as duplicate to bug #170550.