The Command-T plugin [1] was a big help in switching from TextMate to vim. I have no idea how anyone can be productive in vim without it (assuming you're working on a multi-file project).
or
:NERDTree
It can, in fact, search pretty much anywhere in vim (from the docs):
- buffers
- files
- directories
- most recently used files
- files around most recently used files
- most recently used command-lines
- bookmarked files
- bookmarked directories
- tags
- files which are included in current tagfiles
- jump list
- change list
- buffer lines
- quickfix
- helpNERDTree is great for browsing your project and managing your files, but for opening files (when you know their names) you really can't beat the speed of Command-T/PeepOpen. They're in another league.
I don't know how people work without it.
I also stick to buffers rather than tabs (for terminal/gui consistency) and use buftabs, which I quite like.
You can also try using tabs to represent views of several buffers at once -- for example, I use one tab per app when working on Django code. I have the views, models, templates etc. in split buffers inside one tab.
I just glanced over the Command-T docs and it seems to be a one-trick-pony ("search in path") whereas FuzzyFinder supports a wide range of scopes (path, buffers, tags, etc.).