1w ago

Could running a VM help me organise my computer better?

I use my computer for so many things and I have about 200 applications on my computer. I don't know why, but it bothers me that everything happens on this one machine as well as seeing so many app icons (even grouped into folders). It's not an option, but I'd prefer to have dedicated computers for broad categories of tasks (Audio DAW, video editing, bash scripting, web dev, gaming, system stuff like disk space visualisation, web apps for social media and video sites, games, communications, office, music and film.

So I was thinking of installing something like openSUSE in a VM on my iMac. But I'm not sure if it's a good idea. Putting CPU intensive applications onto the VM is pointless since they'll struggle more. But putting convenient apps on the VM seems like a mistake too because it means that quick utilities like calendar, voice memos, alarms, contacts etc become inconvenient.

Anyway. I miss the days when all these functions weren't service by the same hardware and screen. Does anyone who can relate have any ideas?

One thing I've done is have my music served by Navidrome on a headless server.

30 comments

Could running a VM help me organise my computer better?
No more than extra boxes will make your physical things more organized. In fact, I think it will make things worse.
VMs have great uses, but not this.
Folders are great though.
- I’m starting to think you’re right.

I use my computer for so many things and I have about 200 applications on my computer. I don’t know why, but it bothers me that everything happens on this one machine as well as seeing so many app icons (even grouped into folders).
If what you want is organization from a workflow standpoint, I think that you'd have an easier time just using some form of launching system that doesn't show a single monolithic menu of all your installed executables. Either have a launcher that permits breaking up stuff by task and lets you customize those groups, or just use a non-menu-based launching system.
I mean, /usr/bin on my system has 2694 entries. I don't see them, though, since I'm launching software via bash or tofi, so...shrugs
VMs can have uses, but I'd mostly either use them for software compatibility, or to isolate things for security reasons. They wouldn't be high on my list of tools to organize workflow.
- I think you’re right. It’s the launching system on macOS that doesn’t suit me.
  
  I'm not an Apple user but I've heard good things about the Alfred launcher on MacOS.

but I'd prefer to have dedicated computers for broad categories of tasks (Audio DAW, video editing, bash scripting, web dev, gaming, system stuff like disk space visualisation, web apps for social media and video sites, games, communications, office, music and film.
those are not broad categories

qubes os is for you. Don't be scared by it as you can start using it without paying attention to many of its security features like disposables, proxy vms, etc. Just think of it as several vms with a shared clipboard, file sharing mechanism and a convenient apps menu. You can learn later it most advanced stuff
- Oh cool, that does sound interesting. Thanks!

You want workspaces.
https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/work-in-multiple-spaces-mh14112/mac
- I like them but they organise applications that are already opened. The dock icons stay the same on each workspace and the desktop icons are the same too.

I don't know how well this works for Macs, but is a multi-boot environment a possibility? You could have a separate OS set up for a group of tasks which you boot into when you need to do that. It seems a bit clunky compared to e.g., virtual desktops or similar though.
- I hadn’t actually thought of that. It might be slightly more separation than I’m looking for but it does solve the GPU performance issues of a VM!

You could organize it on different virtual desktops.
- That’s a good suggestion. macOS does have virtual desktops but for windows, not icons or launchers.

I have about 200 applications on my computer
How many do you actually use?
- Many of them only get used once per year, but when I’m asked to produce something with them I need to be ready.
  Anything I haven’t used in a year gets archived, generally. something like FTP clients (which I rarely use) have passwords etc stored so I don’t want to get rid of those because the setup again would be tedious.
  There are about 30 Apple apps that are built in that I’d love to get rid of but can’t, eg Stocks and Chess. They can’t be uninstalled.
  
  I'm afraid to ask, how often do you reboot your computer?

