This isn’t quite as cool as what we’ve come to know (and love) in Linux with XGL, but it is definitely a step in the right direction. Yod’m (Download Mirror)stands for Yet anOther Desktop Manager and is a new virtual desktop manager that’s available for Windows users.
The “claim to fame” for this program is that it tries to replicate what XGL offers Linux users. The program doesn’t require any installation so you can have it up and running in a matter of seconds.
Yod’m definitely has its limitations though, and anyone who has played with XGL in Linux will surely recognize some of the shortcomings:
- The cube can only rotate horizontally.
- You cannot have a window halfway on one desktop and then halfway on another desktop.
The application works in both Windows XP and Vista so it doesn’t take advantage of Vista’s advanced visual features, such as live previews. When I tried it out it was a little choppy switching between desktops, and while it looked cool it didn’t seem as useful as some of the other virtual desktop managers that I have used in the past.
If you do decide to try out Yod’m, these are the shortcuts (which are customizable) that you’ll want to know:
- Ctrl+Shift+Left/Right – This will take you to the previous or next desktop.
- Ctrl+Shift+Up – Activate and show a “far” view of the current desktop
- Ctrl+Shift+Down – Activate and show a “near” view of the current desktop
To move a windows to another desktop:
- Click and hold the title bar of the window.
- Press and hold Ctrl+Shift to activate the cube, move the cube left or right using the mouse or arrow keys.
- Release the Ctrl+Shift keys.
Nice find Ryan!
It is a little choppy, but considering I’ve never seen anything like this for Windows, I’m pretty impressed.
Everytime I go to show someone my Beryl desktop, I go to show them the rotating cube and realize I have forgotten the key combination because there is absolutely no reaon for me to use it except to show someone.
I have also considered dropping Beryl altogether because I actually find it slower then simple KDE and I have also started to become a little energy conscious.
The cube, the cube. There is more to Beryl than the cube. Personally, I prefer the window decorations from Beryl to Kwin or Metacity.
As for speed issues under KDE, I agree, but on my laptop the decrease is extremely slight. However, I have removed many of the animations as things like the magic lamp effect don’t do anything for me.
I’m not sure that removing Beryl will save an energy, but the intent to conserve is in itself a good start.
It is actually pretty impressive, my first thought was that it was only going to be for Vista but I definitely give the designer props for making it run on XP as well.
Yeah, the cube is really only for show and tell. I haven’t noticed it slowing down my system that much in the past, but I’ve only tried it in Gnome. KDE is my Linux desktop of choice (OpenSUSE specifically) and I don’t have the Beryl stuff installed for that.
Yes, there is absolutely more than the cube in Beryl but that is its claim to fame. XGL and Beryl are both known for their cube because that was the big feature when it was first released. First impressions last a long time…
I know this thing is “useless”, but i find myself making excuses to use it, because it is just so cool. This is a great find, and its stuff like this that makes me come back to this website (blog?) time and time again.
Great hunting Ryan, keep up the great work!
Thanks Daniel! It’s always nice to hear about what people find useful, which is part of the reason we wanted to implement the rating system on each article. That way people who don’t have time to comment on every article can tell us how much they like it, and then we’ll know what kind of news we’re looking for.
Otaku Software has acquired Yod’m 3D from Chris’Soft and will continue to develop the software under the name DeskSpace.
DeskSpace is still NOT AVAILABLE, but “coming soon”.
[otakusoftware.com]
I’m guessing that they will be charging for that like they do everything else then.