I hadn't thought about this until now, but I can't remember the last
time I've hit maximize. Double clicking the title bar toggles the
maximized, unmax states quite conveniently and is a much bigger target.
While the close button in the corner makes a good consistent target, the
other two buttons are a little fiddly, both in size and location.
The problem that I see it that people that are rearranging windows for a
particular purpose are typically moving the mouse cursor in long
swooping motions. (At least in my use case) Trying to hit a small
button tends to break that type flow. The double clicking of the title
bar works in my flow because it doesn't slow me down and is doable in
long swooping gestures.
Perhaps we should examine dropping the min,max buttons in favor of a
more "holistic" active windows approach? Food for thought.
This is what David and I are proposing - replacing this buttons for a single button which does the duty, using gestures to make one action or another. In David's proposal, closing button would still exist, but in mine, there would be only one button in the future.
If there is a single, big button, it can be reached easily and fast. And this button represents the window - every action made with this button would be an action made to the window.
Of course, we could use no buttons at all, and make the gesture directly to the window, but I think it would confuse new users. It might be worth discussing, though.