Have you ever come across the term “desktop workspaces” around the Linux community? If you haven’t and are curious about what desktop workspaces are, then, you are at the right place reading this article 🙂 I’ll guide you on what workspaces are on Linux and how you can utilize them to increase your computing productivity.
Desktop workspaces
Desktop workspaces on Linux are like having a multi-monitor system on your single computer. Developers, artists, audio engineers, etc. would call this “workstation” because they prefer working on individual tasks concurrently through two or more display monitors, set up on their system. However, desktop workspaces quite vary with the “workstation” bit because all multiple displays are virtual and not physical. The desktops are simulated with software, usually your desktop environment.
So you must be wondering how they might be beneficial for any ordinary user who is not familiar with it. OK, here’s my opinion. Desktop workspaces are useful for multi-tasking purpose. Let me run it down with an example, suppose you are interacting with virtual friends on a social media platform and sometime later you decide to upload an image to update your status. But the image isn’t quite right to your taste so you launch multiple image editing software on another workspace.
You try them out by efficiently switching between windows while the social application is running on another workspace. Once you are done, you close all those image editing programs and finally upload the image to your social feed.
So if you had done the same task on one desktop you would have worried about switching to a window that’s not serving you for the moment (maybe a web browser or some word processor program). So you begin to cycle through multiple windows which is quite tedious if you happen to have some 15+ windows opened lying around one desktop.
Ways to switch between workspaces
On Ubuntu and GNOME Linux distros
Switch workspace up: Super key + pg up
Switch workspace down: Super key + pg dn
On LXDE, XFCE, and Cinnamon
Switch workspace left: ctrl + alt + left arrow key
Switch workspace right: ctrl + alt + right arrow key
Conclusion
Next time you wish to multitask on your Linux computer, try utilizing desktop workspaces by organizing windows around them. Most Linux distribution gives you a maximum of 4 desktop workspaces but this (maximum) limitation is not the de facto. Some would give you 2 while others even go up to 9 desktop workspaces. Hope you have you found this article insightful. Let me know what you think about workspaces in the comment section below.