I have 8 v-desks:
- Jabber group sessions
- Project
- Project
- Project
- Project
- Project
- VMWare
- Misc. (calendar, xmms, gaim/gabber main windows, etc.)
2-6 change depending on what I'm working on. I start on 2, then as I start another task (programming change, debug a production problem, whatever) I move to the next desktop and open up my typical 5-10 terminals, emacsen, Firefoxen, and so on. Any one particular project desktop may have up to 30 windows, and I manage them (quite effectively) with alt-tab.
I move between desktops with ctrl-F<1-8>, and can move windows to other desktops with ctrl-shift-F<1-8>. This works very nicely for me.
I haven't figured out how to be this productive on OS-X yet, but then again I haven't tried. I'm not a mouse person, so Expose has limited usefulness so far.