even windows xp had it with microsoft’s powertoys’ virtual desktop manager
Clbull@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Launching Windows 11 in the midst of a semiconductor shortage was such a dumb move on Microsoft’s part, especially when 11 doesn’t really offer that much more than 10. The only real ‘groundbreaking’ new feature (multiple desktops) was something that Linux had fifteen years ago.
c5e3@lemmy.world 8 months ago
RobertoOberto@sh.itjust.works 8 months ago
Is “multiple desktops” different from virtual desktops? Because i’ve been using virtual desktops in Windows 10 for a while now.
madcaesar@lemmy.world 8 months ago
I can barely keep track of my one desktop what are people doing with multiple desktops?
misspacfic@lemm.ee 8 months ago
for work i have to have like 3 PDFs open, my IDE, a browser, etc.
it’s nice being able just switch to a clean desktop to browse the internet or write an email without messing up my window placement or getting lost in a bunch of layers.
bruhduh@lemmy.world 8 months ago
First desktop for work/study related windows another for research/info related windows and third one for chill/media related windows, sometimes you work on more than two documents at the same time and researching theme with timeouts for chill so multiple desktops is very useful
sanguine_artichoke@midwest.social 8 months ago
It’s good if you have sets of apps open for different tasks. I used to have one for programming (text editor/browser/console) and one for graphic editing (gimp/console/image viewer/blender), and one for general browsing/time wasting, all on two monitors. Pretty handy to keep your focus.
Piwix@lemm.ee 8 months ago
It’s like having a second or third monitor but instead of moving your eyes to the other monitor you move the desktop you’re currently looking at.
RobertoOberto@sh.itjust.works 8 months ago
Using multiple desktops may help you keep all those open programs more organized. :)
I use only use them at work. One desktop is for e-mail, chats, and my music player, the other has all the stuff I need for whatever I’m actually working on at the moment. If I’m switching back and forth between two unrelated tasks, I might use a third to keep everything for the two tasks separate.
bigMouthCommie@kolektiva.social 8 months ago
music can stay on one workspace
work on another
messenger on another.
my alt-tab is always in the right order, and accessing specific functions like music or messaging is a whole other key sequence and muscle memory.
frezik@midwest.social 8 months ago
I used to use them a lot when monitors were smaller and I put one full screen window on each desktop. With bigger monitors and multiple windows open on just one, I don’t really use them anymore.
DarkSpectrum@lemmy.world 8 months ago
For every desktop there is a desk-bottom, so one is wise to be cautious ʘ‿ʘ
sanguine_artichoke@midwest.social 8 months ago
Kind of. Not sure what’s out there now but circa 2008 there were Linux distros with multiple virtual desktops each with their own virtual desktop. So you could have one with 3 virtual desktops of its own, another with 3 different virtual desktops of its own, and so forth. Good for true power users but it could get confusing fast.
frezik@midwest.social 8 months ago
Virtual desktops on X go back a lot further than that. First X11 implementation was in 1990 with vtwm. The Amiga 1000 had it for their systems in 1985.
sanguine_artichoke@midwest.social 8 months ago
The Amiga had the ability to have multiple video screens that you could drag down and even display partially at the same time in different video modes, which was impressive. I don’t recall virtual desktops but I suppose Workbench had that, idk.
Anyway I was just referring to my experience with workspaces/multiple virtual desktops in KDE or whatever.
nossaquesapao@lemmy.eco.br 8 months ago
I thought the same when it launched. Computer prices were skyrocketing, and they launched a new version with significant higher hardware requirements? It sounded as a terrible idea to me.
reassure6869@lemm.ee 8 months ago
what are you talking about? if you mean virtual as the others think, both linux and windows have had that for 20 years. if you mean something else I really really want to know.
anyway it also has better wsl (backported to 10 eventually), generally better performance and battery life, etc. it also had a mac dock that prevented me from doing the upgrade for 3 years lol.