Why not? I know a lot of people who organize their desktops like this, using virtual desktops and the ability of most desktop programs to open multiple instances.

E.g. you have a desktop for "research" (with PDF reader, web browser, terminal, source code editor, etc.), you have another desktop for "family & friends chitchat" (with pidgin/IM and the occasional procrastination web browser -- that does not interact with the "research" one), etc.

In fact, that usecase is slowly being forbidden on the desktop, since the number of programs that are not multiple instance friendly is decreasing. E.g. the browser now opens a new tab (thus taking you to a different virtual desktop instead of staying at your current "activity"), the terminal opens a new tab, the photo viewer is one-instance-only no matter what, etc. etc.


I don't think anything as big as OLE is required for this. Some semantic window tagging would be enough.