Windows virtual desktops: harder than it looks

Wut?I have been living with my virtual desktops for a little more than week or so, at least consistently, and I have found that my initial infatuation with DeskSpace was blinded by lust. After running it for around 36 hours at two locations I discovered what a freakin' unbridled RAM pig this application really is. On my system at home, it gobbled up more than 180mb of RAM while on my 64 bit machine at work, it greedily devoured even more and topped off around 235mb before I cut off it's head and flushed it. I have since switched back to Dexpot.

While lacking in the glitz of DeskSpace, Dexpot performs admirably under load while working. I have had no problems with my machine at home, well, other than Vista refuses to allow it to run on startup, so if I want it I have to launch it myself. It has maxed out at about 2.5mb of RAM utilization, and I get no lag while switching between desktops like I did in DeskSpace. DeskSpace was bad too, I mean before I gave the boot, it could take up to 10 seconds to switch to the next desktop. Dexpot at work on my 64 bit uber-heffer, well…. that's another story. They have released 1.4 with stated 64 bit compatibility, but after a time working in applications like Flash, it would not rerender the menus or palettes after switch to and back again, and it went bad, so I lopped it off.

So what is it exactly with Windows apps like this that it seems so bloody difficult to create anything that is worth a spit? If I were to switch over to Ubuntu right now, open up 5 or 6 applications, and get Compiz to do its thing, it perform with the precision of Marcel Marceau and like him, not make a sound. Even with the sticky edges, elastic windows and 3D turned on, I never get any lag or performance problems with Compiz – ever. Is it really that hard? rhetorical question…. duh! It must be.

I always find myself right back here at the Ubuntu/Windows crossroads wishing that I could run all of my dev tools on Ubuntu so I could give windows the big kiss-off and be done with it. It's never going to happen, so I might as well just move along….

 

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