# A Developer already released Virtual Desktops!



## whitesaint (Jun 29, 2002)

Well for those of you that know I am working on a Virtual Desktops application, this really sucks for me.  I never thought it would happen in a billion years, but another developer has just released (last night) Virtual Desktops for OS X.

However I think it is really ugly, and doesn't feel like a "first class citizen".  What do you guys think about this?  Do you guys think that if I work on my app really hard it might get more attention than this one?  All feedback is welcome and appreciated, thanks.

-whitesaint


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## rinse (Jun 29, 2002)

Beleive in your app! Keep developing it. It will be a better one than his? Right?

Remember that Brett Larson on TechTV is featuring MacOSx apps... keep gooing, make it good and submit it!


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## didde (Jun 30, 2002)

Hey man,

Competition is what gets us where we want to be...

I'm sure your app will be better then this one, then the other developer will be forced to improve his and so it goes.

Keep on writing that code damned!


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## tie (Jun 30, 2002)

You should contact the other developer and buy him out.  Competition be d***ed.  Then double your prices.  Seriously, he's stealing your market share.


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## Trip (Jun 30, 2002)

This is it!!!

This is what programming in the computer world is *all* about! Competition! Making sure your application beats the sh!t out of that other guys application!

Release your program shortly and show the world what you can do! If the world response badly, then just build up another release and I assure you they will love it!

Same thing happened to me with the Mac OS X Features Guide, only 45 people downloaded the first build, but the second and third builds got over 4,000 downloads the first few months! We are now working on build four in Cocoa!


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## xaqintosh (Jun 30, 2002)

{I like the Features guide, although it is still kind of buggy...}

there are currently 2 virtual desktop apps out, not including WhiteSaints:

http://www.versiontracker.com/moreinfo.fcgi?id=14996&db=mac

http://www.versiontracker.com/moreinfo.fcgi?id=9738&db=mac

just FYI


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## Trip (Jun 30, 2002)

The more the better? Heck, I may make one myself so WhiteSaint can have the fun of beating me down with his.


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## symphonix (Jul 1, 2002)

I think Whitesaint is onto a winner with his version - the animation of the desktop switching is brilliant. Plus, your version will work exactly the way you want it to. Go for it WhiteSaint, we'll help you out with ideas and testing, right guys?  

And WhiteSaint, I can sympathise completely. I'm 90% finished putting together a visual-guide to MacOsX tricks as a web-site. It was going to show, with plenty of screenshots and information, every single option available for mucking with Samba, FTP and Apache. Now the screenshots of Jaguar show that most of my work is going to have to go out the window as most of these options are either implemented neatly through pref-panes or have been moved around.

Anyway, keep us posted WhiteSaint. We're all looking forward to the next version!


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## whitesaint (Jul 1, 2002)

Well I am finally releasing it.  It should be on versiontracker.com and apple.com either today or tomorrow.  For those of you who can't wait, you can download it now.

http://www.cocoaserver.com/vd.sit

Thanks for your input guys!  You guys' faith has got me this far.  Thank you.


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## hiendohar (Jul 6, 2002)

Whitesaint, I appreciate your sentiment: I've been working on a virtual workspace management program since OS X Public Beta. (Space.app, source available: http://space.sourceforge.net) 

As new programs come out in this genre (and you can be certain that Codetek's is not the last of them -- another commercial developer is already advertising a forthcoming release) I try to ask myself: "What can I learn from this program to make mine better?"

It's worth pointing out that those of us working on these programs for OS X are standing on the shoulders of the people who first wrote and refined them for other operating systems. It wouldn't have occurred to me to undertake Space.app if I hadn't gotten so accustomed to relying on the pager in FVWM. It seems to me that all of virtual workspace and desktop programs currently available for OS X need more work before they meet the standards established by their "ancestors".

It would be a boon to have your help on Space.app as a number of the features of Virtual Desktops have been on the list of user requests for a long time. But if you don't wish to join forces with me, you might consider opening your own project to collaboration. I have found that there is a good deal more work to be done than I have the time or will to take on by myself.


