Windows that
are not on the current desktop are still mapped, but are positioned off-screen.
When the virtual desktop illusion is created by window positions, it is possible to
have the current desktop positioned between virtual desktops, so that parts of two or
more virtual desktops are visible simultaneously (however, this precludes easily setting
different backgrounds on each virtual desktop). It??™s also possible to have windows
span virtual desktops. A window manager in this system has to update the
position of all of the windows when changing desktops. The fvwm2 window manager
uses this approach.
If the virtual desktop illusion is created by mapping and unmapping windows, less
information needs to be updated when switching desktops, and it becomes possible
to set the desktop background on a per-desktop basis. This approach is used by the
KDE (kwin) and GNOME (Metacity) window managers; kwin allows the use of perdesktop
background images.
Windows managed on multiple virtual desktops do not take significantly more
resources than windows managed on a single desktop (unless you??™re using multiple
background images), but virtual desktops may encourage users to keep more applications
open at one time.
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