One of the features geeks really miss on OSX’s Unix environment are the virtual screens. Apple tried to address this need with the introduction of the excellent Expose, but all things fair, Expose doesn’t do the same thing. CodeTek is the main company which has addressed this need on Mac OS X for two years now. Recently, they released their third major version of VirtualDesktop in two flavors, Pro & Lite.I won’t get too specific about the differences of PRO and Lite versions, because they can already be seen here. This time, CodeTek’s VirtualDesktop comes with its own installer, but I must say I prefer the old way of just dragging the binary over to the desired folder.
The new version requires the admin password to be inserted, and I hope there is a good reason behind this. When loading the application for the first time. it will ask you for your serial number. If you want to use the app as a demo, you need to request for a free demo serial license for 15 days via the CodeTek web site.
I find a bit lame that users need to give their email addresses to CodeTek to get a demo. Granted, CodeTek only sends out emails when they have newer versions, once a month or so, but still… On to the application itself, the preference panel offers quite a few options. You can select how many virtual desktops you need and in how many rows and columns to display them in the desktop pager. If you want, the virtual desktops can only have an effect on the main display on a dual monitor setup. You can customize it to have focus follows mouse (another Unix favorite among older users), switch desktops using the mouse, to display popups during a desktop switch, and select what font to use and how opaque you want the desktop pager to be, or choose whether you want the pager to auto-hide or not. In short, there are countless options to configure the functionality or the looks and the desktop pager.
CodeTek’s VirtualDesktop also supports skins. There aren’t many skins yet for version 3.0, and I personally found the default be the best one available. Some users might prefer to not have a Desktop pager, but to change screens using either the keyboard (hotkey editing supported) or the VirtualDesktop entry in the menu bar. Command+Option+Right_Arrow gets you to the next virtual screen, and I found this to be a faster way of switching screens. However, using the context menu on the pager itself, you can set an application window to move to a specific screen, so the pager does have an extra usefulness. The menu bar entry lets you have access to the preference panel and to a list of all the open apps categorized under the desktop they currently live in. Version 3.0 introduces an extra step (two clicks instead of one) to get to the application you are searching for, but I guess combining the functionality of Expose in the mix minimizes the need to go to that menu too much.
An interesting feature of VirtualDesktop is the ability to have different behavior for some applications that are “special”. For example, for Finder you can ask VD to switch to the desktop of Finder’s topmost window when it becomes active. Or you can ask some apps to be visible at all desktops by default, or to ignore focus follows mouse and much more. VD is definitely not short of options.
For me, the best two new features were the auto-hide ability of the desktop pager, and the fact that now VD works well with all X11 window managers (previous version had real trouble with X11)! Surely, people will rush to compare VD to WSManager, an open source free virtual desktop alternative for OSX. I tried the latest version of WSManager today and it should work well for people who prefer a free ride. However, for users who need the extra functionality, VD is the best choice (plus WSManager is still alpha software). I must say, though, I am very fond of two WSManager features not found on VD:
1. Cool switching. WSManager has implemented 8 switch transitions, similar to the cool effect that Apple does when a user changes account on the fly. My favorite is the Cube effect, but “Swap Over” is also very cool. It is very nice to have such a visual feedback when changing your screen.
2. Pager to be placed on the top of the menu bar. Especially for us who run on ridiculously high resolutions with much menu bar space to spare, having the pager in the menu bar itself (4 columns in 1 row) saves real screen estate (you can never really have too much chocolate or screen space).
CodeTek’s VD costs $40, but you can get the Lite version for only $20, and there are interesting upgrade options. The utility is highly recommended for power users, but also for those who are stuck at 1024×768 or less with Mac OS X. For the freeloaders, WSManager will probably do the job, but if you are after stability and features, go for VD instead. But in any case, try a virtual desktop solution in addition to Expose, they go well together.
Overall: 8/10
…the demo of virtual desktop for a while now. as former linux user i was especially interested in the ‘focus follows mouse feature’ rahter then ‘click to focus’, cause there are several other very good virtual desktop managers out there, which don’t cost anything.
