Has Redmond finally stopped fighting its users' wishes? Indications are that, in Windows 9, it will include multiple workspaces (which unix and unix-like OSes have offered for years).
SiliconANGLE reports
Leaked photos of the Windows Technical Preview are shedding light on what the next version of Windows will look like.
[...]
The Metro style Start screen has been replaced with a traditional Windows desktop, complete with the taskbar at the bottom with frequently used app shortcuts. One new element that wasn't in prior leaked screenshots is the search icon. It appears on the taskbar, next to the Start button.
On the right side of the search icon is, at long last, the Virtual Desktop icon. Virtual desktops, a feature that allows users to create, save, and easily switch between multiple desktop configurations, has been available in competing operating systems, like Ubuntu, for some time.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by cyrano on Tuesday September 16 2014, @05:48PM
Too little, too late, I'm afraid.
The quieter you become, the more you are able to hear. - Kali [kali.org]
(Score: 4, Interesting) by frojack on Tuesday September 16 2014, @06:28PM
I doubt that.
While I prefer KDE, I can see that this will put a lot of corporate users back in their comfort zone, and maybe pry windows 7 out of their death grip.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 16 2014, @07:02PM
For those of us forced to use Windows in the corporate world, this will a very welcome addition.
(Score: 2) by opinionated_science on Tuesday September 16 2014, @06:28PM
mod + 10^6
(Score: 3, Funny) by DECbot on Tuesday September 16 2014, @07:37PM
mod + 10ⁿ as lim n →∞
cats~$ sudo chown -R us /home/base
(Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Wednesday September 17 2014, @02:58PM
Score mod 5
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Hairyfeet on Tuesday September 16 2014, @08:44PM
Ohh ohh, can we have the worthless Linux cube too? Just another example of a "feature" that a teeny tiny handful of uber nerds like that supposedly makes X "superior" to Y when IRL I bet my last dollar if you looked at ACTUAL USAGE, not the person who fires it up once to go "well isn't that neat" and never touches it again, but actual daily usage numbers for that supposedly "killer feature"? That you'd be DAMN lucky to get high single digits, in fact if it even reached 6% I'd be fricking amazed. And please don't waste my time with your anecdote about how "you use it every day" because I'm sure I can find somebody who uses X-Server to remote into their desktop every day but that DON'T make that a typical user action, ok?
The simple fact is, and this is what just breaks Intel's and AMD's hearts as it makes even first gen C2Q and Phenom X4 frankly overkill, is that the average user has MAYBE 3 windows open, browser, music player, and chat...that's it. Most don't even do that, you'd be surprised how many normal folks out there haven't even realized you can have tabbed pages in their browsers! Like it or not Joe and Sally Normal are single taskers, they focus on ONE task, do that task, and move on. I should know as I've been building and selling and fixing PCs since the days of Windows 3.x and have been dealing with every kind of user from every walk of life for more years than I can count and all this "feature" will do is allow MSFT to put another checkbox on a PPT, in reality this won't even crack double digits when it comes to daily users.
ACs are never seen so don't bother. Always ready to show SJWs for the racists they are.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 16 2014, @09:41PM
a "feature" that a teeny tiny handful of uber nerds like
...and when those nerds first see it, they stop running Windoze. [googleusercontent.com] (orig) [fossforce.com]
Compiz [blogspot.com]
KWin [wikimedia.org]
.
...and getting clutter off your main desktop while still keeping the app|window open is handy.
People who have tried virtual desktops tend to say "Where has this been all my life?".
-- gewg_
(Score: 4, Informative) by frojack on Tuesday September 16 2014, @09:42PM
You say that is if you personally know Joe and Sally.
But I've never seen any of the old geezers I know use only one tab anymore.
The have several tabs open on the laptops as well as their cell phones.
Unless you hang around with a bunch of Neanderthals, I suspect your opinion of the average user of any platform is pretty jaundiced and out of touch.
People shop on line. I've watched my daughter in law (not the brightest bulb in the string) drill down on the same product or similar products from multiple sources in 8 or 12 tabs, price compare, pop open here Amex account, get a unique Credit card number for her selected vendor, add that to here encrypted password wallet, order the product, all while answering emails in Thunderbird, and adding expected delivery dates into her calendar.
