{"id":6331,"date":"2015-08-16T08:36:46","date_gmt":"2015-08-16T08:36:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/xislblogs.xtreamlab.net\/slwoods\/?p=6331"},"modified":"2015-08-16T08:59:40","modified_gmt":"2015-08-16T08:59:40","slug":"windows-10-catching-up-with-early-linux","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/?p=6331","title":{"rendered":"Windows 10 desktop: still catching up with early Linux"},"content":{"rendered":"

July 2015 saw the release of Windows 10<\/a>.<\/p>\n

One feature that Microsoft has been really making a great fuss about is the implementation (finally) of virtual desktops<\/a> for the first time in a way that can be accessed easily by users.<\/p>\n

A virtual desktop is a term used with respect to user interfaces to describe ways in which the virtual space of a computer’s desktop environment is expanded beyond the physical limits of the screen’s display area through the use of software. This compensates for a limited desktop area and can also be helpful in reducing clutter.<\/p>\n

Microsoft is calling the Windows 10 implementation of virtual desktops Task View<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Windows
Windows 10 with Task View virtual desktops shown near the bottom of the screen.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Whenever a new release of Windows comes out, users of other operating systems such as Mac OS X and the various distributions of Linux, always wonder what baubles will be ‘copied’ from their OS of choice.<\/p>\n

This time, it’s virtual desktops.<\/p>\n

On Linux systems both major window\/display managers – GNOME<\/a> and KDE<\/a> – have had virtual desktops for well over a decade.<\/p>\n

Indeed, the first version of KDE, released 17 years ago in July 1998, included them, as shown in the following screenshot.<\/p>\n

\"KDE
KDE version 1 showing 4 virtual desktops in use. The virtual desktops can be accessed via the taskbar or pager in the desktop’s top right-hand corner.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

GNOME also included virtual desktops as early the GNOME 2.0 release which appeared in 2002.<\/p>\n

Windows has actually had API support for virtual desktops since Windows NT 4, which was released back in 1996, which just shows how long it takes a lumbering quasi-monopolostic behemoth to get round to implementing things.<\/p>\n

I’d sooner use an operating system that was a pioneer, rather than a laggard that attempted to imitate the best of others. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

July 2015 saw the release of Windows 10. One feature that Microsoft has been really making a great fuss about is the implementation (finally) of virtual desktops for the first time in a way that can be accessed easily by users. A virtual desktop is a term used with respect to user interfaces to describe […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,5,9],"tags":[36,19,12,23],"class_list":["post-6331","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-linux-and-os-matters","category-open-source-software","category-tech","tag-comment","tag-free-software","tag-open-source","tag-tech-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6331","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6331"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6331\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6340,"href":"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6331\/revisions\/6340"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6331"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6331"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}