For a long time, I’ve had ideas in the back of my mind about workspaces/virtual desktops on linux. In their current form, they are useful… as in, you can assign different applications to different workspaces for better multitasking… but I’ve always felt like they could do more.
For example…
Bind a virtual desktop to a virtual machine
This would apply to Virtualbox/GNOME Boxes, etc. Let’s say by default you only have one main workspace. As soon as your virtual machine boots up, a secondary workspace becomes available on the desktop to choose from. That workspace becomes a dedicated, full-screen view of the virtual machine.
Bind a virtual desktop to a Remmina/RDP/VNC session
Like the above example, as soon as you connect to an RDP/VNC/etc server, a new workspace appears. That workspace becomes a full-screen dedicated view of your remote session.
Bind a virtual desktop to a hardware display output
This one has some interesting capabilities. Modern video cards usually have many outputs. Say your main monitor is on HDMI_0. Your 2nd monitor is connected to HDMI_1, and you might have a TV hooked up to HDMI_2.
You could bind a workspace (let’s call it WS_TV) to the HDMI_2 output, so that all activities which occur on WS_TV are displayed on the TV (and still switchable/mirrored on your main desktop). You could launch a game on WS_TV, and the video/sound could be routed through HDMI_2 on that workspace. And just like the above ideas, the WS_TV workspace could appear and disappear as the TV is turned on/off, assuming the display has the necessary features to report back its state. Going even further than this… you could bind a Virtual Machine to WS_TV, and bind WS_TV to HDMI_0, so your virtual machine always displays on the TV and on the correct workspace
Thoughts? Feasibility of doing something like this?
