About 4 years ago I got a 13.3" Thinkpad laptop to replace an old Chromebook for portable development, and installed Arch + i3 on it (btw). After a bit of ricing the configs, it started feeling really homey. I love using workspaces here! They feel perfectly suited for laptop screens which have minimal space, allowing me to keep my browser full-screen and my IDE full-screen while still quickly switching back and forth to reference one or the other.
On the other hand, I don’t really use workspaces when I’m on my desktop PC (I use a 27" monitor). I just installed KDE to get ahead of the Windows 10 EOL, and while I looked into combining i3 and KDE, I haven’t really felt the need for i3’s workspaces or using KDE’s virtual desktops. With a 27" monitor, I feel like there’s enough space to split my browser and IDE half-and-half on screen, and I’m ok using a file browser or terminal window as floating windows. Another consideration is that I’m always using a mouse on my desktop, so switching between workspaces with the keyboard wouldn’t feel as natural.
What about you? Do you use workspaces differently between devices? Does screen size affect your choices at all?
Virtual Desktops haven’t really been a thing that I’ve really needed in my work flow. Maybe one day I will give using one a shot. I actually prefer my current setup with dual 27" monitors.
Yes. I love them. For laptops that are not currently connected to more screens invaluable, for other usecases with more monitors, very useful
I don’t like workspaces. It may be due to my asymmetric vision, but I need to have two or more screens with the data I’m going back and forth with. With hobbyist embedded stuff like Arduino, I need the datasheet and IDE side by side to be effective and laptop screens are too small for tiling IMO, even my 17’s (1080p) don’t cut it. Maybe my next with a higher resolution will be better.
Workspaces might be a bit overkill if you’re only switching between two-ish windows. For more you might find a benefit to using workspaces, especially if you group windows related to specific tasks, or if your brain likes having windows “stored” spatially.
I use workspaces regularly. Typically a browser in one, terminal in one, and the third is where I put whatever else I’m currently working with which could be dolphin and maybe gimp or an IDE, whatever the other is might be in the moment but browser and full screen terminal in separate workspaces are daily standard.
