If I can't get both monitors sharing the same set of virtual desktops, I could almost get that effect if there was some way to have a single running instance of an application display on 2 different X servers.

Then I could start 2 servers, then for email and the browser, launch and mirror them on the two servers. Then there would be a desktop on the left that has email and a desktop on the right. And vice versa.

So while I couldn't get the same exact desktop on both monitors, I could see the same running instances of applications on both.

A co-worker said that he once ran across a program that did this. But it didn't do what he needed, so he never used it. And he doesn't remember what it was, how it worked, or what gotchas might have come with it.

I could achieve this effect through VNC, because that has a multicast mode. But that doesn't integrate very well with the desktop, and I wonder whether the kludginess might drive me insane. So I'm not quite willing to go there yet.

Does this ring any bells for anyone else?

Cheers,
Ben