Having more real-estate isn't always buying more

Something unprecedented happened yesterday - I somehow started liking my Hackintosh.

So how did this happen?

It's the virtual desktops. And the way you go around with them. Snow Leopard and Lion (as well their *nix Linux bastard relatives) have an option to use virtual desktops. That's probably one of the must underrated features that an OS Shell possesses. AND WINDOWS DOESN'T HAVE!

So me being a software engineer with woman-like power to coordinate multiple activities (proven), I can quickly "switch my context" between multiple activities and remember "my last state". Like app switching on mobile platforms :)

Virtual Desktops

It's like behaving that your place has more room than you actually see, and you are able to access it quickly.

So let's imagine a user called Bob. Bob is a standard PC user - there's a guy I know that is behaving like "Bob", so I'm going to use his behavioural pattern as a starting point. And Bob likes his computer. Because it can help him listen to music, chat using his favourite chat service, surf the web, check the mail, use Facebook, etc. So to do all those things Bob has to:

• Have Chrome or a-browser-of-your-choice opened, probably with multiple tabs
• Have a music player window open
• Have a chat window (or windows) open
• Have a mail application open
• I dunno, maybe a word processor window open. Something.

So he already has 5 or more windows open. His idea was to do all this stuff in parallel. But even if he has a large screen (like a 27" screen, but he's Bob, so he probably doesn't have) the OS Shell main screen is going to get cluttered. And switching between apps will either make you move your mouse around a lot to switch apps in the app controller (Windows users call this "Taskbar"), or work your fingers with Alt + Tab or Command + Tab or whatever equivalent your OS Shell uses, but you may not get the app that you want immediately. And the time you need to access the application screen is around 1-3-5-7 seconds. It will give you the effect that you're racing against time if you quicky try to respond a chat message, update your status or change the song or read the news or ... well, whatever. And that's NOT OK, it can make you nervous.

Solutions? There are a few I know of.

• Buy and connect another monitor. You'll have more space, and you can also use one monitor for frequently used stuff that you need to see all the time. Like Chat boxes, Facebook or Twitter updates, a movie (if you can work and watch a movie at the same time) et al.
• Use OS Shell features to round up app windows. For example, in Windows 7 you can shake a window to minimize all other windows and the same action to revert. Cleans the fucking place :). Also see OS X Exposé, works hell of a lot better than anything Windows OS' offer.
• And the crown jewel - virtual desktops.

I have a picture for you people:

This is the Mac OS X "Mission Control" feature in Lion. What does it do? It rounds up windows on all desktops. It's a combination of Exposé and Spaces. "Spaces" is the Virtual Desktop feature of the Mac OS X from the previous versions. So you round up windows on virtual desktops (by some rule, I don't know) and switch desktops by hitting keys on your keyboard or set a shortcut on your mouse. You can now see everything - and seeing everything gives you a great sense of omnipresence (a "god" feeling?). Powerful stuff. 

Before Mission Control you could combine Exposé and Spaces. That also worked great - but now you can save even more time since with the same keystroke you activate both window switching and desktop switching. And that's OK.

So basically, you create virtual desktops, put windows on them and switch them using shortcuts. It's different than switching application windows, because if you can align your windows on desktops (one time operation) you can switch multiple applications simultaneously using a single keystroke or operation. Now that's VERY OK :). I'm addicted to that. And Lion has it easiest. That's why I started liking *intoshes :)

GC.ReRegisterForFinalize(this);

And at the end, all I'm saying is that Bob can make his job easier if he decides to use virtual desktops. If he's a Windows user, I'm afraid he's stuck to mediocre virtual desktop apps that actually complicate things. But does that mean him buying a Mac? Or building a Hackintosh? Installing Linux? I personally don't give a falling-star's-ass about what he's going to do. I have 4 operating systems on my PC, 2 of them have virtual desktops, Bob is responsible for his actions - I'm just giving him a choice :)

Learn to switch context fast. The brain can work multiple stuff if you make it do it. It'll help you multi-task!!!

That would be all, Number One.