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## Trip (Jul 6, 2002)

If WhiteSaint get's enough attention on the project (which I think he will) he'll probably not even consider helping a rival (can I call you that?) but otherwise he may rain down on us with open source to his wonderful application.

But then again who am I to talk for him?


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## hiendohar (Jul 7, 2002)

I prefer to think of myself as an ally rather than a rival. I submitted beta feedback on Virtual Desktops in this forum, and Space.app is offered under an open source license so that Whitesaint (or anybody else) can benefit from its ongoing development. If that's your idea of competition, then go ahead and call me a rival!

Whitesaint asked if he should redouble his efforts:  I'm pointing out that he doesn't have to go it alone. There seems to me little point in imagining free applications as competing against each other.


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## voice- (Jul 7, 2002)

I've used Virtual Desktops since long ago, and I recently tried Space.app. I must say that I prefer Space.app to VD. This is because I can choose desktops from the dock instead of having annoying floating windows around. WhiteSaint, please provide an option. It must be possible to get a menu in the Menu-bar which we can click and see the previews of desktops. Also, Space.app have another thing I like, it's not hellbent on having different files for different desktops.
Fix these 2 things and you're sitting there with a great app.

I'm not even gonna try out CodeTek's Virtual Desktop, if they want me to try it they can start by getting their own name.


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## ksuther (Jul 8, 2002)

Hmm, the reception of your program at VerionTracker doesn't seem too good 

People are accusing you of copying outright Space.app and charging for it :-/

Sheesh, keep working on it anyways, show them


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## hiendohar (Jul 8, 2002)

One of the benefits to open source that I never anticipated is that you can depend on other people to police your license. 

The rhetoric on versiontracker can be overheated but I'm afraid they have a point in this case: Virtual Desktops appears to have misappropriated code from Space.app. I did not suspect this until it was pointed out to me, and I had no idea that the author was asking for money for the application.

I feel that I have to take some kind of action to defend the license and my own work. Competition is grand; plagiarism and profiteering is not. The author can expect to hear from me.

Thanks for bringing the comments on versiontracker to my attention.


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## whitesaint (Jul 8, 2002)

I did NOT take your code from Space.app.  Simple as that.


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## Dris (Jul 30, 2002)

I got that idea not long ago, and I was about to start developing...Sigh...I thought it was so original, I'd never seen anything like it before...And then there it was.  Oh well.  I'll prolly do it anyway just cuz I can.


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## karavite (Aug 11, 2002)

Whoever it working on a virtual desktop app, don't give up on your app!

I have been yearning for virtual desktops on a Mac for years, I have tried everything out there and nothing has done it for me.

Regarding CodeTek virtual desktop, I have the following gripes.

1. It does not look like OS X - more like a bad port of enlightenment or something.
2. I want to see images of my actual desktops - icons of each application (what Codtek shows) don't do it for me. I guess having both options would be okay, but I think that I would recognize the actual image of an application quicker than the icons used in this app. Maybe quartz extreme would help make this possible?
3. It is really sloppy the way they the desktop name pops up in the middle of the window while the users cursor is over the actual desktop/pager (plus it is very slow to respond).
4. Having to rememeber some weird keyboard shortcut to get pager preferences is also a pain. Just let me left or right click on it, give me an icon or something... I double clicked (or something) on it and it launched their url wiping out the page with this message!
5. I think I found a bug - I had a window in a desktop positioned so it was off the screen in the bottom edge - Codetek actually showed this window (visually) on the desktop below.

Space Dock - well, it is kind of weird - too uncoventional for me, but does some things okay.

Any way, discovering someone has worked on your idea can be a little bit of a shock, but there are very few original ideas in this universe. The key is implementing the idea and so far, nobody has done a really good job. You haven't lost anything.


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## Jkel (Aug 12, 2002)

Hey your app is pretty cool. However, it did flip out on me after playing around with it for a while. After switching back to the 'main' desktop, I was unable to use the menu bar. But after clicking around frantically in panic for a while, it did spring back to life again. Not sure this is your apps fault, but it's never happened before...


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## Jkel (Aug 12, 2002)

Oh and another thing... In Process Viewer, I saw Virtual Desktops took no less than 14.5% of RAM (160 Mb)... Is this normal?


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