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  1. #1

    What is the best option for having multiple local Virtualized Workspace Desktop environments?

    So I've been doing all kinds of projects over the years, and I've found it a bit of a pain switching between one project an another. I've used workspaces on my linux mint mate which helped when doing multiple things but it's not good enough for when I want to open up some project I did 1-2 years ago. It gets kind of a mess when multitasking.

    What I am looking for is dedicated environments where I can have a project workspace with all my apps open and all my browsers with me researching and apis and notes all open. And if I close it, then come back a year or 2 later they will all be there. So I am looking for isolated workspaces that I can work more efficiently.

    Before I used to use windows servers to remote desktop and just to that, but when I moved to linux servers that became less of an option as vnc is crap and nx isn't there out of box plus I am wasting server resources. Not to mention the security issues of surfing the net on a web server.

    There is the option of making multiple VMs, but those eat up too much resources.

    I haven't worked with them much but containers seem to be closer to what I want. As containers use the parent operating system with little to no overhead.

    The closest solution I have found was LXD + X2GO. Which is effectively use LXD for containers and x2go is derived from NX to remote desktop. But instead of remote desktoping to a remote server, I would remote desktop into my own computer's containers. Kind of like my computer being a VPS host but all the instances would be my own.

    https://blog.simos.info/how-to-use-t...xd-containers/

    I haven't given it a try yet to see how it performs, but wondering if others have a better solution or maybe already tried the one above and how well it fairs.

    I am really getting tired of having a million windows and tabs open all conflicting with each other when I try to multitask.

    Any suggestions would be appreciated, thanks.
    Last edited by S3rver; 08-07-2020 at 01:08 AM.

  2. #2
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    You cannot multitask .. you have to be a quantum computer for that. You may think you are multitasking, but you are actually doing only one thing at a time. If you would post a video where you are using 2 monitors, 2 keyboards and you are coding a python and a perl/php application at the same time in parallel, then you are true multitasking. Else you are just doing 1 task a a time, in intervals.

    A better approach is to break down your projects into tasks and milestones and handle one at a time. If you are already in a linux desktop, there are "pomodoro" apps like Super Productivity that will keep you organized and focus. If you are charging for your time, you also need to keep a track of how much hours you have put into a project to bill accordingly. So instead of a million windows tabs, just do 1 project/task a a time .. use pomodoro technique ( maybe with a tick tick sound to keep you focus and in line) to get into that habit. This will make you more productive and more focused and also allow you to be more efficient.
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  3. #3
    Quote Originally Posted by admin0 View Post
    You cannot multitask .. you have to be a quantum computer for that. You may think you are multitasking, but you are actually doing only one thing at a time. If you would post a video where you are using 2 monitors, 2 keyboards and you are coding a python and a perl/php application at the same time in parallel, then you are true multitasking. Else you are just doing 1 task a a time, in intervals.

    A better approach is to break down your projects into tasks and milestones and handle one at a time. If you are already in a linux desktop, there are "pomodoro" apps like Super Productivity that will keep you organized and focus. If you are charging for your time, you also need to keep a track of how much hours you have put into a project to bill accordingly. So instead of a million windows tabs, just do 1 project/task a a time .. use pomodoro technique ( maybe with a tick tick sound to keep you focus and in line) to get into that habit. This will make you more productive and more focused and also allow you to be more efficient.
    It's not like I want to do multiple things at a time, but sometimes it's not an option. I don't get paid by time, I get paid a % of earnings. So if I am working on project H and project C breaks down, I need to quickly switch to Project C and fix it. So I gotta open all the stuff I need for it. Then after fixing it I would still have Project C stuff open for a while just in case new issues arise, in the meantime Project D calls in an needs a feature added ASAP. You see where I am going?

    I might not be a quantum computer, but life doesn't care. So I need isolated workspaces which I can suspend and restore, it will save me a lot of time and effort.

  4. #4
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    maybe qubes is what you need: https://www.qubes-os.org/
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  5. #5
    Quote Originally Posted by admin0 View Post
    maybe qubes is what you need: https://www.qubes-os.org/
    I remember seeing that but forgot its name, only remembered it starts with a Q. While it is close, it isn't exactly what I want, while I would be able to suspend projects with qubes and reopen them. It won't solve my clutter issue gui-wise. Aja, I would still have multiple windows from different projects. Albeit color coding them would make it easier to sort through, But I would prefer like each project be its own remote desktop without the overhead of a vm or the hassle of updating software.

    There is also the issue that I'd prefer to not change the entire OS. Especially since I am on a laptop and hardware support can be flaky for laptops between distributions.

  6. #6
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    Quote Originally Posted by S3rver View Post
    I remember seeing that but forgot its name, only remembered it starts with a Q. While it is close, it isn't exactly what I want, while I would be able to suspend projects with qubes and reopen them. It won't solve my clutter issue gui-wise. Aja, I would still have multiple windows from different projects. Albeit color coding them would make it easier to sort through, But I would prefer like each project be its own remote desktop without the overhead of a vm or the hassle of updating software.

    There is also the issue that I'd prefer to not change the entire OS. Especially since I am on a laptop and hardware support can be flaky for laptops between distributions.
    The alternative I see here is that you install virtualbox ( free, and don't have to change the OS, or KVM if you are already on linux) and then install multiple desktops ( something lightweight like xubuntu) , which you can boot, do your task and then shutdown .. or keep it running.
    I guess you can also use lxd, create multiple containers based on your project and install xrdp to make it work.

    On docker, this might help. https://hub.docker.com/r/danielguerra/ubuntu-xrdp/

    All depends on the resources you have on your laptop.
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  7. #7
    Quote Originally Posted by admin0 View Post
    The alternative I see here is that you install virtualbox ( free, and don't have to change the OS, or KVM if you are already on linux) and then install multiple desktops ( something lightweight like xubuntu) , which you can boot, do your task and then shutdown .. or keep it running.
    I guess you can also use lxd, create multiple containers based on your project and install xrdp to make it work.

    On docker, this might help. https://hub.docker.com/r/danielguerra/ubuntu-xrdp/

    All depends on the resources you have on your laptop.
    VMs eat too much resources, containers are a much better way to go about it cause the overhead is virtually none. So LXD seems to be the way to go. I tried Docker and Docker X11 but I couldn't get it to work, and it kind of limits me to Debian.

    I will try XRDP to see how it compares to X2GO, I also plan to try others like SPICE and etc. So far the experience I saw on X2GO was okayish once I set it to max settings. Though there was a bit of refresh lag when I dragged a window. Will see how the other options fair.

  8. #8
    I thought Debian wasn't the only thing that could use Docker?
    Doesn't it come with Fedora now?

  9. #9
    Quote Originally Posted by tje1998k View Post
    I thought Debian wasn't the only thing that could use Docker?
    Doesn't it come with Fedora now?
    It's not that Debian is the only thing that can use docker, simply Debian are the only images currently available for Docker X11.

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