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I've been using a Dell 13" Ubuntu 4K laptop hooked to a 43" monitor as my main work web development system for a year and a half. All of my co-workers use Macs

I've been using a Dell 13" Ubuntu 4K laptop hooked to a 43" monitor as my main work web development system for a year and a half. All of my co-workers use Macs. Pros: compared to Macs using Docker is very performant especially when sharing the host file system for development and once I found Regolith (https://regolith-linux.org/ https://regolith-linux.org/) I don't think I could go back to a normal windowing system. Cons: non-Electron cross-platform apps seems to get short shift on Linux. For instance, the Zoom client is buggy and seems to be the last to have new features rolled out to it and I CANNOT for the life of me get my Microsoft mouse's scroll wheel to smooth scroll correctly.

osrec 6y ago
I use LXDE at the moment, primarily because it gets out of your way. I'm going to give regolith a try - it looks pretty cool (and by that, I mean functional). Thanks for sharing!
dsamlkadslmksda 6y ago
Do you mind to share the model of your 43" monitor? I'm looking for a setup like yours, but I'm not really sure which monitor fits the purpose. Thank you!
- 29athrowaway 6y ago
  A 4K TV does the trick too.
- throwawayvx4380 6y ago
  I've been using the 4K 43" Viewsonic VX-4380 for several years; it's been great. It uses flicker-free backlighting unlike the Dell 43". Unfortunately it appears COVID-19 has disrupted the supply chain for these at the moment. Keep in mind that many 43" 4K displays use TV-like BGR subpixel layout instead of RGB, so subpixel antialiasing for font rendering in general won't work unless you either switch your OS to BGR or disable it. (Windows and Ubuntu/Gnome, but not Mac OS, have a way to set BGR layout. But all three let you disable subpixel AA.) I always disable subpixel AA anyway because my eyes can see the color fringe when it's enabled and I don't like. Another poster said you can use a TV instead but I don't recommend this. Using a TV over HDMI can lead to color quality issues unless you are certain your model of TV won't be affected. (Many TVs use a compressed color signal because it's good enough for watching TV and movies but certainly not good enough for rendering detailed artwork). And TVs can have overscan issues (edges of the screen image missing), image ghosting issues, etc. A TV works OK for fullscreen gaming or for a powerpoint but isn't necessarily the greatest as a general purpose monitor.
- raihansaputra 6y ago
  https://www.rtings.com/tv/reviews/best/by-usage/pc-monitor https://www.rtings.com/tv/reviews/best/by-usage/pc-monitor
- dugmartin 6y ago
  I should have been more precise. It is a 43" 4K TV acting as a monitor. Its a cheap Vizio I bought a few years ago after a bit of research and luck showed that the model that my local warehouse store (BJs) had in stock offered 1 out of the 5 HDMI ports as "raw" (it bypassed the internal image processing system in the TV). Its been great - its flicker free and doesn't have weird artifacts I've heard other 4K TVs have (had?) when used as a monitor. Honestly though, 43" is too big. I think somewhere around 36" would be ideal to limit the amount of head swivel. I use Regolith with a good deal of padding between tiled windows mostly to bring the windows out of the top corners of the screen so that my days don't feel like I'm at a tennis match.

osrec 6y ago

I use LXDE at the moment, primarily because it gets out of your way. I'm going to give regolith a try - it looks pretty cool (and by that, I mean functional). Thanks for sharing!

dsamlkadslmksda 6y ago

Do you mind to share the model of your 43" monitor? I'm looking for a setup like yours, but I'm not really sure which monitor fits the purpose. Thank you!

29athrowaway 6y ago
A 4K TV does the trick too.
throwawayvx4380 6y ago
I've been using the 4K 43" Viewsonic VX-4380 for several years; it's been great. It uses flicker-free backlighting unlike the Dell 43". Unfortunately it appears COVID-19 has disrupted the supply chain for these at the moment. Keep in mind that many 43" 4K displays use TV-like BGR subpixel layout instead of RGB, so subpixel antialiasing for font rendering in general won't work unless you either switch your OS to BGR or disable it. (Windows and Ubuntu/Gnome, but not Mac OS, have a way to set BGR layout. But all three let you disable subpixel AA.) I always disable subpixel AA anyway because my eyes can see the color fringe when it's enabled and I don't like. Another poster said you can use a TV instead but I don't recommend this. Using a TV over HDMI can lead to color quality issues unless you are certain your model of TV won't be affected. (Many TVs use a compressed color signal because it's good enough for watching TV and movies but certainly not good enough for rendering detailed artwork). And TVs can have overscan issues (edges of the screen image missing), image ghosting issues, etc. A TV works OK for fullscreen gaming or for a powerpoint but isn't necessarily the greatest as a general purpose monitor.
raihansaputra 6y ago
https://www.rtings.com/tv/reviews/best/by-usage/pc-monitor https://www.rtings.com/tv/reviews/best/by-usage/pc-monitor
dugmartin 6y ago
I should have been more precise. It is a 43" 4K TV acting as a monitor. Its a cheap Vizio I bought a few years ago after a bit of research and luck showed that the model that my local warehouse store (BJs) had in stock offered 1 out of the 5 HDMI ports as "raw" (it bypassed the internal image processing system in the TV). Its been great - its flicker free and doesn't have weird artifacts I've heard other 4K TVs have (had?) when used as a monitor. Honestly though, 43" is too big. I think somewhere around 36" would be ideal to limit the amount of head swivel. I use Regolith with a good deal of padding between tiled windows mostly to bring the windows out of the top corners of the screen so that my days don't feel like I'm at a tennis match.