Short explanation: You can use multiple monitors just fine in extended Desktop mode.
However, there are two issues that drive people crazy:
1) When you go enable full screen mode for an app, the app fills one display and all other displays are blanked with a gray linnen texture. That's may be useful if you are watching a movie and don't want other displays to annoy you, but it's really annoying if you just want eg. Mail full screen on a secondary monitor.
2) Mac OS Lion also added a feature named "Spaces" (I think this is called virtual desktops or so on other platforms). The problem is that when you switch between spaces, both screens switch simultaneously. Now let's assume you use your secondary monitor to show an IM client, or to show some live error log, or similar, it's really annoying if that disappears when you switch between spaces on your main display.
So OS X 10.9 finally makes two features introduced in 10.7 (Full screen mode, spaces) usable for people with multiple monitors.
Today was my first experience with 2 monitors on OSX (10.8), knowing nothing about how it was going to work, and your description of my feelings this morning is absolutely perfect.
> 2) Mac OS Lion also added a feature named "Spaces" (I think this is called virtual desktops or so on other platforms). The problem is that when you switch between spaces, both screens switch simultaneously. Now let's assume you use your secondary monitor to show an IM client, or to show some live error log, or similar, it's really annoying if that disappears when you switch between spaces on your main display.
Can you explain how is this fixed? Are the spaces on each monitor independent or is there a method to "always show" certain windows? Because I really hate the former method.
You can either have independent spaces (switch screen 1 to a different space while screen 2 remains unchanged) or you can have them linked (when switching screen 1, screen 2 also changes).
This argument is a bit of a red herring. Ever since the dawn of OS X Apple changed nothing at all about how multiple monitors work with the OS. If you don’t use (the much later added) fullscreen function in some apps or (the much later added) Spaces there is no problem at all. That’s why all the arguments about multiple monitors being unusable are honestly a bit ridiculous and over the top.
The problem was always how those two features interact with multiple monitors, nothing more. And, honestly, I think the fullscreen functionality was never intended to be used on larger screens. That’s for the MacBook Air, not anything larger.
But, yeah, Apple changes how the fullscreen functionality and Spaces interact with multiple monitors. (And personally I cannot understand why anyone would use apps in fullscreen mode at all. It just such a waste of space.)
So your argument is "basically nothing is wrong (first two paragraphs), and if it is, it's because you are using it wrong (fullscreen = waste of space)"?
That's a special point of view, and sort of the contrary of what jakobe and others are saying.
Anyway, for an example of how fullscreen makes sense I suggest you look at video or audio editing software. You just need all the space you can get there.
That's a special interpretation. The parent comment is correct that they didn't actually break anything, they just didn't implement the new features thoughtfully. You could still maximise windows just like previous versions.
How multiple monitors interact with Spaces and apps in fullscreen mode sucks and Apple very much screwed that up. No argument there. But to conflate that with “Apple finally brings multiple monitor support with Mavericks” is wildly misleading.
Also, you could give apps the full screen to work with since forever in OS X. You do not need a special mode for that. Apple’s fullscreen mode is most definitely not in any way equal to Windows’ maximize function. I think that’s what many people fail to notice.
The specific problem arises when you full-screen an app in 10.7 and 10.8. Your second monitor won't provide useable space--it'll just have the stupid dark linen texture.
OS X Mavericks will have a feature I always wanted in Linux: Independent spaces for each monitor!
In Gnome (at least when I left it, but I don't think it has changed) and previously in OS X, switching to a new virtual space will update both monitors. With this update you choose virtual space independently for each monitor, and let one stay at — say — the logs window, while you change the space on the other monitor.
I don't remember the specific setup (or what it's called), but you can have that in Linux. The problem is that then you can't drag windows from one monitor to the other, though that may also be something that can be configured. Because of that I never liked independent desktops in Linux, but I like how they implemented it in Mavericks.
This changed in Gnome. The last time I used it a year or two ago, the default is to keep one monitor constant and switch desktops on the second monitor as you wish.
