HACKER Q&A
📣 ahmedfromtunis

How are virtual desktops useful to you?


Since I switched to Linux from Windows many years ago, I always wondered how can I take fully advantage of the virtual desktop feature.

Theoretically, it's easy to see how useful the VD can be, but for me, I never found an enticing use case to make a daily usage of it.

Am I missing something?


  👤 grlass Accepted Answer ✓
I have 10 virtual desktops, accessible with the keyboard shortcut Super+[0-9].

I essentially use it as a faster alternative to tab switching, by grouping types of applications in different desktops.

- My main text editor can always be reached with Super+1. - Most of my browser windows are at are Super+2 (tab switching between multiple windows) - Super+3 is has my terminal sessions - Super+4 has my dashboards and things like Jupyter notebooks - Super+5, Super+6 don't get used that much - Super+7 is for media - cmus, Spotify, etc - Super+8 is for Zotero and papers I am reading, as well as ebooks and such - Super+9 is for my email client - Super+0 is for my social apps, such as those stored in a Rambox-like, Element, cwtch, Signal, and others.

I haven't bothered with any automatic grouping, and I can easily send a given window to a given desktop with Super+Shift+[0-9].

This isn't as deep as what some power users do. But it saves me a lot of keystrokes, and helps me feel organised.


👤 gus_massa
(In Win10) When I have a long time compilation, I prefer to put it in another desktop. I don't like the icon in the taskbar, because it makes me want to peek.