Mar 11 2007

Moving on to other things

I’ve also posted this over at the official VirtueDesktops project site.

I’ve been sitting on a fairly big decision (for me) for the last few weeks. The writing has been on the wall for VirtueDesktops since last year’s WWDC, but I had intended to release a nice, stable version for 10.4 users before I stopped work on the project.

I’ve decided not to finish that version — http://​forums​.cocoaforge​.com/​v​i​e​w​t​o​p​i​c​.​p​h​p​?​t​=​12392

Needless to say, it wasn’t easy to make this call — I’ve loved working on Virtue, and I think it has some features that Spaces won’t match. The sad fact is, that since June last year, it has all been effort poured into a product that has no future.

Update: Wow! I hadn’t realised just how much this little app meant to people! Thankyou all for your kind e-​mails, IMs and posts of thanks — I appreciate it.

Comments

Gravatar for Daniel Sil­ver­man.

I’ve been a happy Virtue user and proud evan­ge­list for a while now. Thanks for all of your great work. Leopard’s Spaces fea­ture seems pretty lim­ited in com­par­i­son with Virtue but I’m sure we’ll be able to get by. Thanks in par­tic­u­lar for releas­ing a nice func­tional beta before call­ing it quits — I was hav­ing a lot of prob­lems with the recent releases but the newest one has been work­ing flaw­lessly for me under 10.4.8 (well, except for crash­ing all the time, but now I just have a lit­tle watch­dog script so that I don’t even notice). Not hav­ing a well-​functioning ver­sion of the app for a while made me real­ize how much I relied on (and missed) it. Glad to be able to use it again every day.

Good luck in future work and such. :)

Posted by Daniel Sil­ver­man on

Gravatar for Bill.

Hey Tony, Just another user want­ing to say thanks. Vir­tual Desk­tops are a must-​have for me. VirtueDesk­tops has been an inte­gral part of my OS X love.

Posted by Bill on

Gravatar for Andyk.

it’s sad to hear that you’ve given up on a brilliant project, but also makes perfect sense — nobody will want to download a thirdparty app for VD’s when it’s built into the OS. Would you download a 3rd party finder?

Still… at least it free’s you up to work on other projects — let’s hope they’re as cool as this was!

Good luck for the future!

Posted by Andyk on

Gravatar for NickS.

Sad to hear the news, but understand. Thanks for working on a great app. it’s done well by me!

Posted by NickS on

Gravatar for Brad.

You know, I don’t have Spaces. I do have Virtue.

I think you have plenty of time before Leopard is adopted. Most people only get a new OS with a new computer. I’d say you have the rest of the year, if you want it.

Your decision is sound, but it’s premature.

Posted by Brad on

Gravatar for vinayd.

nice work while it lasted ;) I think we all look for­ward to your next gig, what­ever that may be.

Posted by vinayd on

Generic user icon.

just wanted to say thanks for virtue — i'm still using it all the time, and i don't see that chang­ing soon.

thanks!

Posted by doceddi on

Sorry, this conversation has finished.

This post is a bit old now, so I've closed the conversation. If you're keen to keep talking about it, please email me directly.