Joe and Jill aren't the dunderheads you so conceitedly think they are.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Hairyfeet on Wednesday September 17 2014, @03:46AM
And the fact that in the past few years, no doubt thanks to Google and MSFT ads showing them this, folks are using tabs now, usually under 5...AND? your point? How in the fuck does having a few tabs in a browser translate to needing multiple desktops, which just FYI Windows had for FIFTEEN FRICKING YEARS with the Powertoys nobody used?
And sorry Sparky but I get everything from heart surgeons to guitar players, little old ladies to construction workers so I'd say my exp is just worth a teeny tiny hell of a lot more than yours, mmkay? mark my words this will be another netmeeting, another tool that will sit wasted for a few releases until they remove it and the only response will be "they still had that?" BTW how many desktops are YOU using right now in Windows? you DO know you could have as many as you wanted with the latest powertoy, yes? So how many are you running? Uhhh...could that answer be ONE perhaps?
ACs are never seen so don't bother. Always ready to show SJWs for the racists they are.
(Score: 2) by monster on Wednesday September 17 2014, @01:35PM
Take into account that the not-so-utterly-lost users that can take care of themselves online will be less prone to repeatedly break their computers and demand your services, so you may have a bit of an inverse "survivor bias" ("moron bias"?) in your repairs.
As for the usefulness of virtual desktops, while computers have steadily increased both memory and CPU capabilities (so more programs can be working at the same time), screen state has been pretty stagnant, specially on laptops. Virtual desktops give that needed screen state in a useful, even if not perfect, way. Also, having that built-in instead of as an obscure function in some obscure, optional addons is not the same: You can't argue about the use by the average user of a tool aimed at power users, which you have to search for inside a set of tools among many other tools that almost no normal user would even have heard what they were for (Unix sevices? Netlan? WTF?), much less think she would need them.
(Score: 2) by Hairyfeet on Wednesday September 17 2014, @06:32PM
LOL let me translate your post , via Mel brooks "bullshit bullshit aaaaannnndd bullshit!" BTW noticed you ignored the question, how many are YOU using RIGHT NOW, could it be...ohh I don't know, ONE perhaps? Thought so, just another goober who champions shit he don't even fucking use, HAND.
ACs are never seen so don't bother. Always ready to show SJWs for the racists they are.
(Score: 2) by monster on Thursday September 18 2014, @06:34AM
Just for your information, I use two VDs in a two monitor (four in total) setup at work, four VDs at home, so YES I USE IT, but whatever floats your boat, man. This thread has already gone past useful discussion anyway.
(Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Wednesday September 17 2014, @02:56PM
pop open [her] Amex account, get a unique Credit card number for her selected vendor
Why?
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 2) by frojack on Wednesday September 17 2014, @05:39PM
When I saw her doing this it was the first use of that vendor, but she has gotten in the habit of doing that (its a service offered by Amex). The card number is ONLY good at that vendor. Even if lost or stolen it can't be used anywhere else.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2) by jimshatt on Wednesday September 17 2014, @07:01AM
So if your point is that MS shouldn't add this because the average user won't need it, you're wrong. If your point is just that the average user won't need it, you're probably right.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 16 2014, @05:53PM
The thing I liked about the previous generation of Windows users (2000, 2003, XP) was the total hacking mentality; they would dive under the hood and hack the fuck out of it to see how bare bones you could go; they would share patches and methods for reverse engineering and customizing every aspect of the user space...
...I would love to find a current community whose hobby is hacking the fuck out of these NT6 systems. I want to totally hack/customize the user space to look exactly like the Windows XP GUI (including Windows Explorer). I would like to remove every .NET runtime library and all related reg and file entries. I would love to strip out all Metro-related components. I would love to strip it back to the look and feel of a vanilla Windows XP desktop!
Is this possible? Are there Windows hacking fanatics out there sharing knowledge on doing shit like this?
If doing this is impossible..........then (1) I would love to know the exact technical reasons why, and (2) It looks like it is time for me to say 'bye bye' to Microsoft operating systems.
