There're things I agree or disagree on with author (for example, I still have NerdTree installed, but find myself almost never using it, instead I use tree -f in separate terminal window) but probably only one thing I'm still not sure about:
I don't use buffers explicitly at all, only tabs instead, like in any IDE. Sometimes vsplit. I even have custom mappings for ctags to open stuff in new tabs instead of buffers. I treat hidden buffers as legacy needed mostly for technical reasons. Yet I keep seeing other people using multiple buffers, switching between them. So, should I reconsider, maybe? And why?
I used tabs, but nowadays I don't seem to need them. One day I thought I could try if I could survive by just using buffers, and apparently I do. Might depend on the way you want to navigate the project and so on. For me personally the most common buffer switch is between two or three documents at a time and for those needs split windows are absolutely the best for me (which removes any needs for tabs, naturally).
The switch to tabs for me came after I started using vimperator/pentadactyl in my web browser, which I find glorious. (Sorry no links, on mobile)
I used "lusty juggler" before but 'gt' is a very natural way for me to "go tab" now and I like it better. Macvim makes it trivial for me to arrange tabs in a consistent order, for example html file to the left of its js file. The tabs also give me a kind of quick view of what my current "project space" is.
Two tab-y things that I find useful are:
* alias "vi -p" (to open files in tabs)
* "vi --remote-tab" (to add a file to an existing session in a new tab from the command line)
Part of why I like tabs may be because I don't do split windows often in vim. When I want to have two files side-by-side I use my os window manager (CMD+right to move current window to right side of screen, etc).
I don't use buffers explicitly at all, only tabs instead, like in any IDE. Sometimes vsplit. I even have custom mappings for ctags to open stuff in new tabs instead of buffers. I treat hidden buffers as legacy needed mostly for technical reasons. Yet I keep seeing other people using multiple buffers, switching between them. So, should I reconsider, maybe? And why?