"Mandriva Linux has a history of inconsistency; one release will be superb, and the next one will be so bug-ridden and feature-weak that it's unusable. The only commonality among all releases are the excellent system configuration tools, which have continued to evolve over the years to match an increasing level of complexity in the desktop software stack. True to form, Mandriva 2008.0 is an excellent release, following the terrible 2007.1, and the just as excellent 2007.0. Some of the important things that were dropped from the previous release (Cedega, LinDVD) are back, and some of the problems (huge K menu button, cluttered menus) have been mitigated."
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Member since:2006-01-19
You are missing something, definitely!
The main advantage of having several Desktops is, to show only the applications from one desktop in the taskbar.
You can in such a way organize your taskbar much better.
If you have for example 20 Windows open, then the taskbar is already very cluttered, even if similar applications are grouped together. And 20 Windows are for me just to handle the everyday office stuff plus one project I work on.
I usually have not only one project to work on, but 3 or four. so I should have open somewhere between 40 and 60 Windows to work efficiently.
On Windows, I currently have 5 file explorer Windows open, and I never can remember which file explorer belongs to which project.
If I had 4 desktops, I would have one for office, and 3 for one project each. I can keep track of which project is on which desktop more easily, than remembering that the the 3rd explorer, the 4th and 7th console and the 1st to 3rd excite window belong to project one, and explorer window 2,4 and 5 belong to project two.
4 desktops is just one level of organization more, if you don't need it, don't use it, nobody forces you into this, but for others it's absolutely necessary.
But to make this experience, you would have to switch your taskbar settings so that it shows only the windows of the currently selected desktop in the taskbar.
Member since:2007-09-06
You can use a desktop per task for thigns like GIMP which use multiple windows. For things like browser/ftp/email, those are indavidual window programs so stack them all on a desktop and sue alt-tab. In the case of terminals, four terms in a 2x2 block are nice since you can use one for reference while typing in the other (paths on a remote system curing scp, man on a second term when mucking with a new command, README |more'd in a second term while installing or compiling some such thing.
It really depends on the task grouping per desktop.
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Member since:
2005-07-06
I use 99.99% of my apps maximized, so I always wondered what difference is to have multiple desktops than to have multiple windows opened. At any time, i can only see the maximized window. Or i'm missing something?