(Score: 4, Informative) by frojack on Tuesday September 16 2014, @06:18PM
I suggest you google (or bing if you prefer): alternative windows desktops
An article here for a quick review: http://www.online-tech-tips.com/software-reviews/7-best-windows-alternative-shell-replacement-programs/ [online-tech-tips.com]
A list here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_alternative_shells_for_Windows [wikipedia.org]
Not all of these work on all versions of windows.
So can you do it? Depends on your skills.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Tuesday September 16 2014, @06:20PM
Ahhhh - I loved those "bare bones" tweaking days. I had a SuperSocket 7 with the AMD 450 mobile chip on it. I installed Win XP, and it did a very nice job after I tweaked hell out of it. Then - the Athlon was created. My wife bought herself a nice shiny new Athlon, with XP installed. That poor thing ran like petrified dinosaur shit through a sieve. I should probably mention that I was a regular visitor to places like Black Viper's home site back then.
http://www.blackviper.com/ [blackviper.com]
(Score: 2) by Hairyfeet on Tuesday September 16 2014, @09:27PM
What you want is "Windows 7 Tiny" which is just that, a stripped to the bone version of Windows 7 originally put out for gamers. It fits on a CD, comes to less than a GB installed, and trying it out on some old hardware at the shop it stomped both XP embedded as well as WinFLP when it comes to performance.
Sadly Win 7 is the last version as the rumor is the guy making them lost his job in the downturn and doesn't have time to fuck with it anymore. Frankly MSFT really needs to hire the guy and have him build a version of Win 9 for legacy PCs as his Win 7 just curbstomped WinFLP when it comes to performance, in fact I slapped it on a 2003 Netburst Celery (eeew!) with 756Mb of RAM and it actually turned it into a pleasant to use netbox, which anybody who knows just how badly crippled a Netburst Celery is knows that is saying a lot.
ACs are never seen so don't bother. Always ready to show SJWs for the racists they are.
(Score: 2) by Jaruzel on Wednesday September 17 2014, @11:58AM
What you want now is, "Windows Thin [microsoft.com]" - it's an official MS SKU of Windows 7, with all the bloat stripped out. It's not available to end users though, so search your favourite haunts for the ISO.
I played with it a bit [jaruzel.com] when it was released (via MSDN). Interesting, but still nowhere near as lightweight as an nLite'd XP build :(
-Jar
This is my opinion, there are many others, but this one is mine.
(Score: 2) by Hairyfeet on Wednesday September 17 2014, @06:44PM
Nope, sorry Jaruzel but I done tried it and Win 7 Tiny curbstomps the shit out of it when it comes to raw performance per cycle and how fast it runs. Again I put it on a 1.8Ghz Netburst Celery...you have ANY idea how badly crippled a netburst Celery is? Netburst lived and died by cache thanks to how long the pipes were and the Celery had just 256Kb of cache, it was like tying a fricking boat anchor on the already slow as hell Netburst! And with Win 7 Tiny that system was actually pleasant to use, not so with Windows Thin, not with WinFLP (which is actually thinner than Windows Thin last I checked, just FYI) and not even Windows Embedded with every checkbox unchecked could use less than Win 7 Tiny! Oh and unlike Windows Thin and WinFLP its not built as a thin client so a good 95% of Windows software runs just fine.
Here is the specs for Win 7 Tiny which I checked myself...install size around 700Mb, RAM footprint around 156Mb, CPU cycles less than 1% on the desktop...yeah I have yet to see another version of Windows come close. BTW if you have an older machine or room for a VM you should give some of his builds a try, its just nuts how small he was able to get! We're talking 32Mb Win2K, 96Mb Win2K3, 96Mb XP , 512Mb Vista...yeah he's a hacker NOT a miracle worker and Vista is a bloated piggie, still runs better than default Vista though LOL.
ACs are never seen so don't bother. Always ready to show SJWs for the racists they are.
(Score: 3, Informative) by richtopia on Tuesday September 16 2014, @05:55PM
Until Win9 and these hypothetical virtual desktops, we can use VirtuaWin on windows (http://virtuawin.sourceforge.net/).
