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- m1th, on 10/12/2007, -0/+42virtuedesktops.info's server -- The End :-(
- Brutis, on 10/12/2007, -0/+34500 - Internal Server Error
it is the end - tonyarnold, on 10/12/2007, -0/+26Wow - cursed? that's a much better explanation! :P I should add that to my list of reasons when the site comes back up... nobody likes being cursed!
- Tu13erhead, on 10/12/2007, -3/+29Leopard's Spaces is a very nice replacement for VirtueDesktop. While it doesn't have all the pretty transitions, it is much more "usable" and much less buggy than VirtueDesktop.
- speaker219, on 10/12/2007, -0/+22sorry about the comment abuse.
Working Mirror:
http://duggmirror.com/apple/VirtueDesktop_The_End/plain.html - idanmashaal, on 10/12/2007, -2/+20I'm not sure I'm going to upgrade to Leopard soon.
I have all I need in Tiger (for now).
VirtueDesktop was a killer app for me...
I was so hoping for a stable release. - catfive, on 10/12/2007, -2/+13This app is cursed... it's based on code from Desktop Manager which was also dropped by it's developer not far along the way.
- smhill, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9@dcbebop
"Agreed. Awesome app, OSX steals only the best ideas."
Generally true, but it is hard to claim Apple stole this one from them. Virtual desktops have been on *nix systems for quite a while and Virtua wasn't the first Mac one either.
Though it was/is very nice, it wasn't without bugs. - jfpwr, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9thats no reason to end development...
- Mexrocker, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9VirtueDesktop+Slapbook :)
I impressed so many friends with that, but felt so bad when people would start to slap my macbook.... - ZachPruckowski, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7schoate09 - Apple doesn't need to kill off compatibility. Within 8-12 months of Leopard's release, half the Mac shareware/freeware will require it for Core Animation or some other new feature.
- zaren, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6I use Virtue Desktop on my personal iBook, but it was all kinds of not working on the MacBook I use at work. I came across "Desktop Manager" at http://desktopmanager.berlios.de/ and have been happily running that. It might be worth a look for some of you folks not looking to bump to Leapord right away.
- JoeMaller, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6Anyone looking for stable virtual desktops on 10.4 should take a look at YouControl:Desktops at http://www.yousoftware.com/desktops
After a few days playing with Ubuntu, I immediately evaluated all the virtual desktop variants available for the mac. YouControl's was the only one which allowed dragging windows between screens. Not quite as slick as Beryl's cube, but totally intuitive. The app has also been dead-stable for me running on a MBP for the past few months, even handling connecting and disconnecting an external monitor without issue. No slap-book switching, but I found that was never more than a novelty for me anyway.
It costs money, but YouControl's support has been very responsive. - Kelmon, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4@ZachPruckowski
Objective-C 2.0's Garbage Collection will be the feature that will put applications into Leopard only status. Core Animation looks nice and can be used very easily (as best as I can tell from the WWDC demos last year) but Objective-C 2.0 means that one of the biggest pains in application development can go away - memory management. In case you are not familiar with it, Objective-C requires the developer to manually release objects created when they are finished with in order to reclaim the memory that they were using - fail to do this correctly and you have a memory leak. This is definitely the aspect of development that has caused me the most headaches and I'll be jumping on Objective C 2.0 as soon as possible. - dcbebop, on 10/12/2007, -2/+6Agreed. Awesome app, OSX steals only the best ideas.
- ToeCheese, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3VirtueDesktop had issues with my MacBook and seeing a few other responses it seems that I wasn't the only one. As for Apple's Spaces I just hope that the transition animation can be shutoff. That type of eye candy gets dull after a first few times. Virtual Desktops isn't anything new (on Macs or other OSes) and given Mac OS X's Unix roots it always felt like a missing feature.
For Windows users with NVidia cards, Check out NVidia's Desktop Tools.
For Linux users, just about every distro that is released with a GUI.
For GUI-Less users, check out `screen` (Ok stretching it a bit but similar) - DaffyDuck, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4I use it all the time. It's essentially my operating system switcher. OS X on one desktop and XP on the other. I'm not quite sure yet if spaces will perform this function as well.
