browngeek

I was using VirtueDesktops as the virtual desktop solution on my Mac OS X, Tiger. It allowed to separate my apps into different desktops (named Browse, Code, Photos, Misc).

While VirtueDesktops is a slick software and worked really well, I had a major peeve about it. The desktops are not cleanly separated. Apps opened in one desktop should be visible only in that desktop. Unfortunately with VirtueDesktops, Cmd+Tab will show all apps that are open, across desktops.

This is because of the underlying design of the Mac OS. Applications are “document” driven - each window you open is a document within the same app. Other major OS, like Windoze are “window” driven where each window you open becomes another process of its own. That’s the reason that on the Mac, Cmd+Tab always shows exactly one instance of each open app - no matter how many windows (documents) are open. Its one of the most pleasing things in the Mac - Cmd+Tab always shows one row, for all the open apps. Alt-Tab in other OS, there are 4 rows of all open windows - Yuck.

Back to VirtueDesktops. While by design, it could not provide the clean-separation of desktops, the irritating part is that Cmd+Tabbing to an app does not really go to the desktop where that app is open.

So, Spaces was one of the features of Leopard I was looking forward to. Its the first virtual desktop solution from Apple for the Mac. And since it is part of the OS, I was expecting the clean-separation.

Alas, it did not happen. Cmd+Tab always shows all the open apps. It appears that Spaces does not, after all, hide the document nature of the OS. That was a definite bummer for me. And although Spaces does change desktops when Cmd+Tabbing to an app, it does it to the extreme. It *always* does. Say I have Finder open in one desktop 1 (Oh, another annoyance of Spaces - cannot change Desktop names!). And I am working in Desktop 2. To create an instance of Finder in 2, I need to Cmd+Tab to the Finder app, which switches to Desktop 1. Now I create another instance (document) of Finder. Then I have to manually drag and drop this new instance into Desktop 2 by opening the Spaces view. Really Frustrating!

For Spaces to be useful, it needs to make the clean-separation of desktops. Period.

Ok, if thats too much to ask, at least,
1. Have a way to open a new instance of an already open app in a different desktop.
2. Cmd+` should rotate between instances of the same app across spaces.
3. Allow changing name of desktops. Seriously, Desktop 1, 2, 3 and 4 are so un-Apple!

In the end, Spaces leaves me underwhelmed. And the news that VirtueDesktops has reached its own end is not helping either.

Virtually between a rock and hard space.