Biggest issue I have with VirtuaWin is Microsoft programs, namely Excel and Explorer which do not split into multiple instances very nicely. I still use it every day at work.
(Score: 2) by strattitarius on Tuesday September 16 2014, @07:33PM
Biggest issue I have with VirtuaWin is Microsoft programs, namely Excel and Explorer which do not split into multiple instances very nicely.
As a heavy user of Excel, I am glad to report that the default behavior of Excel 2013, finally, is to open new workbooks in new windows. No longer do you have to fight to get workbooks on multiple monitors.
I loved how fanbois of MS would call that a feature.
Also I really don't care about virtual desktops. Never been something I found all that useful in Linux and I never found myself wanting it in Windows. Hell, the IBM is yelling at both of them to get off it's lawn with those stupid desktops!
Slashdot Beta Sucks. Soylent Alpha Rules. News at 11.
(Score: 2) by richtopia on Tuesday September 16 2014, @07:58PM
As a heavy user of Excel, I am glad to report that the default behavior of Excel 2013, finally, is to open new workbooks in new windows. No longer do you have to fight to get workbooks on multiple monitors.
Splendid. Now I only need to wait for corporate to adopt Excel 2013. I'm guessing only two more years to go!
(Score: 2) by EvilJim on Wednesday September 17 2014, @12:36AM
Lucky you, we're still running 2007
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 16 2014, @06:01PM
This is nothing more than shipping Windows 9 with Microsoft's VDM [microsoft.com] that has existed for years as an optional download, all the way back to XP's Powertoys [microsoft.com].
The latter sucked enough that I uninstalled it after a few hours of use, despite having been enamored of virtual desktops after using Red Hat for no more than a few minutes. I wonder if Windows 9's implemention of it will be significantly more advanced. They bought Sysinternals, and they could have paid Mark Russinovich to keep developing his tools which blew Mictosoft's own straight out of the water. But they squandered (or extinguished) them instead.
And anway, that type of VDM is old hat. Enlightenment's [enlightenment.org] huge-ass grid is the virtual desktop implementation that I've found the most comfortable to use. Now having that be a built-in component of Windows, Aero and all, would be wonderful.
-- LentilSoupIsMentalFruit [soylentnews.org]
(Karma cannot stop me.)
(Score: 4, Insightful) by frojack on Tuesday September 16 2014, @06:14PM
After the switch from KDE3 to KDE4 it took almost a year to browbeat them into allowing different backgrounds on the desktops so you could quickly tell where you were. Gnome still refuses that capability without some serious hacking. From all appearances Microsoft is following the Gnome philosophy and they are all going to look the same. I wonder if the really did this, or are simulating it by some lame hiding mechanism.
If you watch the linked video, you will see the full Metro Style interface is still available, and from other reports, will be the default on touch screen devices. But it is user selectable regardless of platform. The marriage of Metro into the Start menu is a a masterpiece of face saving genius.
I can't help but think this version is where they should have started, rather than ramming metro down everyone's throat*. They would be miles ahead of where windows 8.1 is now in terms of user acceptance.
I understand that nothing springs full blown from the first attempt, and the bureaucracy within Microsoft is probably heavily command and personality driven, and doesn't pay all that much attention to user opinion until they see it in terms of Dollars and Cents.
*(That's not to say that force feeding is purely a Microsoft tactic these days: Unity and Ubuntu and Gnome and SystemD and Pulse).
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 16 2014, @06:53PM
Eighth time's the charms bar :(
-- LentilSoupIsMentalFruit [soylentnews.org]
Karma cannot stop me.)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 16 2014, @11:20PM
After the switch from KDE3 to KDE4 it took almost a year to browbeat them into allowing different backgrounds on the desktops so you could quickly tell where you were.