‘focus follows mouse’ doesn’t work as expected – there are always windows, that “want to be” in the foreground, than sticking behind other windows but be focussed. it absolutely doesn’t feel like X at the moment (ok, did i really expected this to be?). i hope they’ll improve this feature, because one of the most features i miss besides virtual desktops is the ‘focus follows mouse’ feature.
there’s another feature i miss in os x: copy&paste with only the mouse – i now this works for x11 under os x, but i would love to have this in native os-x applications, tool.
as virtual desktop manager for os-x, i use the free desktop manager: http://wsmanager.sf.net/ and i’m very happy with it.
Did you use the latest version of VD, 3.0 to check out if your problem got fixed?
I also suggest you send an email to the developers with suggestions, they are very open guys.
I’ve recently installed WSManager on my new iBook G4 12″ – the first time I’m using a virtual desktop implementation on any OS, in fact, since I’m usually running a higher resolution than 1024*768 and simply have no need for it – and I’m very happy with it. No stability problems whatsoever, and the menubar pager is a joy to use. CTVD seems like a good product, too, but none of its additional features seem compelling enough to “upgrade”. Besides, over time, WSManager will probably catch up.
How well does the “focus follows mouse” hack work in OS X? I like the feature in X window managers, but I can imagine it being beyond annoying in OS X, with the menubar-on-the-top thingie.
Thanks Eugenia! I just decided to try WSManager out on my Dual 2Ghz G5, and it’s absolutely stunning! With the cube transition and desktop pager in place, it’s working wonderfully and is darn cool to boot. Some of the other transition effects like Zoom and Warp are just amazing!
I use my G5 mainly for pro audio, so I often have Logic, Reason, and several plug-ins all up at the same time. As great as Expose is, it’s a wee bit cumbersome for quick flipping between “groups of windows” as it were. But WSManager works just wonderfully in this regard. I’ve set up my four desktops as Main, Logic, Reason, and Plug-ins. How lovely!
OS X rocks. OSNews rocks. Eugenia rocks. I’m a happy man tonight.
Jared
Erm… the article is about VirtualDesktop, mind you. But it seems people love flashy animations more than additional functionality and stability.
Granted, I’ve only been using WSManager for a week or so, but I have yet to experience any stability problems. What problems did you encounter that don’t happen with CTVD? Maybe I don’t know what I’m missing
.
It is mostly problems with dual monitors and the fact that transitions don’t work when you use the menu bar pager. Haven’t seen any “crashes” per se myself either but I haven’t used the app for more than a week or so either.
CodeTek’s CtVD has more funtionality that works as expected, I think this is its main selling point over WSManager. But CodeTek do need to get with the program and add a menubar pager and GL transitions too.
Problems with dual-monitoring can be really annoying, that’s true – my main workstation is a Linux box with an ATi card, so I know pretty well just *how* annoying. According to the page, the developer is focussing on fixing dual monitoring problems in 0.5.2, btw.
Regarding functionality, CTVD’s AppleScript support seems very interesting. I also have yet to test X11 with WSManager.
Does CTVD allow me to specify a keyboard shortcut that moves the active window to virtual desktop X? WSManager features shortcuts for “move window to next/previous desktop”, but I can’t move a window specifically to desktop 1/2/3/4.
Can’t remember this specific one (I am on my PC atm). Please download the latest demo version of CtVD and just have a quick look about it (make sure WSManager doesn’t run at the same time so you won’t get conflicts).
I pretty much agree with the comments here about the usefulness of CTVD 3.0. MOving to a 12″ Powerbook from my usual 1280 X 1024 was a bit of a squeeze. In addition as another ex-BeOS user I have kinda got used to multiple desktops.
There is one problem with the current version of VirtualDesktop when using GTK2 applications such as Pan under X11. If focus follows mouse is enabled, the application window will disappear after a few seconds. Codetek have been very responsive in developing a fix for this but I don’t believe it is available for public download just yet.
Just one complaint Eugenia. Focus follows mouse is … “favorite among older users”. Older users, older users… I think that was it said anyway – my eyesight’s not as good as it was you know!
As a long time user of many different systems I personally think that the VD is overkill in today’s GUI. Most desktops these days take the taskbar approach for managing applications (ex, Windows Task Bar, OS X Dock, KDE, GNOME, etc…) Back in the days of OpenWindows, Motif, CDE, and Win 3.11, this made perfectly good sense. Open multiple applications place them on a VD and switch between them as needed. Now with the ability to minimize and maximize apps via the taskbar/dock its taken away the need for a VD.
