Sidebar: How Do You Use More Than One Desktop?
In practice, I have found the concept of desktop not
quite as useful as
it could be; thus, the distinction between desktop and
virtual screen
becomes somewhat blurred. That is, what is the difference
between
several desktops and one really large virtual screen?
One problem I had
hoped would be solved with desktops centers around the
issue of
colormaps. Color-intensive applications can quickly
consume the 256
available colors on an 8-bit display. Attempting to
run several such
applications simultaneously can yield distracting or
unusable color
conflicts. As a real example, consider Netscape, which
many people leave
running at all times in this web-centric world. Netscape
has
surprisingly high color demands, and running just about
any other
color-intensive application (e.g., "xv") alongside
it will produce color
contentions. If fvwm performed independent colormap
management across
desktops, this kind of problem could be readily solved
by giving each
color-oriented application a separate desktop. Unfortunately,
this is
not the case. Furthermore, if you view desktops as distinct
application
centers, it would be useful to configure independent
pop-up menus or
button panels for each desktop. Again, this is not currently
supported
(Perhaps features to be incorporated in future releases?).
Nonetheless, desktops are a useful organizing mechanism,
particularly
for those who tend toward cluttered displays (my virtual
desktops tend
to become as cluttered as the real desks in my office).
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