I missed that functionality for about 3 months. But then I realized it wasn't such a big deal. Sure, nice and pretty to have, but not all that functional. Maybe you are different from me, but nearly all of my virtual desktops are app-specific so it is easy to tell what is what with just a glance. In half of them the main app window is maximized so you can't even see the root window anyway.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by grid on Tuesday September 16 2014, @07:06PM
Windows 9 gets virtual desktops. And blackjack. And hookers. In fact, forget Windows 9.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by turgid on Tuesday September 16 2014, @07:12PM
Over the years, whenever dyed-in-the-wool Windows users look at my system (I use Window Maker) they don't "get" the multiple desktop thing. They can't understand why anyone would need it, and they can't understand why anyone would need so many windows open.
Conversely, for at least the last 5 years, whenever I go to someone else's computer (whether it's running Windows or something else) they NEVER have more than one desktop and it always has one window, maximised to full screen! Even people using Linux systems with terminals open for developing software.
They all sit in IDEs that show you a single window of source code and a bunch of panes with all kinds of useless menus, messages and trees of garbage. It takes so long to get anything done...
Sometimes someone may have half a dozen terminal windows open, all full screen (for no discernible reason) and you have to minimise each one in turn to get to the thing you're looking for.
And don't get me started on click-to-focus. It's a waste of a mouse press. And widows that come to the foreground are next to useless since they often overlap something else you need to look at.
As ever, the world is mad, and I'm the only sane person in it!
The point of this rant? Since 0.01% of Windows (and 1% of Linux users) know how to use multiple on-screen windows concurrently, what's the point of giving them multiple virtual desktops?
"I'm a PC! I can put two windows side by side!"
I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 2, Interesting) by zafiro17 on Tuesday September 16 2014, @07:37PM
Ha - I hear you loud and clear, and I'm a WindowsMaker guy too, though no matter which WM I'm using I always make sure to have about 4 desktops (less isnt' enough and I never seem to use more than 4). I don't care about the 99.5% of people who don't use that functionality. I do, and I'll use whichever desktop allows me to have it. If Gnome drinks deeply from the bottle-of-dumbass, I stop using Gnome. If KDE makes it hard to do it the way I like it, I stop using KDE. Hell, I've used TVWM before (we're talking 80s here) and I'll use it again if that's the only one that gives me the functionality I need. That's why I like Linux - I've got choice and ultimate tweakability. Win7? Not so much.
Dad always thought laughter was the best medicine, which I guess is why several of us died of tuberculosis - Jack Handey
(Score: 1) by Tanuki64 on Tuesday September 16 2014, @08:01PM
Wow.... Never met another Window Maker user.... and now two. 8 desktops. Each has its fix purpose. For years. Switching by alt-Fx. It is almost 'hardcoded' in my fingers and very efficient. :-)
(Score: 1) by turgid on Tuesday September 16 2014, @08:45PM
Only 8? Amateur!
The other thing I can't understand nowadays are these distributions that are married to desktop environments (usually a variant of GNOME or KDE). In my day, and nowadays still, I use whatever the hell I want i.e. Window Maker. Even on MINT (we used to use Ubuntu but they turned it into a schizophrenic nightmare (no offense to those with a mental illness)) it's just an apt-get install away.
I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 2) by frojack on Tuesday September 16 2014, @09:58PM
Some distros start out to only do one DE, (Kubuntu), and that is their sole reason for existence. Its hardly fair to judge them for not supporting anything else.
Others are pretty much desktop agnostic and will handle many DEs, with each user getting to choose which they want at each login. The problem is that many of the DEs don't follow any standards, such that if you add something to the menus of one DE, you have to also do it separately for another. This makes even trying out another DE a pain in the rear.
Opensuse doesn't support ALL of them, but it supports a wide variety of DEs, and you can install them all if you want. Or none if you want. The work is about the same regardless of your choice.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 17 2014, @01:20AM
Some distros[...]will handle many DEs, with each user getting to choose which they want at each login
...then there's the distro that will let you change to another desktop and pick up right where you left off.
...or leave as many desktops running concurrently as your resources will support.
The first release was in 2012. [googleusercontent.com] (orig) [deviantart.com]
The most recent release added English and increased the number of desktops it ships with to 11. [googleusercontent.com] (orig) [blogspot.com]
On the downside, there hasn't been a release since the one that was based on Ubuntu 13.04.
