Chapter 7. Third-Party Tools and Applications
Although Apple ships Mac OS X with an impressive number of applications, including iPhoto, iMovie, iCal, Address Book, Mail, Safari, and an extensive set of developer tools (to name just a few), there are many third-party freeware and shareware applications available for Mac OS X that further enrich the Mac OS X experience. This chapter provides an overview of a few applications that we feel will interest Unix aficionados.
Virtual Desktops and Screens
One desktop feature that has long been a staple of the Unix world is the virtual desktop. For example, if you’ve used GNOME or KDE, you are probably accustomed to having multiple workspaces in which to run various applications, or open different sets of windows. Nearly all Unix/Linux desktop environments have this feature, and yet Mac OS X does not.
Although Mac OS X’s desktop does not include virtual desktops or workspaces, it does include several desktop real estate-saving features. Moreover, virtual desktops (or screens) are available as third-party applications.
The primary desktop real estate-saving features of Aqua are provided by options on the application menu (the leftmost menu that has the same name as the frontmost application), Exposé, and third-party applications, described in the following sections.
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