For instance floating panels and main window in Gimp are independent windows. If I change focus to a full window (e.g. Firefox by doing Alt-Shift) and go back to the main Gimp window I don't get back the floating panels also (I have to change to them as well in order to see them). It would be great if the 3 windows can be "tied" (or linked) together in order that they don't get lost behind other open windows when I change back to (make active window) any of them? I think this configuration (if it exists) should show itself more obviously in the gnome environment.

This question seems to address the same problem but it doesn't seem to be accurately answered.