

Ask HN: Do you use the virtual desktops feature in OS X Mountain Lion? - alexbrand09

Do you have more than one desktop in OS X Mountain Lion? If so, what is your setup?
======
Wilduck
Yes absolutely. I have an 11' Air and I really like being able to transition
between known desktop layouts with just a three finger swipe.

Below is a picture and description of how I keep my desktops organized.

    
    
      +---+ +---+ +---+ +---+ +---+ +---+
      | F | | T | |EF | |Ch | | G | |Pdf|
      +---+ +---+ +---+ +---+ +---+ +---+
    

F = All my "fun" windows. Chrome with facebook, hn, reddit, etc; iTunes; Other
programs that I open and close occasionally like chat, torrent software, etc.

T = full screen terminal. I use the basic terminal included with OSX. I keep a
bunch of tabs open on it. This window/desktop is the home base for my
development work that touches any of my servers.

EF = Emacs and Finder. I spend a lot of time on this desktop since I use a GUI
Emacs for all my local development and org-mode for all my notes/lists, etc. I
also like having finder here to look for/organize files on the filesystem.
This desktop is conveniently located between my terminal and webbrowser.

Ch = Google Chrome, open with documentation, tutorials, and other resources
for development. This gets its own desktop since I will often keep multiple
windows open with many tabs each. Each chrome window will relate to a
different project that I'm working on.

G = The Gimp (also occasionally Inkscape or other image editing software)

Pdf = full screen PDFs that I'm reading like books. I could have many of these
open, and I leave them open all the time so I don't loose my place.

~~~
tagabek
How do you keep your desktops separate? It seems that any change made in one
is automatically made in the others. I have found that you can limit an
application to one desktop, but if that is true, then how do you use two
separate Chrome tabs in two different desktops?

~~~
Wilduck
I'm not totally sure what you're asking. I've never seen a change made to one
desktop made automatically to the others. The problem I do run in to is that
when I open a program for the first time it seems to appear in one of my
desktops at random. When that happens I just three finger swipe up and drag
the window to the desktop it belongs in. I never limit a program to one
desktop, I just move its window there if it gets out of place.

These things really aren't too much of an issue for me though, mostly because
I am loath to ever close a window or restart a program, which leads to
everything happily sitting where I placed it.

------
randiSP
I use it a lot in my 13" Air, I switched from PC+Ubuntu desktop to MacOS and
having multiple desktops makes perfect sense to me since day one. But I've got
a weird issue with multiple monitors and extended desktop, when I switch from
a virtual desktop to another one, monitor shows a gray background and I can't
place windows on it making multiple monitors plus virtual desktops totally
useless.

------
whichdan
I use it once in a while. My problem is that I want some apps to show up on
the current desktop, while others should be tied to a specific one. Because
that isn't possible (as far as I know), something like an instant messenger
will constantly throw me off by switching my desktop for no good reason.

~~~
tagabek
If you two-finger click the application, it will give you the option to assign
it to a specific desktop.

~~~
whichdan
Oh that's cool, I never knew there was an "All Desktops" option. Would have
saved me a bunch of grief a few days ago..

------
dalke
No. Multiple virtual desktops confuse me.

~~~
sheraz
Agreed. So much better with a second monitor when I need it. Otherwise alt-tab
is fine.

