I have this strange thing I am trying to do, so before I jump into it I was curious if someone knows about existing solution or maybe have an advice as far as implementation.

I run a small software company and as it happens I often do very different type of work. When I do coding for Java project I need Eclipse running and maybe VM with something like ActiveMQ server or whatever, plus terminals to tail -F log files specific to the application, etc. When I do something like weekly progress review with my team I need a few browser windows open and a gedit to take notes and so on.

Depending on the type of work I am doing I generally have all of the related apps open in multiple different Workspaces. So in the example above Eclipse would be open in Workspace 1, terminals would be sharing Workspace 2 and so on.

What I am trying to do is to automate opening of all these applications, positinoning them on the screen and assigning them to proper Workspaces. My current idea consists of having a Shell script that launches specific apps depending on what type of work I am about to start doing.

Is there anything to aid this type of automation? Or is my only option is just a shell scripting at this point?

My current system is Ubuntu 10.04