Comment 9 for bug 150346

Okay, so the workspace "bug" doesn't seem to be a bug after all.

I was experiencing that because of how Compiz handles workspaces differently. "make sure you have only 1 workspace set in gnome which will give you 4 viewports "default" in beryl"

http://forum.compiz-fusion.org/showthread.php?t=1351

After changing the gnome workspaces to 1 (or turning Compiz effects off all together), my problem went away, although I still can't explain why the panels and desktop would disappear