Question: What program or system utility can I use to convert my desktop into two work areas using a single monitor?

*Some recommendations for an easy to use application?*

Answer: 
It's called workspaces and if you're running plain old vanilla Ubuntu with Unity, go the to gear icon in the top left of your screen:

[![Gear Icon](https://i.stack.imgur.com/uxEAW.png)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/uxEAW.png)

then go to:

* `System Settings`
* `Appearance`
* the `Behaviour` tab
* `Enable Workspaces`

and then press the workspace switcher icon:

[![Workspace switcher](https://i.stack.imgur.com/cp0n2.png)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/cp0n2.png)

and be amazed:

[![Screenshot 4 workspaces](https://i.stack.imgur.com/9UVL9.jpg)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/9UVL9.jpg)

**Note:** Pressing `Super`+`S`¹ accomplishes the same thing.

¹`Super`+`S` is aka `Windows`+`S`
Tilers are excellent choices.

[![enter image description here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/ZBc5v.jpg)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/ZBc5v.jpg)

You can install it the following way:

To install awesome on Ubuntu 16.04 (Xenial Xerus) run the following commands:

```
sudo apt-get install awesome

```

You can read more about the tilers in [this article](https://freedompenguin.com/articles/desktop/exploring-tiling-window-managers/) and on the [AWESOME website](https://awesomewm.org/) itself.