I was reading this article in PC World about working through the workspace limitations in Windows (PCWorld.com - Windows Tips: Break Through Windows' Workspace Limitations). The article suggested a lot of useful tips, like minimizing or removing the taskbar and toolbars, using F11 to maximize IE without toolbars, using smaller-sized system fonts and using skinning apps. For the desperately cramped users the article suggests using a second monitor, which invariably requires a video card that can handle two displays at the same time.

Now see, here's a situation where Linux could be a simple free solution. Linux users can use up to 8 (count them XPers) virtual desktops. No hardware upgrades required. Right now, I'm using 4 desktops, with 7 apps working simultaneously to handle my browsing, downloading, music, file-sharing, IM/Chat and system monitoring. All of them are launched in full windows, not minimized. Now, running with a window manager like Xfce, my current setup only uses 247 MB in memory. The bulk of that is taken up by my file-sharing app (50MB). Try that with Windows and you'll feel cramped for space and feel a bit of latency with 256MB in memory.



So try Linux and set your desktop free!