I find it much more usefull to have a dual monitor configuration. For programming its great becuase you can have your IDE open in one screen and debug your app in another. Id say the same goes for writing documentation, you have the app that you are writing you documentation in, on one screen and the thing you are writing about in the other.
Same goes for web design: Browser on one screen, source on the other.
You’re goign to get their comments because you called them freeloaders. What do you expect? Insult your readers and they can cause problems.
I don’t see plagarism…where is it?
I find that Desktop Manager (wsmanager) excells past CTVD in the resources department. CTVD is just too bloated, and not as responsive on slower macs. When i tried out Desktop Manager for the first time last summer, i was shocked, it swapped desktops with ease, and no lag, and never slows down.
Desktop Manager may lack some features, but sometimes thats a good thing. Right, Moz users
The problem is that dual-monitor configurations are exactly the reason why virtual desktops/viewports are a necessity that antiquates the taskbar. My Linux machine at home has various virtual desktops so I can page between different sets of open applications at once. One desktop has KMail/KOrganizer open, another has Gaim/XChat, another for KDevelop/terminals, and so on. I’d nix the taskbar altogether if I didn’t often inadvertently use it out of my old Windows habit.
Frankly if I can’t look at the open applications all at once (using dual monitors, for instance) I don’t see the need to have them visible at all. I mean, if I don’t actually *have* new mail, why bother having the Mail window visible? It’s not any more accessible on another virtual desktop than it is by clicking on it in the dock to show the hidden window. A combination of hide, minimize, and expose work fine for me.
The point of virtual desktops is that you can keep a whole screen full of apps arranged as you like them for a specific task. For example, if you program, you can have an NEdit window, a terminal window, and a Safari browser open to some documentation on one desktop, then have another desktop set up for full-screen web browsing, another for e-mail + newsreading + IRC, etc. Then, if you need to do some random finder task you can switch to yet another new desktop for a clean working surface.
Expose is ok for switching from one app to another, but it’s no replacement for virtual desktops, which are excellent for switching from one complete workflow to another.
The point of virtual desktops is that you can keep a whole screen full of apps arranged as you like them for a specific task. For example, if you program, you can have an NEdit window, a terminal window, and a Safari browser open to some documentation on one desktop, then have another desktop set up for full-screen web browsing, another for e-mail + newsreading + IRC, etc. Then, if you need to do some random finder task you can switch to yet another new desktop for a clean working surface.
Expose is ok for switching from one app to another, but it’s no replacement for virtual desktops, which are excellent for switching from one complete workflow to another.
And it’s rock solid! I’ve been using it for months now, through several releases, and it’s never given me any problems at all. Judging from the comments above I’m not the only one.
I’m a bit mystified as to why Eugenia’s so disparaging of this software. I’m no “freeloader” and I don’t value “flashy animations” all that highly (although they do impress my lab-mates :-). I like DM because it does one thing and does it well. Why should my virtual desktop software provide focus-follows-mouse, anyway? There’s only one important feature I feel DM lacks (sticky windows) and that’s in the works for the next release. When it comes, I look forward to installing it and not thinking about it again, which is what I really want from a piece of infrastructure like virtual desktops.
Virtual desktops can be useful for the mythical “workflow” but I have yet to experience it. I really don’t see mail and news reader as “workflow”. How are they related? How do I benefit from always having each visible with the other? Full screen web browsing is not a “workflow”. If an app takes up the whole screen it’s a perfect candidate for hiding. How is unhiding a full screen app any worse than virtual desktops?
I won’t argue that some people won’t prefer it or find it useful. But it is absolutely laughable to call it a “need”.
1) Virtual Desktops is about grouping applications. It is beneficial to group applications if they are used together in some way. I am a system administrator for several clients. I have one virtual desktop for each client. On each desktop I have open the applications that I need to support that particular client. With 5 clients, that could amount to 25 windows. Damned if I’m gonna hunt through that many windows on an expose display.
2) If is often beneficial to have multiple applications visible together. I often run a performance monitoring window while executing an application so that I can monitor resource usage in real time. I often have multiple finder windows permanently open, next to each other to facilitate drag/drop from my programming directory to my run time directory.
