51 ms·

whats with all the guys going laptop only these days ? thats an ergonomic nightmare and i am so much more productive with 2 screens.

by kayoone 16y ago

Klonoar 16y ago
Two screens anchors you in one place. Some of us value the flexibility of being able to go work out of a coffee shop whenever we damn well please. To add to that, I personally get no benefit from extra screens; maybe it takes a certain type of brain, but I'm able to visualize everything in my head very easily to the point where I can not be looking at a screen of text but still recall it all just fine. Having windows crammed onto a screen just isn't an issue for some of us. :)
- kayoone 16y ago
  Never really understood the "to be able to work from coffeeshops" argument. Actually we have an office, i have to commute to everyday but i love it far more than working on my own. I am achored to the office yeah, but its the place where i can get most done and talk to other engineers working on the same project. Its not that having a Desktop disqualifies you from having a laptop aswell, so if i feel like it, i could still work from somewhere else. I like to have the best gear for every situation, so in the office having a workstation with 2x 24" screens and a MBA for on the road seems to be perfect for me. Dropbox makes syncing relativly painless. Oh yeah the brain argument ;) Well people tend to work on different stuff. I am a game developer and apart from a huge IDE i also need to compile builds, test server & client on the same machine, view debugging/docs while running the builds etc. With only the Laptop screen its a major pita. For doing some web development its mostly fine though i guess.
- nikcub 16y ago
  The link between screen resolution and productivity is well established: http://www.newscientist.com/blog/technology/2008/03/screen-size-matters.html http://www.newscientist.com/blog/technology/2008/03/screen-s... I have two screens sitting on my desk at home with bluetooth keyboard. Plug it in when I am at home with bluetooth keyboard, and laptop when I am away (although I usually always take my external mouse with me)
  - Klonoar 16y ago
    Perhaps that works for some people, but others (like myself) still differ. To each their own. :)
    - nikcub 16y ago
      I can see what you mean. I do ok on the laptop alone, since you only need 80 columns of width. You end up just paging up and down a bit more And Spaces and/or virtualterminals are a dream
mikey_p 16y ago
There's nothing stopping your from plugging a huge monitor and keyboard into a laptop. I find this tradeoff to be hugely more valuable than trying to sync my projects between two different machines. Dropbox is good, but when you are running multiple languages and frameworks locally, there isn't much that can keep your config and databases in sync.
- kayoone 16y ago
  Yeah but Laptop screens are not ment to be looked at from that far away, also a big difference in screen size (while having a similar resolution) isnt very appealing for the eyes. Syncing is harder when Databases etc are involved yes, but we have a dev server in the office for that anyway where people ssh into so you dont really work locally. I work locally on game development where dropbox syncs whole projects just fine. Still, my only computer currently is a 15" MBP Early 2011 QuadCore, High-Res Matte Screen, 8GB RAM and SSD. And you know what? I regret buying it because for my usecase the fans start getting noisy way too early.
philwelch 16y ago
It turns out you can hook up an external keyboard, mouse, and screen to a laptop, and then put the laptop on a stand so the screen is raised the same level as the external screen.
- edanm 16y ago
  I'm considering getting a MacBook pro or MacBook Air. Can you hook them up to 2 external monitors? Or are you limited to one external monitor plus the laptop's screen?
  - kayoone 16y ago
    Only one. You can use USB2DVI or some other awkward solution but its not going to be like 2 native monitors. 2 external Monitors will also probably heat the machine up quite a bit.

whats with all the guys going laptop only these days ? thats an ergonomic nightmare and i am so much more productive with 2 screens.

by kayoone 16y ago

whats with all the guys going laptop only these days ? thats an ergonomic nightmare and i am so much more productive with 2 screens.

Klonoar 16y ago

Two screens anchors you in one place. Some of us value the flexibility of being able to go work out of a coffee shop whenever we damn well please. To add to that, I personally get no benefit from extra screens; maybe it takes a certain type of brain, but I'm able to visualize everything in my head very easily to the point where I can not be looking at a screen of text but still recall it all just fine. Having windows crammed onto a screen just isn't an issue for some of us. :)

kayoone 16y ago
Never really understood the "to be able to work from coffeeshops" argument. Actually we have an office, i have to commute to everyday but i love it far more than working on my own. I am achored to the office yeah, but its the place where i can get most done and talk to other engineers working on the same project. Its not that having a Desktop disqualifies you from having a laptop aswell, so if i feel like it, i could still work from somewhere else. I like to have the best gear for every situation, so in the office having a workstation with 2x 24" screens and a MBA for on the road seems to be perfect for me. Dropbox makes syncing relativly painless. Oh yeah the brain argument ;) Well people tend to work on different stuff. I am a game developer and apart from a huge IDE i also need to compile builds, test server & client on the same machine, view debugging/docs while running the builds etc. With only the Laptop screen its a major pita. For doing some web development its mostly fine though i guess.
nikcub 16y ago
The link between screen resolution and productivity is well established: http://www.newscientist.com/blog/technology/2008/03/screen-size-matters.html http://www.newscientist.com/blog/technology/2008/03/screen-s... I have two screens sitting on my desk at home with bluetooth keyboard. Plug it in when I am at home with bluetooth keyboard, and laptop when I am away (although I usually always take my external mouse with me)
- Klonoar 16y ago
  Perhaps that works for some people, but others (like myself) still differ. To each their own. :)
  - nikcub 16y ago
    I can see what you mean. I do ok on the laptop alone, since you only need 80 columns of width. You end up just paging up and down a bit more And Spaces and/or virtualterminals are a dream

mikey_p 16y ago

There's nothing stopping your from plugging a huge monitor and keyboard into a laptop. I find this tradeoff to be hugely more valuable than trying to sync my projects between two different machines. Dropbox is good, but when you are running multiple languages and frameworks locally, there isn't much that can keep your config and databases in sync.

kayoone 16y ago
Yeah but Laptop screens are not ment to be looked at from that far away, also a big difference in screen size (while having a similar resolution) isnt very appealing for the eyes. Syncing is harder when Databases etc are involved yes, but we have a dev server in the office for that anyway where people ssh into so you dont really work locally. I work locally on game development where dropbox syncs whole projects just fine. Still, my only computer currently is a 15" MBP Early 2011 QuadCore, High-Res Matte Screen, 8GB RAM and SSD. And you know what? I regret buying it because for my usecase the fans start getting noisy way too early.

philwelch 16y ago

It turns out you can hook up an external keyboard, mouse, and screen to a laptop, and then put the laptop on a stand so the screen is raised the same level as the external screen.

edanm 16y ago
I'm considering getting a MacBook pro or MacBook Air. Can you hook them up to 2 external monitors? Or are you limited to one external monitor plus the laptop's screen?
- kayoone 16y ago
  Only one. You can use USB2DVI or some other awkward solution but its not going to be like 2 native monitors. 2 external Monitors will also probably heat the machine up quite a bit.