I’ve used virtual windows before … it must have been 7-8 years ago when I was deep into web application development, and desktop real estate was still expensive …
But I hadn’t enabled Spaces yet … mostly because I had Leopard on our home iMac, with a 20″ screen. The screen was big enough for most work, and I didn’t actually do much work on it in any case.
But I just picked up a MacBook for my new job …
It’s an absolutely lovely knock-out of a machine. Light, powerful, portable, gorgeous screen, unbelievably streamlined body unmarred by any of the bumps, hings, protusions, and other assorted warts on so many other laptops.
But the screen is 13″ big.
Surprisingly (to myself) I haven’t actually missed the desktop real estate that much. That’s what the fairly hi-res 1280 x 800 and high-quality screen will do for you. But there are occasions when I like to only see the windows associated with the application I’m currently using – and that’s where Spaces shines.
I enabled it tonight, and already love it. Switching to an app pushes you automatically to the right space – perfect. And if I need more switchability, I’ve set up the Command key with the arrow keys to quickly move wherever I need to go.
Simple, quick, easy, and beautiful. That’s Mac!