VirtueDesktops to Cease Development
Published on 18 Mar 2007 · Filed in News · 292 words (estimated 2 minutes to read)When I first started using virtual desktops with Mac OS X, I went through a couple of different iterations before settling on an application called Virtue (later to be renamed VirtueDesktops). Although it took some time to get used to the idea of not having a desktop pager window always present, the hotkey for popping up VirtueDesktops’ translucent pager became almost as ingrained in my fingers as the hotkey for Quicksilver (note I said “almost”).
After a near death experience around the release of Tiger, VirtueDesktops progressed steadily until just last week, Tony Arnold announced that he was ceasing the development of VirtueDesktops. I can understand his position; with Spaces set to debut in Leopard, it’s difficult to justify the continued development of a virtual desktop application. Given that VirtueDesktops is an open source application, though, there’s hope that another developer will pick up the source code—much like Tony did himself after Virtue was abandoned by the previous developer—and continue the project.
I mostly stopped using VirtueDesktops after switching to my MacBook Pro. I guess the problems that the application experienced during the transition to a Universal application scared me away from it, and it’s only been recently that I started using it again on occasion. Since then, I’ve gotten used to using Expos to manage windows instead of spreading them around multiple desktops, and I don’t know if I’ll ever switch back on a full-time basis. Nevertheless, I appreciate Tony and his hard work on the application, which served me very well for quite some time. I wish Tony the best of luck in his future projects and I hope, for the sake of other VirtueDesktops users, that one or more talented developers will take up the mantle and continue development.