Virtual Desktops for Mac OS X

TexTex writes "Riley Lynch has released Space.dock, which brings multiple desktops to Mac OS X. He's provided the code and binaries through SourceForce.net. It runs pretty well for being a 0.7 release and sure beats hiding all your applications and just opening the one you'd like." This is a cool little program. I usually question how much I really need virtual desktops, but I never fail to use them when I have them available.

Clean little app

[T.Hobbes]

It doesn't require any installation other than dragging it into the dock. From what I can tell, it simply hides/reveals windows, sorting active windows into interchangeable 'spaces'. You can access windows in another space by clicking on the program icon in the dock - that will bring the window forward in your current space and vacate that window from its former space. All in all a small, elegant, responsive program. Only 77kb.

How new is this?

[dhovis]

All the dates are 2001. According to everything I can find, this was released last year, and last updated for MacOS X 10.0 (retail).

I've heard it still works with the most recent OSX builds, but it only looks new because the site hasn't been updated for a year.

Re:will VNC mirror this desktop?

[jd10131]

This isn't really providing virtual desktops. This little app just shows and hides programs as you switch between "desktops" Because of that, VNC is only going to see the one screen.

It's a nice implementation though. The only caveat is that you can't have windows from the same app across multiple virtual desktops.

Re:How new is this?

[Bladerunner2037]

Yup. I've used it since I installed OSX 10.0.x on my iMac. It's not new. Pretty slick. Even if all it does is hide applications, instead of providing true virtual desktops

Neat App, Kinda Old, Not Really Virtual Desktop...

[gabe]

I used this for a while a year or so ago. It's a neat app, but honestly, it's really not a virtual desktop system. All it does is hide other applications. One can have the same functionality, with an easier interface using ASM and command-tabbing through applications.

Personally, I've gotten used to cmd-tab enough that that is pretty much all I use to switch between apps. If there were a true virtual desktop app for OS X (where I can have windows from different apps together on a desktop instead of all windows of one app) then I'd probably use it...

Not *actually* virtual screens

[rhetland]

Space.dock does not actually change between virtual windows (as some have already noted). In essence all this program does is open and close groups of windows defined by the user.

Advantages:
- Low wastage of memory
- You can access any window from any virtual screen.
- You can close all of a projects windows, even if those windows are running different programs.

Disadvantages:
- No dragging windows between screens.
- No 'alt-arrow' to go between virtual screens.

All in all, it's definately not virtual screens like most unix people are used to, but it is small, clever, and it feels very 'Mac-like'.

Virtual (for OS 9 and earlier) was pretty cool

[Michael A. Lowry]

There was a program call Virtual that was great. It had a floating virutual desktop bar from which you could choose which desktop you want to work with. Small representations of open windows appeared in each section of the bar. You could even drag these around to move windows from one virtual desktop to another without switching your view. You could even have a window that spanned two or more virtual desktops. Another cool feature was that the background pattern/picture was customizable for each virtual desktop, so it was easy to tell at a glance which one was active. Despite all these great features (or perhaps in part because of them), my Mac was never quite stable when I had Virtual running.

It would be great if Apple would incorporate these features into a future revision of Mac OS X, or at least open the APIs so someone else could do the work.

-MAL