If you decide to move from Windows XP or Vista to Mac OS X Leopard, one of the first things you will fall in love with is Spaces. I describe it as a virtual desktop management application that allows you to group your applications in a logical way according to your digital lifestyle. The fact is that you probably use quite a few applications on your computer, but you tend to use them in groups. You want to possibly run those applications concurrently, but you don't want them all cluttered together making your desktop difficult to manage. This is where Spaces comes in. Apple Spaces allows you to group your applications such that you can switch from group to group in virtual desktop spaces depending on your needs. Below is a snapshot of applications running in various virtual desktops in an uncluttered and meaningful way:
For example, when I am in development mode on my MacBook Pro, I tend to use two applications - VMware Fusion which hosts a number of development applications that run on Windows XP SP3 on my 30” External Apple Cinema Display and iTunes which runs on my MacBook Pro Display. This runs in Space #1 - my development space. A couple of times throughout the day I am checking mail, RSS Feeds, and browsing, so I switch to Space #2, which runs applications like Safari, Mail, etc. Then there are times, like now, which I take a break to blog, which is running various blogging applications - Space #3. You get the idea.
The beauty behind Spaces on Mac OS X Leopard is that it allows you to logically group your applications in virtual desktops that you can switch between at will using simple keystrokes. There is no fumbling around trying to get your desktop organized with the proper applications like you might experience in Windows XP or Vista. You move back and forth between the virtual spaces in a very simple, uncluttered, and very productive manner :)
I can tell you that I absolutely dig spaces and can't believe it is not in Windows Vista. I am unsure of how I managed without Spaces all this time.
You can learn more about Spaces on the Apple website here. By the way, the image above is courtesy of Apple as I was unsure of how to actually create a Spaces image without a lot of work :)
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