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Comment by _mrmnmly | Hacker News Reader

Know what you're talking about. Since I've switched back to Linux I can't imagine working without workspaces - each one dedicated for specific task/app - and every time staying with specific order so e.g. 1 workspace: Browser, 2nd: Code editor, 3rd: Terminal, 4th: File explorers etc. I used to it so much that I automatically use shortcuts to access it immediately - switching between minimized windows using alt + tab keys is a nightmare.

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Windows 10 actually supports this feature, still can't get used to it though... win+tab -> switch between virtual desktops, or ctrl+win+left/right arrows.

and if you have many windows open (in win 10 at least) you don't have to press alt+tab 10 times in a row to choose your desired program, you can hold alt+tab and use arrows.

Yep. Curiously, though, you cannot share running programs or windows across "desktops" in Windows, although you can share them across Spaces in macOS.

Yes you can, it was added in the Creators update. Hit win+tab and right-click the window, you can choose to show that single window across all desktops or all windows from the app across all desktops.

You can accomplish (mostly) the same thing with Spaces on Mac. Granted, I don't believe you can really script any of it. All manual, but it still works pretty well for me.

Some days I still really miss dwm, but having Photoshop, Ableton, and several other things Just Work™ makes it worth it.

The problem with spaces is that any time you cmd-tab between spaces, those spaces will be repositioned relative to each other to be adjacent. This also happens whenever a window opens a dialogue that forces you to switch to it. This means that you can't reliably keep spaces in a strict order.

You can disable this behavior in

System Preferences > Mission Control > Automatically rearrange Spaces based on most recent use

I have never seen either of those things happen. I even just tested the first one.

Perhaps it's a setting or was the behavior in an older version of macOS?

If I alt-tab between apps, or open a new window in an app from a particular space, I'm warped to wherever OSX very wrongly thinks I ought to be.

Motherfucking maddening as hell.

Yes, this is something I do to on linux, and it's great particularly when you're doing something that gets quite messy with lots of windows open - when you're working with lots of files, or you the program (like GIMP) opens up several windows. If you need to do something else it's so nice to just leave it all and move onto a nice clean workspace without having to minimize everything.

You do have multiple workspaces on Windows 10... Though if you mean "automatically assign application X to workspace Y", which many Linux WMs are able to do, you're out of luck.

I used to use VirtuaWin[1] on Windows, which adds virtual desktops to it. It's possible it doesn't work in the most recent Windows (although, given Win compatibility, it could just as well work), but until Windows 7 (when I stopped using Windows) it was a life-saver. I used Enlightenment (E16) on some of my computers back then and after working with multiple desktops I just couldn't live without them. I mostly use 3x3 layout, with the main application I work with at the center, and other applications to the sides. Works great for me!

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VirtuaWin

Sadly the workspaces are very much mouse oriented (want to switch between workspaces? Thats win+ctrl+number!).

And there is no proper UI element for checking if you have anything open in a different workspace without opening the switcher.

You can switch with Ctrl+Win+Left/Right, too.

While true, it does not alleviate the finger yoga...

Not to different from most Linux DE's Ctrl+Alt+Left/Right.

At least any sane DE allows me to define them to be less gymnastic.

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