Comment 6 for bug 272171

Mackenzie - I can't actually reproduce this bug at all on my machine. For me, Firefox never steals focus when I click on links in Evolution, regardless of which workspaces the two applications are on.

I'm not sure that this is a Firefox bug as opposed to a window manager bug. This behaviour is actually configurable in Compiz (focus stealing prevention) by changing the gconf key "/apps/compiz/general/screen0/options/focus_prevention_level" to a value of between 0 (Off) and 3 (Very High). A value of 0 means that windows will always steal focus. A value of 3 means that windows will never steal focus.

The default value is 1. With this setting, I can't get Firefox to steal focus when clicking on a link in Evolution. If I set it to 0, then Firefox always steals focus.

I don't think Metacity has an equivalent setting.