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Virtual desktops


Kieth
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I've always used 2 virtual desktops, just because they were there. Is there an advantage in using more than one? I googled around looking for the answer, and it seems as if the only advantage is not to have the panel cluttered. Are there other reasons? After a couple of days of using only one, I see where I like at least 2. I prefer to use keyboard commands to switch around from program to program, and I can see where it is easier/faster to get to the program I want with 2 desktops.

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I have four configured, and it's as you say - for making things a little tidier. My four are set up as follows:

 

Main

Office

Terminals

Other

 

kind of self-explanatory what's going on there :)

 

Main is where I have my normal stuff going on such as email, web browsing. Office for OpenOffice/IBM Lotus Symphony or whatever. Terminals for console windows (local) or SSH (putty), Other I use for when I'm running VMware, VirtualBox or anything that doesn't really fit my other categories that I set up.

 

And even despite all that, I still use Main for everything :lol2:

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I guess I'm not as tidy as Ian :)

I have “1: Miscâ€, “2: Misc that I start and is not related to Miscâ€, “3: Misc that I start and is neither related to Misc nor to Misc that I start and is not related to Misc†and “4: Everything elseâ€.

On occasion, I would have liked a 5th desktop but it's rare enough so I did not bother.

 

Basically, those desktops help keep things organized, or looking like they are. Each desktop is a thread of activity, and I switch task when one thread is waiting on IO. Well… I guess my desktop is quad-core :D

 

Yves.

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I have 6 set up.

 

I find it very convenient when I have a number of applications running to have each one on its own desktop. I can back and forth as and when I like. e.g., On No.6 I have Xmms running with all the music i have recently downloaded and Konqueror open to that Particular folder so that any piece that I hear that I dislike, I can delete before later transferring those remaining files to a saved folder for later storing on a DVD disk and also a backup Hard drive. In the Meantime I may have Firefox open and downloading one of a large number of likely albums from Jamendo.

While I am waiting for one to completely Download before selecting the next one, I may be Playing Mahjongg-3D on desktop 3. On desktop 5, I have UPS Monitor running.To change from one to the other only requires a single mouse click so what could be easier. :D

Sure I could run all of those applications on one desktop on my 24 inch monitor but with all the real estate i have with 6 desktops available, why would I not want to take advantage of it ???. :)

 

RVDowning, I can hear you singing that from here. I'm singing the harmony. :lol2: :lol2:

 

Cheers. John

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OK, I got it. Apart from tidiness, there's no advantage to using multiple virtual desktops. I thought there might be other advantages, such as memory usage, RAM, etc. I'm thinking of adding another panel for my pager (to untidy my present panel), then I can add icons to the existent panel. Maybe I can make everything nicer looking.

 

Thanks!

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Theoretically, creating virtual desktops will use additional memory, rather than free memory up - so in essence it would have an adverse affect on your system rather than a positive one. However, since they probably don't increase ram usage that much it's OK to do. If you had a small system, where memory usage had to be somewhat conservative, I would stick to one desktop only.

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And if you share your pc with somebody like your girlfriend, wife, friend,...and you're working...they come with "let me check my e-mail to see if I got the message from..." or let me check the documents on the memory stick" and you don't want to close your session and open the guest one...or you just don't want to close your windows cuz u're checkin something interesting....you just give her/him a virtual desktop so they can work and you don't close your things :D ....believe me it has it's advantages

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I would like the panel to show only the programs that are open on the particular virtual window that I'm using, but the problem is my wife! For a long, long, long time, even if you could see that thunderbird was open (you could see it on the panel), she would still push the icon to open it. Of course when the program wouldn't appear (because it was already open), she would call me, and say something like, "Have you been messing up the computer again!" (She knows me too well!!!!!!). So when she comes to check the e-mail (at least 100 times a day!), I need to make sure she sees that thunderbird is already open. Even at that, I usually have "Internet" on one desktop and my other programs on the other, to try and avoid her causing more damage than ME. If more than one program is open, but thunderbird is not "on top", she still has a tendency to close them all out (pushing the x in the top right corner) until she gets to it.

 

So yes, having more than one desktop has helped reduce the loss to data in other programs. I also make sure that I save everything when I get up from the computer, because as soon as I get up, she comes and checks the e-mail!

 

We "old" folks have a hard time with technological advances!

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I would like the panel to show only the programs that are open on the particular virtual window that I'm using, but the problem is my wife! For a long, long, long time, even if you could see that thunderbird was open (you could see it on the panel), she would still push the icon to open it. Of course when the program wouldn't appear (because it was already open), she would call me, and say something like, "Have you been messing up the computer again!" (She knows me too well!!!!!!). So when she comes to check the e-mail (at least 100 times a day!), I need to make sure she sees that thunderbird is already open. Even at that, I usually have "Internet" on one desktop and my other programs on the other, to try and avoid her causing more damage than ME. If more than one program is open, but thunderbird is not "on top", she still has a tendency to close them all out (pushing the x in the top right corner) until she gets to it.

 

So yes, having more than one desktop has helped reduce the loss to data in other programs. I also make sure that I save everything when I get up from the computer, because as soon as I get up, she comes and checks the e-mail!

 

We "old" folks have a hard time with technological advances!

well try to do my trick...hehe give her a workspace/virtualdesktop while your programs are in another so she won't close your applications XD I use that trick because my mom wants to check her e-mail to so I give her a clean and ready desktop to her...of course you should made them independent from each other so an application would run twice XD

 

give it a try XD

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