How do you use the workspaces efficient?

I like to place folders on the desktop. Thought first to place different folders on different workspaces so I have one each for each of my companies and 1 for movies.

that seem not to work.

How do use it efficent?

Qood question to which I would be interested in the answer too.

Like you I originally thought about different folders on different desktop but that does not work and now I have installed Compiz desktop effects I cannot even have any icons on the desktop. I know there is a work around for this but ii have not tried it yet. Compiz can give a nice cube effect for selecting your desktops, and it also gives you the chance to have different wallpaper for each desktop which was my original reason for installing it

The one thing I have done is to set different programs to automatically start in different desktop environments, so for example my VMware can be full screen in one desktop while my other programs are start in another.

I have just done a bot of a search and multiple desktops with different icons and wallpapers seems to be a common request.

The nearest I found to a soultion is this

http://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/gnome-shell.html

to which the introduction says

Gnome Shell is the future window manager for UNIX-like operating systems running the Gnome desktop environment. It is slated to be part of the Gnome 3.0, which will probably be released sometime next year. However, this does not mean you cannot try Gnome Shell now and get the first impression of what it ought to be.

try http://www.dexpot.de

try http://www.dexpot.de

Thanks it looks interesting, but seems to be only for Windows.

Although the OP did not make it clear in his post, from previous posts I assume he is looking for Ubuntu / Linux ideas.

On KDE desktops this can be a number of ways, but I guess you are looking for a gnome solution?

Wally is a Qt4 wallpaper changer using multiple sources like files, folders, FTP remote folders, Flickr, Yahoo!, Panoramio, Pikeo, Ipernity, Photobucket, Buzznet, Picasa and Smugmug images. It is available in many languages. Supported Linux window managers are GNOME, KDE 3, KDE 4, Xfce 4, BlackBox, FluxBox, Window Maker, and FVWM. Its web site is here http://www.becrux.com/ and they have a Kubuntu version too.

i tend to use a workspace by application type. basically, i have the terminal workspace (1 or more root terminal +1 or more user terminal), the browser workspace, the file manager workspace (but i'm using coreutils most of the time in fact so this one is very quiet), the SSH workspace, the video workspace, the audio one, the im one and then the random ones... each app will open directly in the dedicated workspace... using dwm as a wm.

I use the workspaces about the same as 'urandom'. At work and home I mainly use five: browser, terminals, file manager (nautilus), documents (openoffice or text editor), and reference docs (e.g. PDFs). I have 8 available, but only rarely use the last 3. I switch between them using the Function keys, i.e. F5 browser, F6 terminals. Its the most convenient scheme for me so far (welcome other suggestions). But frustrating when you are using someone elses computer, press F5 and nothing happens ...