How many of those 200 applications did you deliberately install? That seems excessive even for all of those use cases.
And can you elaborate on these use cases, like I’m not sure why you would want a specific VM for bash scripting.
- macOS comes with quite a few applications that can't be uninstalled. They're quality applications, but many are totally irrelevant to me like Stocks, Chess, Stickies, Home Assistant, AI stuff, Graphs and others).
  Let mé elaborate on use cases (and thanks for asking, by the way): Terminal / bash
  wget: I often download stuff this way using wget followed by the URL of something I've copied. It's just quicker on keyboard than using the UI in the web browser.
  ffmpeg: I often convert audio / video formats quickly this way, strip audio tracks from video etc.
  scp: I copy media to and from a server at times and maintain a simple website
  bash: I have some scripts for updating websites and pushing changes to yet another server, however these are run from another machine I ssh into
  nano: I use this a a quick notepad for throwaway stuff
  Video Editing:
  iMovie for the overall job
  Handbrake: for cases when ffmpeg commands would be too complicated or I need to do something visual like crop a videos dimensions
  Lossless Cut: Can make cuts from video clips without transcoding (which takes longer and causes quality loss)
  Claquette: Fast screen recordings. macOS does have a built in tool for his too but it doesn't capture system audio like Claquette does.
  Photo Booth: Apple app for making videos of myself or another presenter with webcam.
  Game Capture HD: Records from an Elgato device so I can record video output of other computers.
  Pixelmator Pro: Graphics editing for thumbnails, captions, stationary, merchandise etc. I use GIMP too but currently have it zipped up to see if I can get by with just one application. My fingers remember the GIMP keyboard shortcuts though!
  Color Sync utility, Digital Color Meter, Image Capture: I never use these but in my (unpaid, voluntary) work I will need them some day.
  Audio editing / Music production:
  Logic Pro: Main music production application
  Audacity, MusicBrainz Picard - utilities that do somethings that LP can't do / do as well.
  Podcast Soundboard: Used for live events, although I don't plan on doing any more of those.
  EQ Mac: System audio equaliser
  Tech:
  Sublime Text: Helps me get my head around long source-code documents
  Forklift: I mainly use this as an FTP client because Finder drops the connection way to often.
  Publii: Like a simplified Wordpress for quick website development and deployment
  Whisky: Runs windows apps on macOS (frontend for WINE)
  Lagrange: Browser for geminispace. Just for fun.
  VPN & Antivirus
  Literature / Study:
  Calibre: for epubs
  Highlights: For PDFS. It summarises parts of PDF I've highlighted and allows me to view them as a document of its own. Good study tool.
  Apple Books: Also allows to export highlights in an ebook as a document of its own.
  Dictionary
  KLib: View all highlights made in ebooks on your kindle device.
  Anytype & Notion
  The rest of the apps fall into: entertainment, social media (web apps only), office / communications, system utilities (like disk space visualiser and caffeine which prevents screensaver), LLM clients like DeepSeek and ChatGPT.
  Finally I have meditation apps.

I would focus on having a solid backup strategy. Segmenting applications on different VM's makes more sense in a data center when one application can serve an entire organization. For your personal workstation, it's just going to add a lot of unnecessary overhead.

I'd prefer to have dedicated computers for broad categories of tasks (Audio DAW, video editing, bash scripting, web dev, gaming, system stuff like disk space visualisation, web apps for social media and video sites, games, communications, office, music and film.
Are you me?
- Yes. You have my sympathies.

You mention not liking everyone on one device. Get a real calendar, alarm clock with radio, etc all at the thrift store :)
I also run a lot of my stuff through my service as webapps. If I’m not using it I get of it
- I do like my physical clock and calendar etc. I use pen and paper when I can too.
  The clock isn’t removable though and I think that with my ADHD I might need to keep the calendar and reminders apps. Or my next post might be about even bigger problems :)
  
  Since we seem similar I’ll recommend keeping a pen and paper on you always and just writing stream of consciousness no rules. I really enjoy this :)
  I get you. I write down my daily tasks but then put into reminders. You might enjoy running baikal on your server for caldav. It syncs well with iPhone and everything else

If the hardware supports virtualization it should not affect the performance of cpu bound applications. (Assuming you have adequate system resources) It does harm the performance of GPU applications however.
It was drilled into me in school that you should be using separate environments for certain tasks.
Software development tools can interfere with video games for example. Or running a lamp stack in the same environment as your personal data is also foolish.
There's also tools like podman that can help you further divide environments. (But understand it's not a security tool)
- That’s helpful, thanks. I’ll look into podman to. I always assumed it was for syncing with an iPod :)

30 comments