3) As for full-screen applications, it takes one click on a tiny little hard-to-see button to minimize a window and a second click on the doc to maximize the new window. With virtual desktops, nothing is ever minimized, so no need to deal with tiny little hard-to-see buttons, and you need only one mouse click on a nice big pager to get rid of one window and bring up another. Much less stressful and more efficient.
4) Just because you can’t find a use for something doesn’t mean that others can’t work efficiently without it.
How does Eugenia know what geeks like? Calling the largest geek community in existance “freeloaders” is insulting to my intelligence. You obviously are only a self styled “geek”, as you totally miss the point of the open source community and the ethics of free exchange of information. I use Linux and Mac, as well as the occasional(yuk)Windows at work. I have used wsmanager for a while and find it lacking nothing. Most of the Codetek features are useless clutter and bloat. Truly free things in this day and time are a godsend. Thats another $40.00 I won’t have to spend because I done spent it all on Panther, Suse 9, and Xandros 2.0, as well as my broadband bill so I could download Debian, Fedora Core, and Mandrake, but what do I know? I’m a freeloader.
I also like flashy animations.
Yours is an extreme case. Perhaps Eugenia’s is an extreme case also. To me that’s like saying a car “needs” an ejector seat. But to each their own….
🙂
it ain’t worth running!
Over the years I have gotten used to the “focus direction” feature in fvwm2. I have yet to find this in any other WM. Well, for sawfish/sawmill someone had written a plugin lisp program that tried to do the same thing, but it wasn’t really usable.
I am using shift-meta-{hjkl} (the VI arrow keys) to switch focus to the window laying in that direction from the currently active window. This should be an ABSOLUTE MINIMUM of features in any modern window manager! 🙂
When is it useful to have two apps visible at once? How about any time you’re writing something (code, e-mail, etc…) and need to refer to something else simultaneously (documentation, a web page, etc…). If this is seriously something you never feel the need for then I’m jealous, because you can be happy with one of those tiny 1024×768 monitors while I’m always craving more screen space.
In any case, I won’t be too hard on you. It took me about 2 years of developing on Linux before I really understood how useful virtual desktops were. It’s not obvious until you’ve tried using them for a few weeks and realize that you can’t live without ’em.
I used Virtual Desktops on Linux a bit and even when I was on Linux I never really found that great a use for them. I thought about using Virtual Desktops on Mac OS X after trying it out on my friends PowerBook for a while, but then Expose came out and it because a Virtual Desktop Replacement for me.
Ever since using Expose more and more I really don’t see a need for a Virtual Desktop program ( free or one that costs anything ) since I can manage my many open windows easily. Between Expose and Apple+Alt Application switcher I don’t see a need for virtual desktops.
As a long time user of many different systems I personally think that the VD is overkill in today’s GUI. Most desktops these days take the taskbar approach for managing applications (ex, Windows Task Bar, OS X Dock, KDE, GNOME, etc…) Back in the days of OpenWindows, Motif, CDE, and Win 3.11, this made perfectly good sense. Open multiple applications place them on a VD and switch between them as needed. Now with the ability to minimize and maximize apps via the taskbar/dock its taken away the need for a VD.
Some of us don’t like constantly shuffling around windows and constantly hiding/unhiding stuff. Virtual desktops also let you take advantage of all that vaunted “spatial memory” stuff – if I know that my mp3 player will always be in the top right hand corner of workspace 4, I can switch there faster than I can scan the taskbar for it or cycle through the alt-tab list.
Maybe it’s just me, but I find I work better that way. Back when I was a windows user, I started programs in a specific order because I found I could find them faster if they were in a particular order in the taskbar. The simple fact of it is that we are much faster when we’re doing things we don’t have to think about.
I find it much more usefull to have a dual monitor configuration. For programming its great becuase you can have your IDE open in one screen and debug your app in another. Id say the same goes for writing documentation, you have the app that you are writing you documentation in, on one screen and the thing you are writing about in the other.
The ironic thing is that virtual desktops are basically nothing but multi-monitors emulated on a single monitor.
