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Virtual workspaces are not new. They've been around for decades, on Linux at least. They've been around on Windows for decades too if you count third-party so

by beloch 14y ago

Virtual workspaces are not new. They've been around for decades, on Linux at least. They've been around on Windows for decades too if you count third-party software. They're great for when you're doing several screen-real-estate-intensive tasks in tandem. e.g. Making/editting figures in a graphics program and working on a LaTeX file they go in. Workspaces come in particularly handy when you have multiple windows going per task. e.g. Say you're making a figure and drawing images from several sources. You can switch to another task by switching workspaces and then come back and not have to go looking for windows. Virtual workspaces can be confusing, which is probably why they haven't really made inroads on most OS's targeting everyone right down to neophyte users. The more recent versions of OSX do include them, although they're turned off by default and not implemented with much configurability or power. I have yet to try Unity, but I'm actually surprised it didn't have virtual desktop support from the get-go, if indeed that is the case. That would have been a rather glaring omission.

honkytonkwillie 14y ago
Unity and Gnome3 have virtual desktops, just not the best functionality. You either do a key-combo or move the mouse to a hot corner, pause, then it shows a sort of tiled or thumbnailed view of each open application as if it was on it's own desktop, and you click on the one you want and it then fills the screen. Instead of behaving like multiple desktops, it's more like a slow way to maximize the application window you want to use next It's almost like the Windows Alt-Tab/Alt-Shift-Tab maneuver to scroll through to the next or previous open application windows. What I was describing in XFCE is how you switch workspaces.
kedean 14y ago
Multiple desktops is indeed on by default in Mountain Lion, but you aren't given any instruction on how to use them. Putting an application into fullscreen (the new button on the top right of a window) will put it into a new desktop, and four finger swipes switch workspaces (along with ctrl+direction), four finger upswipe will display all visible desktops, and allows you to create new ones and close discarded ones, as well as move windows between desktops. Again, this is indeed all turned on by default. Even the dashboard is now implemented as a virtual desktop, instead of an overlay like in previous versions of the OS.

by beloch 14y ago

honkytonkwillie 14y ago

Unity and Gnome3 have virtual desktops, just not the best functionality. You either do a key-combo or move the mouse to a hot corner, pause, then it shows a sort of tiled or thumbnailed view of each open application as if it was on it's own desktop, and you click on the one you want and it then fills the screen. Instead of behaving like multiple desktops, it's more like a slow way to maximize the application window you want to use next It's almost like the Windows Alt-Tab/Alt-Shift-Tab maneuver to scroll through to the next or previous open application windows. What I was describing in XFCE is how you switch workspaces.

kedean 14y ago

Multiple desktops is indeed on by default in Mountain Lion, but you aren't given any instruction on how to use them. Putting an application into fullscreen (the new button on the top right of a window) will put it into a new desktop, and four finger swipes switch workspaces (along with ctrl+direction), four finger upswipe will display all visible desktops, and allows you to create new ones and close discarded ones, as well as move windows between desktops. Again, this is indeed all turned on by default. Even the dashboard is now implemented as a virtual desktop, instead of an overlay like in previous versions of the OS.