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Same reason I don't just have an ultra widescreen monitor on my desk and I have 3 monitors instead. Separate monitors allows for better organization of differe

Same reason I don't just have an ultra widescreen monitor on my desk and I have 3 monitors instead. Separate monitors allows for better organization of different app windows than a single monitor, especially with different spaces on different monitors. I can keep my main screen on whatever it is I am working on while switching to a different space on another monitor to check email or teams for example. Or just being able to have multiple full screen apps which is what I often do.

globular-toast 3y ago
Hmm... so you use multiple monitors to emulate a tiling window manager, but with far less flexibility (you can't divide your workspace into four equal parts, for example).
- nerdjon 3y ago
  I would say I use it to augment what already exists. I don't really want my workspace divided into equal parts, I have my primary monitor which is my largest monitor in the middle. A slightly smaller (and lower resolution) monitor to the left for research, teams, etc. And then I have a vertical monitor to the right for things that I need the extra space for. I have more flexibility to setup my workspace exactly how I want, sure I can't change it later but I don't need too. It does what I need it to do since I set it up that way. I tried driving an ultra wide screen monitor at one point and it was probably my biggest regret of a purchase, and I have made some stupid purchases. It sells you on a more flexible ideal that just isn't the reality. If I want to switch context on one of my screens while keeping my main screen where it is (which I do most of the time) I just move my mouse over and swipe to another space. No fussing with widows being over each other or making sure that the OS somehow knows that I only want to move part of my screen.
- tempoponet 3y ago
  I've never seen a window manager that treats subdivisions of the screen like 1:1 physical monitors at the OS level. They generally just resize windows, take over the entire monitor when you click "fullscreen", and display errors/prompts in the middle of the monitor, overlapping your other windows. Similarly, these subdivisions can't themselves host virtual desktop spaces. Surely there's some Linux window manager that does all of this and more, but I'm never going to fuss with that when I can plug in a few cheap monitors and they work the same way immediately and consistently, out-of-the-box, on any OS.
  - globular-toast 3y ago
    Yes, but it's a minor issue of software configuration. Tiling WMs like sway can definitely do it. It seems weird to choose worse hardware to compensate for deficiencies in a window manager configuration.

globular-toast 3y ago

Hmm... so you use multiple monitors to emulate a tiling window manager, but with far less flexibility (you can't divide your workspace into four equal parts, for example).

nerdjon 3y ago
I would say I use it to augment what already exists. I don't really want my workspace divided into equal parts, I have my primary monitor which is my largest monitor in the middle. A slightly smaller (and lower resolution) monitor to the left for research, teams, etc. And then I have a vertical monitor to the right for things that I need the extra space for. I have more flexibility to setup my workspace exactly how I want, sure I can't change it later but I don't need too. It does what I need it to do since I set it up that way. I tried driving an ultra wide screen monitor at one point and it was probably my biggest regret of a purchase, and I have made some stupid purchases. It sells you on a more flexible ideal that just isn't the reality. If I want to switch context on one of my screens while keeping my main screen where it is (which I do most of the time) I just move my mouse over and swipe to another space. No fussing with widows being over each other or making sure that the OS somehow knows that I only want to move part of my screen.
tempoponet 3y ago
I've never seen a window manager that treats subdivisions of the screen like 1:1 physical monitors at the OS level. They generally just resize windows, take over the entire monitor when you click "fullscreen", and display errors/prompts in the middle of the monitor, overlapping your other windows. Similarly, these subdivisions can't themselves host virtual desktop spaces. Surely there's some Linux window manager that does all of this and more, but I'm never going to fuss with that when I can plug in a few cheap monitors and they work the same way immediately and consistently, out-of-the-box, on any OS.
- globular-toast 3y ago
  Yes, but it's a minor issue of software configuration. Tiling WMs like sway can definitely do it. It seems weird to choose worse hardware to compensate for deficiencies in a window manager configuration.