Workspaces, where’ve you been all my life?
One of the GNOME features I’ve most come to appreciate since abandoning Windows XP last summer is workspaces (Virtual Desktops on KDE, Spaces on Mac OS X Leopard). I now find these so useful, I simply can’t imagine how I got on without them.
As I write this, I’ve got my code editor, a couple of browser windows, Nautilus, an IRC client and a terminal window open in my first workspace. In my second workspace there’s a text editor containing my development notes (notes I write as I learn new stuff), a document open in OpenOffice Writer, and a couple of FreeMind windows containing a functional overview and database schema outline of the application I’m currently working on. My third workspace contains my email client, news feed reader and the browser in which I’m writing this. This is fairly typical although needless to say some days I have more, some days fewer windows open.
Even with dual wide-screen monitors (I’m using a standard 1280×1024 and a wide 1680×1050), a dozen or more running applications would for me be unwieldy and counter-productive in a single workspace. I generally find three workspaces to be optimal. I’ve adopted a pattern of use in which the first workspace is where I do my main work and monitoring, the second holds supporting applications and reference materials (which would only be in the way in the first), and the third I use for communications and personal stuff, especially that which distracts from the work going on in the first two workspaces. That said, for obvious reasons I regularly bounce my IRC client back and forth between my first and third workspaces and not having my email client in the workspace where I spend most time is not a problem thanks to visual and audio alerts.
The two straightforward keyboard shortcuts for swapping between workspaces and moving applications from one to another use the arrow keys to indicate the direction of movement and make managing them easy. The shortcuts are now as ingrained as any other I use on a daily basis.
When I first saw workspaces I thought “Neat idea, might use them occasionally, but for the most part, no thanks”. They appeared to be an attempt to use a software device to overcome the size limitations of a desktop on a single monitor and I erroneously thought that they had been rendered less relevant by the increasing popularity of widescreen monitors and setups utilizing multiple screens. What I had failed to appreciate is that in addition to their desktop augmenting role, they also play a useful and liberating organizational role, and it’s this latter feature that I’m finding such a revelation.
GNOME allows you to have as few or as many workspaces as you need and so you can tailor them to suit your needs. The keyboard shortcuts for manipulating the workspaces make them fast and easy to work with, meaning workspaces become your friends rather than leaving them as awkward features, too clunky to use productively.
If you have access to workspaces on your desktop, give them a whirl. The idea can take perhaps a little getting used to, but now I have, I couldn’t live without them. Without exaggeration, they are one of the most useful (and simplest) complexity management tools I’ve used.