- TheYellowMole, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2To anyone who wanted to see the website before it was removed, here is an older version from April '06.
http://web.archive.org/web/20060424183250/virtuedesktops.info/ - antdude, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3http://duggmirror.com/apple/VirtueDesktop_The_End/ and http://forums.cocoaforge.com/viewtopic.php?t=12392
- Kelmon, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2SmackBook isn't required as at least the last release of VirtueDesktop included the motion-sensing switching of desktops within its own preferences. I was using this for a while since it was especially cool but eventually concluded that I couldn't find a "sweet spot" with the sensitivity settings such that I'd either have to hit the laptop harder (not good) or the desktop was liable to switch whenever the desk was knocked (irritating). I also found that using the keyboard to switch was frankly faster...
- cleverboy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2http://virtuedesktops.sourceforge.net/overview
http://virtuedesktops.sourceforge.net/support
http://virtuedesktops.sourceforge.net/screenshots
http://virtuedesktops.sourceforge.net/downloads
http://forums.cocoaforge.com/viewtopic.php?t=12392
I'll say this much, even though Spaces won't have "plugins" or feature "unlimited" desktops, from personal experience, if you've decided that you can no longer afford to do a project, there's no better feeling than knowing the torch is being continued by another application with more resources in providing a vital feature / functionality / service.
Recently, I've found myself working on a program again that I stopped working on in 2004, which a lot of people were interested in at the time, yet I couldn't afford to keep developing (and got distracted). To this day, its the best and only solution for doing what I want, and I'm a little helpless because until I finish it, there'll be nothing like it... possibly ever. That kind of sucks. - kevinarth, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I installed this a number of times and was unable to make it work properly. I've heard it was buggy, but many loved this app, so I wanted to try it. holdin' out for Leopard.
- kiddailey, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I agree with crankyMcGuy. Even without all the fanciness, DesktopMananger 0.5.3 is still much better than VirtueDesktop. For me though, its because VirtueDesktop doesn't have the menubar desktop switcher.
- mateo60, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I really like VirtueDesktop and I use it daily. Many thanks to the developer.
- TravisG5, on 10/12/2007, -4/+5I normally only use one desktop, but for school projects this app is a lifesaver.
Sad to see it go :(. - AModlin, on 10/12/2007, -11/+12Hopefully Leopard will have features as nice as these.
- cmv0, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I think i have a copy, email me at calebvaughn|at|gmail|dot|com
- mateo60, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1It was a simple way to enable multiple desktops on your mac. Push a shortcut key combo & it shows a fresh desktop. It's a nice little app. I understand why he's not going to develop it anymore since Leopard is supposed to come standard with this.
- davermont, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Damn, VirtueDesktop is such a great program, it will be sorely missed.
I understand the developer's decision and what a tough choice it must have been, I've been in similar situations myself. Hopefully someone will take over the project, there's still a need for it even with Spaces. - causticwindow, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1does anyone have a mirror for a download of this. i have it running on my macbook but would like to use it on my em ac as well.
- just_chris, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1"VirtueDesktop -- The End :-(
Well, the developer is stopping development for now. All I have to say is that he did a great job - hope someone takes over the project."
That's great, but what the hell is "VirtueDesktop" anyway?? - aristotle0dude, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Watson was an extension for Sherlock and the next version of Sherlock was already in development when Watson came out. It was only a matter of time that Watson would be replaced by functionality with Sherlock. It's all ancient history now since Sherlock is dead now too.
I don't want to get into the argument about who copied who or that Arlo had worked on projects at Apple that never saw the light of day except as shareware released by Arlo.
Yahoo widgets are based on XML and Mozilla's Javascript engine with proprietary extensions. That makes it extremely hard to program and debug. Dashboard widgets are based on Javascript and HTML making them easier to debug and Apple will provide an IDE for them in Leopard. - blackjack75, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I guess it was cursed inthe sense of the codebase not being very clean. Sometimes it's better to start from scratch again. Not to mention that with Leopard coming, the motivation goes down.
