The main issue with local tabs is you need to keep relogging into the SSH server every time you create a new one. It is much more effective to "open up a tab" on the server session instead.
Sure, if you only edit the occasional config file, who cares but if you have many tabs, i.e text editor (nvi), compiler (clang), debugger (lldb) and manpages all up at once on the remote machine, it soon becomes inefficient to log in and change directory for each one.
In the past we happily solved this with job control (ctrl-z, bg, fg) and it worked great but... of course flipping Windows is lacking that fundamental thing too! XD
Most people install a POSIX layer like Cygwin and get on with their lives but unfortunately Cygwin minces up the environment just enough that it can make testing and debugging native win32 software unreliable (for example it changes a lot of environmental variables).
Biting the hand that feeds IT
