The D-Bus interface for activating TabBox should be extended to include the layout name. This would make it possible for Plasma Active to always request the window strip layout or for Plasma Netbook shell to request the grid layout.
Forgot added the BUG keyword: commit 69d67d630e1d22c15ee788f8611cafdc1a79a59d Author: Martin Gräßlin <mgraesslin@kde.org> Date: Thu May 3 12:35:55 2012 +0200 Add layout name to D-Bus interface to open TabBox If the layout name is specified a custom layout config is passed to the TabBoxHandler with the configured name. This can be used by Plasma Active to specify the window strip (overwrites any settings) and for Netbook shell as a replacement to opening Present Windows Effect.