That's why so many new users turn to using tabs. Because they think they can't replace the current unsaved buffer they open another file in a tab. The result is very superficially similar to what you'd get in other editors but it is very different and full of pitfalls if you persist in treating them as regular tabs.
These two lines in your ~/.vimrc are enough to be able to work efficiently with buffers and windows and make tabs more useable:
set hidden
set switchbuf=useopen,usetab
The first makes it possible to replace the current unsaved buffer with another one.
The second allows you to jump to a buffer where it is (in another window, another tab) instead of replacing the current buffer with :b buffername.
These two lines in your ~/.vimrc are enough to be able to work efficiently with buffers and windows and make tabs more useable:
The first makes it possible to replace the current unsaved buffer with another one.The second allows you to jump to a buffer where it is (in another window, another tab) instead of replacing the current buffer with :b buffername.