- ilgaz, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1It really looks like it is the only alternative left. No, I am not moving to "Spaces" instantly just because Apple provides it with $140 OS. Nothing against Apple, same reason I don't use iChat: Too simple!
- Ngai, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2On a MacBook...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1oBGg37Yvg
and this is all I got from a cache from Google...
http://72.14.209.104/search?q=cache:bnEbsCZm8pUJ:virtuedesktops.info/index.php/2006/10/15/virtuedesktops-053r233/+site:virtuedesktops.info+Virtue+Desktop&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=3&gl=us - Kelmon, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1You know, I'm sad that development of VirtueDesktop has ceased but if Apple makes a stable version of the application then I'm happy. I like the idea of multiple desktops and a system integrated into the OS will likely work better. Right now VirtueDesktop has a habit of crashing periodically such that applications are "stranded" on desktops that no longer exist so a stable implementation gets my support.
I have absolutely no problem with Apple making Spaces. - ilgaz, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I wonder how were feedback to developer just because of people with x86 macs had trouble.
You know, these people, open source developers rely on feedback from users. I wonder if dozen of idiots flamed a freeware/opensource product author just because their still not stable, Rev 2 product had trouble.
If it is the case, damn them. - CrankyMcGuy, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Tiger didn't kill Konfabulator. That's been debunked for ages now. Now Watson, on the other hand...
- CompIsMyRx, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1The link's dead too now. :(
- CrankyMcGuy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Oh oh. I've been saying that VirtueDesktops was a spin off of the Desktop Manager code, but YouControl's app was. Dang. I think. Or were they both spun off of that code?
- thecontinental, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I use Virtue everyday on my Macbook and other than a few hiccups (which the developer fixed after one request on ther message board) it has been very stable and and a very useful tool. Cheers to Tony...
- CrankyMcGuy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1They also inherited DesktopManager's rendering problems when OSX upgraded to Tiger. I could only use certain transitions. Most flashed white on the screen on any Mac I tried them on. They also removed the sliding Desktop Pager which was the deal breaker for me. That and it crashed.
In all honesty, I haven't found any virtual desktop software for my Macintel that operates without bugs. I use DesktopManager 0.5.3 still for my iBook G4. I was tap dancing in the streets when I saw Spaces announced last August. I don't need fancy desktop transitions. I just want fast, snappy, and stable multiple desktops that I can activate with a mouse flick. VirtueDesktop was a step backward for me. Spaces hopefully will be a step forward. - ilgaz, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1First Fire.app and as a customer who got abandoned by Codetek, a $50 desktop manager, "Virtue Desktop".
Open source developers don't understand why "Spaces" or anything else wouldn't make people instantly switch away from their product. That is not how it works. See Miranda on Windows, did it "die" because of those bells/whistles Trillian etc?
Versiontracker.com numbers: Downloads (all versions): 90,612 (Virtue Desktops)
Downloads (all versions): 452,915 (Fire.app)
These are "dream" numbers for a commercial company by any size including Adobe Systems and Apple. - wal9000, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Yeah, but that was different. Apple actually bought Cover Flow from steelskies, which is why steelskies stopped developing it. One generally does not continue development on software that one does not own.
Apple has continued development within iTunes, in case you hadn't noticed. It has a full screen coverflow mode, which I find to me much nicer looking than Front Row, though it can't select individual songs within an album. - tinyhunter, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0sad to see it being stopped, as I love using it.
- FHKE, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Another example that Apple kills tiny 3rd party apps when a new OS released ...(Tiger kills Konfabulator which is still in development though...)
Who will be the next target?
BTW, I have been using VirtueDesktop for many months and it works well. - doscrash, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Nooooo! It was so good.
- bigredgpk, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2v true, but i feel that desktop manager is more stable then Virtue was. I could never manage the desktops using Virtue but desktop manager made it easy as cake.
- coldfusion1970, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Thats a damn shame.
I wanted to see how it dove-tailed with Spaces. - wonderosity, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Apart from its unfortunate APPronym which I almost didn't catch in my original opening sentence ("I've been enjoying VD for some time now"), this was an awesome app. Many thanks and much understanding to the developer as well.
Cheers,
leif -
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