“Spaces is an entirely new feature in Mac OS X Leopard, but the idea of virtual desktops — and multiple desktops — has been around for a long time,” Prince McLean reports for AppleInsider.
McLean takes a look at what’s new and different about Apple’s approach with Spaces, why virtual desktops have run into problems before, and how well Leopard’s Spaces actually works in practice.
McLean covers:
• The Origins of Spaces: Xerox Rooms
• The Mac Switcher and Multiple Desktops
• Multiple Screens on the Amiga
• Virtual Desktops of the X Window System
• Windows’ Virtual Desktop Problems
• Mac OS X’s new Spaces
• Third Party Support for Spaces
• User Accessibility for Spaces
• Everything in its Space
• Trading Spaces
• The Outer Reaches of Spaces
McLean writes, ” Spaces works so transparently, and offers so many options for organizing things just as you’d like, and makes moving windows around so effortless and intuitive, that I’ve grown quite attached to it. Now, instead of sorting through piles of open windows or minimizing so many browser windows that my Dock shrinks down into pebbles of icons, I can leave my windows all open, strewn across a universe of wide open Spaces, hopping around between them like Arthur Dent.”
Full article, with screenshots, here.
