Nik Ambrosch (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} grouch) wrote,@ 2006-06-29 01:02:00 |
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virtuedesktops & osx
this is mostly for osx users.
i'm a big virtual desktop user. i know a lot of people who do a ton of things at once have gone from using virtual desktops to using apple's exposé function.. but i'm just not a huge fan. it's nice and all, but for the same reason that i don't like to have windows overlapping eachother, i don't like to have windows cluttered enough where exposé would be handy for me. virtual desktops save the day for me.
up until now i've used desktop manager (http://desktopmanager.berlios.de) which is no longer developed, but apparently there's a new project based on desktop manager called virtuedesktops (http://virtuedesktops.info) and it's GREAT. one of the biggest things that annoyed me about desktop manager is when you switch the focus with apple+tab to another application, and that application was on another desktop.. your desktop would not be automatically switched. that's been fixed. there's also a neat pager that cam be brought up with a hotkey. virtuedesktops works with parallels (x86 macs only, obviously) so you can make one desktop a full-screen windows machine and another desktop a full-screen linux machine.. you get the idea. they have a little video of it in action on their site.
anyway, long story short, download virtuedesktops, tweak it to your liking (it took about 20 minutes of hotkey and preference tweaking plus one restart of the application to get everything working properly) and do a little dance - it really made my day by patching all the little annoyances with desktop manager. i'll probably donate 50 bucks to the project after i've used the software for a few months.
in other news, i have an intel mac mini being shipped to work to replace my desktop. at first glance it would seem underpowered for someone like me, but all my heavy computing is done on remote machines. right now i have 2 20" monitors, but i'm trading them in for 1 24" widescreen monitor which will run at 1920x1200 - osx plus virtuedesktops would provide spectacular window management on a monitor of half that size, so i think i'm pretty well off. i'm really happy that my boss is opening up and allowing the unix admins to purchase apple hardware to replace the dells so i can run the operating system that i'm most comfortable with.
this is mostly for osx users.
i'm a big virtual desktop user. i know a lot of people who do a ton of things at once have gone from using virtual desktops to using apple's exposé function.. but i'm just not a huge fan. it's nice and all, but for the same reason that i don't like to have windows overlapping eachother, i don't like to have windows cluttered enough where exposé would be handy for me. virtual desktops save the day for me.
up until now i've used desktop manager (http://desktopmanager.berlios.de) which is no longer developed, but apparently there's a new project based on desktop manager called virtuedesktops (http://virtuedesktops.info) and it's GREAT. one of the biggest things that annoyed me about desktop manager is when you switch the focus with apple+tab to another application, and that application was on another desktop.. your desktop would not be automatically switched. that's been fixed. there's also a neat pager that cam be brought up with a hotkey. virtuedesktops works with parallels (x86 macs only, obviously) so you can make one desktop a full-screen windows machine and another desktop a full-screen linux machine.. you get the idea. they have a little video of it in action on their site.
anyway, long story short, download virtuedesktops, tweak it to your liking (it took about 20 minutes of hotkey and preference tweaking plus one restart of the application to get everything working properly) and do a little dance - it really made my day by patching all the little annoyances with desktop manager. i'll probably donate 50 bucks to the project after i've used the software for a few months.
in other news, i have an intel mac mini being shipped to work to replace my desktop. at first glance it would seem underpowered for someone like me, but all my heavy computing is done on remote machines. right now i have 2 20" monitors, but i'm trading them in for 1 24" widescreen monitor which will run at 1920x1200 - osx plus virtuedesktops would provide spectacular window management on a monitor of half that size, so i think i'm pretty well off. i'm really happy that my boss is opening up and allowing the unix admins to purchase apple hardware to replace the dells so i can run the operating system that i'm most comfortable with.
