Indicator-Workspaces adds options, Maverick PPA plus hints at future features

By , Published October 18, 2010

I’ll ‘fess up before we begin: I adore Indicator-Workspaces. So much so that I was very excited when its ace developer George Dumitrescu dropped by my inbox to inform me of a few recent changes he has made to the app.

Which brings us the meat in this news-sandwich: Indicator-Workspaces now has a working preferences pane. The newly enabled entry allows you to set both the number of workspaces as well as the number of workspace rows.

Better yet Maverick users are now able to install the tool from a PPA (having previously had to install a Lucid .deb).

If you’re a fan of the tool and want to stay auto-updated with the latest releases add the following PPA to your software sources.

ppa:geod/ppa-geod

Many users find adding PPA’s via the Terminal the fastest method. it’s not scary – Move your mouse to Applications > Accessories > Terminal and enter the following two lines carefully: -

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:geod/ppa-geod

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install indicator-workspaces

PPA-phobes can grab a standalone .deb installer here.

Future features

As great as these features are – what’s next for the minuscule tool? George dropped me a few hints including an option to re-name workspaces from the preferences window and an option to auto-start the applet at login.

The former of these will, I suspect, prove very popular amongst users.

Related posts:

  1. Indicator-Workspaces updated for Maverick
  2. Indicator-Workspaces does what it says on the tin
  3. indicator applets now work with awn
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  • http://twitter.com/Richardarkless Richard Arkless

    Its not working for me, ran it through the terminal and got this output

    “Traceback (most recent call last):
    File “/usr/bin/indicator-workspaces”, line 6, in
    import wnck
    ImportError: No module named wnck
    Error in sys.excepthook:
    Traceback (most recent call last):
    File “/usr/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/apport_python_hook.py”, line 105, in apport_excepthook
    os.O_WRONLY|os.O_CREAT|os.O_EXCL, 0600), ‘w’)
    OSError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: ‘/var/crash/_usr_bin_indicator-workspaces.1000.crash’

    Original exception was:
    Traceback (most recent call last):
    File “/usr/bin/indicator-workspaces”, line 6, in
    import wnck
    ImportError: No module named wnck”

  • http://notatoad.com notatoad

    why does everything have to be an indicator? this seems counterproductive to the original purpose of indicatorss. panel applets still exist, ubuntu uses gnome-panel. what was wrong with the workspace-switcher panel applet? what does making it an indicator accomplish, other than guaranteeing the author a mention on this blog?

    • http://twitter.com/Richardarkless Richard Arkless

      well all these applets everywhere and what ones are important is confusing for new users, if all the program were in the indicator section then they will only need to add that to suite all their needs

      I would have preferred a solution like this 5 years ago when I accidentally deleted my top panel, had to go through each applet

    • Anonymous

      Yeah, I don’t quite get why having a new thing which does the same as an old thing, just with extra clicks, is good…………………..

      In my opinion the panel applet is just fine :D

      • http://www.google.com/profiles/harveycabaguio Harvey

        Well, with indicators you can click one, and hover over another one without clicking out of the other applet, then clicking to open the applet that you are hovering on.

        And its consistent in both spacing and the way you interact with it (only single click).

        • Carl

          Consistency of form is useful only when there is consistency of function.

          This is just a “long running program”- i.e. a pager- that has placed itself in an area belonging to things which are supposed to “indicate” to you the state changes that occur whilst you are working elsewhere.

          The only time the state of this applet will change is when you actually go up to the applet and tell it to change. Everything installed by default, though they can control the state that they indicate, indicate a state that might change without user intervention. That’s the whole point.

          Nonetheless, I don’t have a vendetta against its existence. Obviously the author of the program and of this post find it useful.

    • http://dropable.com Matt Wansley

      You failed to realize that that not everyone uses panels.

    • Anonymous

      Well, it remains a choice that you, as a user, can still make for yourself.

      I for one utilize mouse or keyboard shortcuts to switch workspaces, and rely on Compiz’s Scale or Expo for keeping track of my open applications – so I prefer the workspace indicator (which does just that, i.e. indicate the current workspace with a simple number) over the panel applet, which with the default panel size and more than a single row tends to become not exactly informative or aesthetically pleasing.

      And, to be honest, consistency with the monochrome tray icons (the primary reason why I have abandoned Buuf and am hesitant to switch to Faenza) is a big bonus.

      For these reasons, I’m grateful for the publicity the workspace indicator has received on this site, as without it I likely wouldn’t have learned about the existence of this nice tool.

  • Anonymous

    AHH! Why is my icon not mono? I can’t use an indicator that isn’t mono!!!

    (sarcasm) (except it really isn’t mono)

  • http://twitter.com/drakonen Drakonen

    This applet has too much attention on this blog…

  • http://twitter.com/boteeka Szász Botond

    I don’t really see what the advantage is having the workspace switcher as an indicator. About the only advantage is consistency, but at the same time you lose a bunch of features, like with the panel applet you can see which windows are on which workspaces, you can use single click for workspace switching. With the indicator you all lose this.

  • http://twitter.com/boteeka Szász Botond

    I don’t really see what the advantage is having the workspace switcher as an indicator. About the only advantage is consistency, but at the same time you lose a bunch of features, like with the panel applet you can see which windows are on which workspaces, you can use single click for workspace switching. With the indicator you all lose this.

  • Pingback: OMG! 5! – Five ways to switch between workspaces in Ubuntu

  • Pingback: OMG! 5! – Five ways to switch between workspaces in Ubuntu

  • chris marx

    does this work on 11.04? i installed from .deb, but no indicator :’(

  • chris marx

    does this work on 11.04? i installed from .deb, but no indicator :’(

 
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