Spaces, useful or not?

[svanstrom]

I absolutely rely on spaces to have different sets of windows/apps going in different constellations, based on what I'm doing at the time; but most other people that I see using a Mac, especially on MacBooks, don't seem to use spaces at all.

What are your experiences with spaces?

Work in multiple spaces on Mac

On your Mac, if the desktop becomes cluttered with open app windows, use Spaces to organize the windows into additional desktops.

support.apple.com

 

[Janeilfen]

Thumbs up for spaces.

 

[Tenkaykev]

I only discovered Spaces recently and have set up a second desktop with a different background picture. I sort of expected that a new space would give me a pristine desktop, but I notice that all the desktop folders in one space also appear in the second space. I opened Safari in 'Space One" and then moved to "Space two" thinking I could open a fresh instance of Safari there. when I click on the Safari icon in the dock it just takes me back to the open Safari window in Space one.
I'd sort of hoped that Spaces would be similar to working on two Laptops, with each space able to have its own individual apps running, and separate instances of each app in each space if required, if you see what I mean.
My Wife will be starting an online course later in the year and it would be ideal if her academic work could live on its own separate desktop space.
It's possible, even likely that I'm misunderstanding Spaces and the limitations of it.

 

[throAU]

I have like 5 of them on my macbook air, plus i make use of full-screen apps a lot.