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The advantage of having lots of monitors is that it lets you organize your workspace spatially, rather than having to constantly deal with the cognitive load of

The advantage of having lots of monitors is that it lets you organize your workspace spatially, rather than having to constantly deal with the cognitive load of manual window management. Tilting my head a few degrees to look at my email client which is _always_ in the same place on my right monitor is significantly faster and more intuitive than having to grab my mouse and click the email icon on the taskbar, or Alt+Tab through a stack of recent programs until I find my email client among them. There are practical limits, sure. Most people are not going to want to turn their entire body around 180-degrees just to look at another window. Within those limits though I find that more space is generally better.

honr 8y ago
Compared to tilting my head to the second monitor, it is measurably faster to type ^3 (Control + 3) to switch to the space/virtual-desktop where my email window is open (~1.5sec vs ~0.7sec). If one has to Alt+Tab or Command+Tab through programs, yes, that would suck the life out of productivity. The only real benefit larger screen spaces (larger than a ~30 inch monitor) provide me with, are when I need about 4-6 open windows (maximized vertically) to switch between when dealing with large merges/patches. I haven't experienced any practical benefits beyond two ~30inch monitors.
- Ajedi32 8y ago
  FWIW, I can easily shift my gaze from the upper left corner of my left monitor to the lower right corner of my right monitor in significantly less than half a second on my triple monitor setup (my measurements ranged from 0.2s-0.5s), so I'd dispute that part of your comment. I also maintain that this is significantly more intuitive than having to memorize keyboard shortcuts for each of my more frequently used programs. I suppose everyone's workflow is different though. If you're comfortable with just one monitor then good for you. I for one will be a lot happier once I can arrange my workspace into a neat grid of windows arrayed across my desk.

honr 8y ago

Compared to tilting my head to the second monitor, it is measurably faster to type ^3 (Control + 3) to switch to the space/virtual-desktop where my email window is open (~1.5sec vs ~0.7sec). If one has to Alt+Tab or Command+Tab through programs, yes, that would suck the life out of productivity. The only real benefit larger screen spaces (larger than a ~30 inch monitor) provide me with, are when I need about 4-6 open windows (maximized vertically) to switch between when dealing with large merges/patches. I haven't experienced any practical benefits beyond two ~30inch monitors.

Ajedi32 8y ago
FWIW, I can easily shift my gaze from the upper left corner of my left monitor to the lower right corner of my right monitor in significantly less than half a second on my triple monitor setup (my measurements ranged from 0.2s-0.5s), so I'd dispute that part of your comment. I also maintain that this is significantly more intuitive than having to memorize keyboard shortcuts for each of my more frequently used programs. I suppose everyone's workflow is different though. If you're comfortable with just one monitor then good for you. I for one will be a lot happier once I can arrange my workspace into a neat grid of windows arrayed across my desk.