I have been a long time user of CTVD – following it from it’s initial 2.0 release all the way up to 3.0. For me, it’s stable, fast, and has sticky windows (which I’ve incorporated into my work flow). I downloaded Desktop Manager — it’s obviously very impressive. I use it at work — it, too, is stable, and I love the animation transitions as I cycle between windows. Speed isn’t really an issue for me – as both machines (home and work) are G5 based. I like DM because its really coming along, it’s stable, and it’s FREE. If I didn’t already have CTVD, I’d recommend DM. Virtual desktops rule!
If you have two virtual desktops – each with one app “visible” on it – then you really only have one app visibile at any one time. Virtual desktops are essentially a special form of application hiding (and I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s how they were implemented).
And actually I run my 21″ monitor at 1280×1024 so I have a little more space. 1600×1200 just makes everything too small for my tastes.
I checked the Workspaces app out and it rocks. Only 15 bucks too for you non-freeloaders.
If you have two virtual desktops – each with one app “visible” on it – then you really only have one app visibile at any one time. Virtual desktops are essentially a special form of application hiding (and I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s how they were implemented).
You can have windows from the same App on differen workspaces. For example, I have one setup for my e-mail. When I’m using webmail, I have one Firefox window open on that workspace but a load more on my ‘Web-browsing’ workspace.
Application hiding wasn’t granular enough for me. Thats why I needed Virtual Desktops and I can vouch that Desktop Manager at least isn’t based on Application hiding
.
I’m not a freeloader. I’m someone who believes that a small elegant solution is far preferable to a clunky bloated *slow* solution. I’m someone who believes in community and skill sharing and contributing. Open-source is not about freeloading and I really hope that you, Eugenia, don’t honestly believe the comments you have made to that effect. If so, I recommend that OSNews.com lock you up with a few websites and maybe even ‘The Cathedral and the Bazaar’ until you have a modicum of clue.
Anyway, to clean my guilty freeloader’s conscience I should point out that I donated money to Desktop Manager to keep the developer working on such a great app. I can’t wait for sticky applications. Mind you there is still some way to go before he can afford a dual monitor setup and therefore make his fantastic program work on that — but I don’t mind, as I don’t need it to.
You can shout as much as you want. I still stand on my opinion. Most people will still stay with WSManager JUST BECAUSE it is free, not because it is better. There will be, of course, people that will genuinely like WSManager, but the majority of the people just doesn’t wanna pay up.
I’m one of these Mac users that is constantly drag and dropping clippings, files, etc to my desktop. Do these files then end up on the other virtual desktops or is there some kind of kludge to get information from one VD to the other?
Eugenia:
You can shout as much as you want. I still stand on my opinion. Most people will still stay with WSManager JUST BECAUSE it is free, not because it is better. There will be, of course, people that will genuinely like WSManager, but the majority of the people just doesn’t wanna pay up.
I think it’s the use of the emotionally-loaded term “freeloader” and the “I paid for this software, so I occupy a moral highground – neener neender” attitude that people are objecting to.
And honestly, it does seem like you’re going out of your way to slam WSManager for no particular reason. Would it be alright if I call you a freeloader for using IE or Safari, since I paid for Opera?
If you have two virtual desktops – each with one app “visible” on it – then you really only have one app visibile at any one time. Virtual desktops are essentially a special form of application hiding (and I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s how they were implemented).
If you’re limiting yourself to 1 app per VD, then you’re not really using VDs to their full potential. Back when I used to use BeOS at work (in my old job, as a web content writer/HTML coder), I would group related apps in virtual desktops: workspace 1 gets text editing and browsing windows (because while doing research/writing/HTML, I most often jumped back and forth between those apps), workspace 2 gets Email and IM (aka the communication workspace), workspace 3 had an FTP client and filemanager windows for my HTML docs, etc.
So if I had just finished writing an article and putting it into HTML form (done primarily in workspace 1), I could then just jump to workspace 3 and upload it. Without workspaces, I would have had to un-hide my FTP client, un-hide the folder I needed (assuming I had left those open), and probably hide other windows that were open to reduce the clutter a bit.
So no, hiding and unhiding apps doesn’t negate the usefulness of virtual workspaces, unless there is a way to hide and un-hide groups of apps.
I find these freeloader comments disparaging. If people want to use open source apps because they are free then it is their choice, after all thats why they are open source.