[dundee] Locking Windows to Virtual Desktops in Gnome

[Rick Moynihan]

Hi all,

As some of you may know I recently switched from running Gentoo to
Ubuntu.  During the change I figured I'd also try migrating from
Fluxbox (which I've used for many, many years) to Gnome.

Overall I have to say I quite like Gnome, but I'm not yet convinced
it's better for my needs than Fluxbox.

My biggest problem with it is that I'm a *HUGE* fan of virtual
desktops, and I like to configure my system so each desktop has a
primary role... With one for each of the following

* Web browsing
* Comms (Email/IM etc...)
* xterms
* Emacs,
* Development (with Netbeans),

And then a few more for testing, and other miscellaneous things...

My problem when recreating this in Gnome is that applications have a
tendency to move to the current desktop.  e.g. When I click a URL in
my email client (Thunderbird, or Prism/Gmail) then my Firefox session
moves itself from the Web browsing desktop to my Email desktop!

I can see why this behavior is useful for those new to such
environments, but for me it's just plain annoying.  Does anyone know
how to get Gnome/metacity to do this?  Or do I need to switch window
managers to something more functional like Sawfish/Enlightenment?

I'm still keen to stick with the Gnome desktop environment if I can,
but if I can't resolve this then I think I'm going to have to switch
back to Fluxbox or maybe wmii.

R.