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Interview with Tony Arnold of VirtueDesktops
macapper.com — VirtueDesktops, a virtual desktop manager for OS X, has been around for quite some time. However, with the introduction of Spaces in Leopard, Tony Arnold, creator of VirtueDesktops, decided to stop developing the popular application. We interviewed Tony on creating, developing, and ending VirtueDesktops, as well as what’s coming next.
Glenn- 401 diggs
- digg it
- saintjames, on 10/12/2007, -4/+17Wow long and informative interview. Dugg.
- shadownight, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4Great interview... Very complete and interesting.
- Derfus, on 10/12/2007, -13/+3we know the product is abandoned because of spaces, what else is there to know?
- joe90210, on 10/12/2007, -7/+2I've noticed this a lot with developers on the Mac, any times Apple comes out with a similar feature, they pack up and go home, as if they can't create something that will do something that the Apple version can't. Either that or the hostility they encounter from the community for trying to compete with Apple.
- turpenine, on 10/12/2007, -4/+2Usually they pack up for a while, then come back once we are bored with all the stock features. I agree, it is pretty wimpy.
- VhaidraU, on 10/12/2007, -2/+12It would have been nice if he had stuck it out to a .5 version. I completely understand not supporting 10.5, but quitting before that stunk. At least it is distributed by the GPL (Thank God he did not move away from that like he thought of doing) and so if someone else wants to take over they can.
- sporkmonger, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7I think you misunderstood his comment. It sounded to me like he was thinking of changing the license to BSD or MIT -- which would not have prevented a fork, only enabled other Mac developers to use the functionality in non open source applications. Course, I could be the one misunderstanding too, he didn't go into enough specifics.
- bradleyland, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Sounds pretty specific to me:
"I was also going to drop the GPL and replace it with a license that would have allowed the code to be re-used. Plenty of people would like to integrate virtual desktop compatibility into their apps, but unless they too are a GPL app, the license was preventing that."
He wanted to allow people to use the code freely in whatever app they wanted, not just GPL apps.
- sporkmonger, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7I use VirtueDesktops on my PowerBook, and frankly, I don't know what I'd do without it. I'll switch to Spaces if it has application binding like VirtueDesktops does, but otherwise, manually managing 8 desktops is just going to be a massive pain. Of course, if Spaces can't do it, eventually, I'm sure someone will write an AppleScript or OSA script that will handle the issue, but until then, I'm sticking with VirtueDesktops.
- turpenine, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1If spaces can't do it, expect an update to virtue desktops.
- otomo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Yes spaces can bind to a specific screen, or all. The fun part is using the mouse however. You will understand when you get leopard.
- jeriqo, on 10/12/2007, -4/+1Without VirtueDesktop, you would be using Desktop Manager, the program VirtueDesktop ripped off.
- miyamotofreak, on 10/12/2007, -10/+2MacApper is a cool site and all, but their average writer is 14, and it really shows at times in writing quality.
- mad0214, on 10/12/2007, -2/+11I wirte for macapper and I'm 30 with a journalism background and the quality of writing these "14-year-old's" put out has really impressed me.
- michaelyurechko, on 10/12/2007, -1/+9Honestly, the current age of writers on MacApper is anywhere from about 15/16 to 31, with most being upwards of 18. Also, since when did age become an issue? If the content is good, who cares how old, what skin color, etc. the writer is?
- wphj, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Haha, I did the interview and I'm actually 17.
Close though!
- ShaneShirey, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Such a great app. Very curious to try out Spaces though.
- neiltc13, on 10/12/2007, -8/+3Submitter plus many of the diggers of this article work for the site. Buried as spam - articles should get to the front page if they deserve it, not if Glenn can send the link to enough of his friends.
- michaelyurechko, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4Wow neil, you are a douchebag. I am laughing right now, because neither Glenn nor myself belong to MacApper at the moment, but you keep believing that.
- bradleyland, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3"...articles should get to the front page if they deserve it..."
Well then, you're *****, because this article plainly deserves to be front page. VirtueDesktops is a popular, and very useful application. Tony had a lot of very interesting things to say in the article, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
So, spam it in your ear. The article deserves the Diggs it's gotten.
- SmokeTetsu, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Spaces is great and all that. But some people will be stuck on lower versions like Tiger for some time and it would have been nice to see virtuedesktops still getting updates. While I can understand his reasons for not working on it anymore it's still a shame that it's not in development anymore at least for now. I hope other people pick the project up. Then again the desktop it was based on DesktopManager also seems to be comatose for now. But (and no offense) this seems to happen with apps done in someone's spare time when a company includes similar functionality to a third party app into their OS sometimes. Either it rolls over and dies or it remains competitive and gets updated. To me it seems like it's more likely that commercial apps are the ones who persevere in times like this. Or they stop when it stops becoming fun and starts becoming work. Usually when it's mature and it's needing bug fixes... not a slight against the author of VirtueDesktops just an observation in general.
But anyway... I really like VirtueDesktops and hope it's picked up again.- coldfusion1970, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Well to be fair it doesnt really need to be updated under 10.4 anymore.
As 10.4 is dead with the ".9" release, its unlikely anything will break VD for those users still running Tiger. - dasluvaluva, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1It's hard when you're a student to justify doing tons of work for "free."
- coldfusion1970, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Well to be fair it doesnt really need to be updated under 10.4 anymore.
- skwead, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2Really cool person and a great interview. Dugg.
- greenbean, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3I'm looking forward to the next app he's working on. If its anything like VirtueDesktop, it will become another "must have" for the mac community.
- billbradford, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Once again, just because the latest version of Tiger is 10.4.9 does not mean that Apple cannot release a 10.4.10 if they have more fixes to make. This has been stated by many people over and over again...
As for Tony "ripping off" DesktopManager, he started VirtueDesktops after both DesktopManager and the original Virtue project stagnated, and he has never failed to give credit to those other two applications or their authors. - h0dg3s, on 10/12/2007, -6/+2Go post your blogspam somewhere else, slapnuts
- mbball, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2What blogpspam was this? It looks to me as if this was a direct link the interview.
Don't spam if you didn't even look at the site. Oh, and by the way, is slapnuts your new, unique word? If so, then you seriously are not initiative cause that sounds like something a 10 yr. old would say.
- mbball, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2What blogpspam was this? It looks to me as if this was a direct link the interview.
- topicnation, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1Dugg that. I'm not impressed. Butt dugg it for some reason. http://cakeguru.blogspot.com
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