I keep one window (in the common OS meaning of window) per virtual desktop and I usually split it into two horizontal buffers. Sometimes I split it in two vertical buffers, for comparing lines. Sometimes even in four, two rows and two columns per row. I can fit 55 lines into my emacs, plus the minibuffer, the status line above the minibuffer and the menu and title bar on top so even split in four buffers each of them is about the same size of the terminals I grew with. And I'm using proportional fonts, that are more readable and space efficient.