-- gewg_
(Score: 1) by Tanuki64 on Wednesday September 17 2014, @01:54AM
I am not 100% sure if those, who cannot install their preferred DE themselves, are better served with a standard GNOME or KDE. Probably one reason why the bigger distributions restrict themselves to one of those.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 17 2014, @03:25AM
Yeah. Hybryde is more of a novelty for nerds who like to do demos for folks who are thinking about switching to another OS or to a different DE.
I'm guessing that the fact that this hasn't gotten a recent update says the devs aren't seeing massive interest.
-- gewg_
(Score: 3, Interesting) by tibman on Tuesday September 16 2014, @08:04PM
Focus on mouseover is one of my greatest complaints at work. Windows users don't understand unless you actually show them. If i mouse over another window and scroll my mouse, it should scroll. There is no need to click on it and bring it to the forefront.
SN won't survive on lurkers alone. Write comments.
(Score: 2) by hankwang on Tuesday September 16 2014, @08:38PM
"Focus on mouseover ... If i mouse over another window and scroll my mouse, it should scroll. There is no need to click on it and bring it to the forefront."
I, for one, found it a huge pain to use GIMP in focus-follows-mouse mode with several image windows open at the same time. You had to be very careful in routing the mouse back and forth between image window and toolbox, without accidentally focusing another window.
I have been using click-to-focus for years now, maybe GIMP has improved on that in the meantime.
Avantslash: SoylentNews for mobile [avantslash.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 17 2014, @03:37AM
I, for one, found it a huge pain to use GIMP in focus-follows-mouse mode with several image windows open at the same time.
This may be the only time I have ever had any issue with focus follows mouse. However, gimp is also one of the only programs that places every toolbox in a separate X window and expects those to all be tied to one image at a time. There are a couple ways around it, but I don't find any of them to be ideal:
1. use something else, like the gimp port that made it look like photoshop (gimpshop maybe? I can't remember the name)
2. use a separate X instance for gimp that has focus follows mouse turned off. This works ok (CTRL+ALT+F8 to get there for example), but it's certainly not ideal.
3. dual monitors with xinerama or similar, and put all tools on one monitor, and the images full screen on the other. Personally, I like my heads to be separate (:0.0 and :0.1). This also makes it difficult to have two or more images side-by-side. You can also use the options to put the toolbox on other displays, but in my experience, that tends to crash a lot for some reason.
Maybe someone else has a better suggestion. For every other app I've used, focus folows mouse works (nearly) perfect (some desktops mess it up with various focus delays and with notification windows that steal focus for a moment and screw everything up; old school ones do not seem to have that issue).
(Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Wednesday September 17 2014, @03:10PM
GIMP finally added a toggle to put it in one-window mode. It might require a restart, but at least they've finally stopped yelling "YOU ALL ARE CRAZY THIS IS FINE!"
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Nerdfest on Tuesday September 16 2014, @10:11PM
I've been helping some developers configure their new Windows desktops lately, and this is probably the biggest thing that drives me (and a couple of other Linux users) nuts. There are actually a few applications under Windows that do behave this way.
(Score: 2) by jimshatt on Wednesday September 17 2014, @07:11AM
(Score: 2) by tibman on Wednesday September 17 2014, @12:06PM
That's exactly it : ) I use to use wizmouse to provide that functionality for windows.
SN won't survive on lurkers alone. Write comments.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 17 2014, @07:12AM
In my experience, that goes for anything the current version of Windows can't do. Then when the next version of Windows gets the feature, it's suddenly the greatest invention since the wheel. Even when it turns out that everyone else had the feature just about since the invention of the wheel. I expect this to be no different.
(Score: 2) by TheLink on Wednesday September 17 2014, @10:07AM
Sometimes someone may have half a dozen terminal windows open, all full screen (for no discernible reason) and you have to minimise each one in turn to get to the thing you're looking for.
On Windows 7 you don't need to minimize them, just hover your mouse and you see the window titles or their images (depending on how you set things up). I often have 30+ windows open at the same time, I see no reason why I should waste extra time closing and reopening/relaunching stuff as long as I and my machine can cope.
