It really depends on my workflow.

When I do have the luxury of working on only one thing and focusing on that, it's great. Much of my work (technical, research, or otherwise) involves flipping between different applications or windows. Usually a terminal (or several), and one or more Web pages open for reference.

Yes, so does mine, that's why I use multiple virtual workspaces, with one or two windows per workspace. I have 18 open windows at this moment, with 16 of them maximized.

8 workspaces, 20 windows (a low count), none presently maximized (though 4 are near-full-screen).