I'll probably only stop using things full screen when the screens are huge (e.g. huge virtual screens via Oculus Rift like stuff). Meanwhile my laptop screen is too small to have multiple nonoverlapping windows and not have it be more annoying than useful.
With such small screens I have usually have screens maxed and if I need to regularly and quickly switch amongst more than two windows I use a utility I wrote: http://sourceforge.net/projects/linkkey/ [sourceforge.net]
With this utility alt+n will raise the window #n (where n goes from 1 to 9). alt+0 re-assigns the windows 1-9 where #1 is the current (last foregrounded) window; #2 is 2nd last window that was foreground (before #1) and #9 is the ninth last foregrounded window. So if you suddenly want to work with four particular windows, you raise/click the four windows then press alt+0 (5-9 will be assigned to the 5-9th windows but you don't care do you?). Once you're done with that task, and need a different set of windows, select those windows and press alt+0.
Windows 7 has something vaguely similar: winkey+n but it's by application not window. Which makes it mostly useless to me.
For example you might have one Excel window open, three Word documents open, and you need to update the contents of the Excel file based on the info on the other 3 windows (with some copy and pasting). With my utility you can switch directly to any of these windows with alt+n. Windows 7's winkey+n is clumsier (you'd need to winkey+n,n,n to switch to the 3rd Word doc window).
I proposed this feature to KDE and GNOME years ago:
https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=121349 [kde.org]
https://mail.gnome.org/archives/usability/2009-November/msg00011.html [gnome.org]
https://wiki.gnome.org/Projects/GnomeShell/DesignersPlayground/KeyboardShortcuts [gnome.org]
(Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Wednesday September 17 2014, @03:06PM
And don't get me started on click-to-focus. It's a waste of a mouse press. And widows that come to the foreground are next to useless since they often overlap something else you need to look at.
I have a long-ingrained habit from click-to-focus of just casually whipping the mouse to the right when I want it out of the way as I edit something, if it's not a program that auto-hides the cursor as you type. With focus-follows-hover or whatever, that will deselect the window you're trying to actually work in unless it's fullscreen :P
Our (physical) terminals at work have this setup and I still trip over it several times a day. Hard habit to break.
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Tuesday September 16 2014, @08:10PM
I haven't used windows in any kind of 'power' mode in years, so this glimpse was, at first, interesting.
A glimpse was all i needed. UGLY! Man, that desktop theme puts the UGH! in UGLY. Hope that wasn't put together to showcase it.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 2) by mtrycz on Tuesday September 16 2014, @09:03PM
I see that small text when you open the start menu.
Ubuntu has had the "Search Everywhere" feature for years!
In capitalist America, ads view YOU!
(Score: 2, Interesting) by daver!west!fmc on Tuesday September 16 2014, @09:57PM
HP's Dashboard, on Windows 3.1. When HP sold the product off to Starfish Software, Starfish released a New! Improved! Updated! Dashboard for Win95 and the virtual desktop feature was gone.
(Score: 2) by Leebert on Tuesday September 16 2014, @10:27PM
Yep, I was going to comment similarly about Central Point Desktop for Windows 3.1 [toastytech.com], which actually shipped for some time with computers manufactured by Gateway 2000. Hands down THE best desktop interface for Windows ever, although I concede that there might be some selective memory going on there. :)
I think TFS should have said: "(which unix and unix-like OSes have offered for decades)
(Score: 3, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 16 2014, @10:44PM
For years? More like decades. The first X window manager to offer it was swm in 1989. Yes, that's 25 years ago.
(Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Wednesday September 17 2014, @03:02PM
Unix has been offering it literally my entire life (depending on the month) and Microsoft is just adding it in the next release (rumored)? Heh.
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 2) by wonkey_monkey on Wednesday September 17 2014, @07:26AM
What, you mean like hobbyist programmers have been providing for years?
http://virtuawin.sourceforge.net/ [sourceforge.net]
http://dexpot.de/?lang=en [dexpot.de]
If you want it, go and get it.
systemd is Roko's Basilisk
(Score: 3, Informative) by janrinok on Wednesday September 17 2014, @08:59AM
So, in other words, Microsoft hasn't been offering it - which is what it implies in the summary. Other sources have, but MS hasn't.