4 ms·

After my initial switch from a single to dual monitors, I couldn't imagine ever going back to just one. Let alone a tiny laptop display. Shocked at how many sin

by Rudism 14y ago

After my initial switch from a single to dual monitors, I couldn't imagine ever going back to just one. Let alone a tiny laptop display. Shocked at how many single-laptop-and-not-much-else setups I saw in the examples given.

jurre 14y ago
I went from dual 24" monitors to macbook air with one 24" to just the air and it's just a matter of getting used to it. The swiping to next desktop feature is awesome for this though, not sure if I could live without. I just notice that having one or two things to focus on is better for me than having 10 things open at the same time.
- jonstjohn 14y ago
  Agree, but I guess it depends on the work you're doing. When I'm working on something in my spare time, by 13" macbook air has plenty of real estate. At my day job, however, I have 3 main screens and one off to the side. The three usually have 1) instant messaging w/ team (constant, I'm remote) 2) code editor 3) browser - minimizes having to swap out what's on my screen and love it.
dionidium 14y ago
I've got two working, external monitors sitting next to the laptop on which I'm typing this, but they're rarely turned on. I don't think it affects productivity much, either way.
ajross 14y ago
The advantage to not relying on dual monitors is that when I need to work somewhere else (which is routine) I'm prepared for it. Some of this is software -- my experience is that OS X users make pretty poor use of virtual desktop schemes, where as the gnome 3 navigation hotkeys are in my muscle memory.
notJim 14y ago
I tried to make the switch from dual to single monitors earlier this year. It's really nice to only need a laptop (or one monitor + kb/mouse) on your desk. I also find the border between the two monitors really interferes with my ability to use the space, somehow. During the experiment, the only time I ever found myself wanting a second monitor was when I was testing in the browser, and needed to view a whole web page, plus an inspector. Since I have periods where I do that a lot, I now have a second monitor hooked up to my laptop. The second monitor goes unused abou 90% of the time. I think my ideal setup would be to have a very high-resolution display like an Apple Cinema display.
- mgcross 14y ago
  You're right - I just switched to a 2560w 27" (from 1920w 24") and can now fit a browser at 1280px on the left side of the screen, and Sublime Text at 1280px on the right. The display, ST with the SFTP plugin and LiveReload have made much more of a difference than I imagined.
Void_ 14y ago
What do you do, if you just wanna read an article. Which monitor do you put it on? And don't you mind always keeping your neck turned at a slight angle? I had 27 inch, and I would mind the angle of just looking at the side of it. I hated, that I had to turn my neck in order to see something.
- novalis 14y ago
  Ever tried a two monitor stacked (on top of the other) setup ? I had the same problem you had with the looking to the side, but need two monitors and that did it for me.
  - Void_ 14y ago
    I can imagine that working well! Also I wouldn't have to buy the monitors at the same time. (Should they be side by side I would want the exactly same monitor.)
    - novalis 14y ago
      Exactly, I actually have 1680x1050 on top and a higher than full 1080p on the bottom. If you try this, go to the monoprice site and look at the vertical stands they have, they are exactly the same as the costly option HP sells but sold at a fraction under their brand. Flawless really, I have had this setup for 3/4 years now and the neck weird pain never came back. Cheers.
benjaminwootton 14y ago
I've always been a real screen real estate whore. I currently run a dual 30" setup at home and always thought I could never go smaller. Around a month ago, I started using an 11" Macbook air as I was travelling a lot, and I must say, I'm absolutely blown away at how productive I have been for development work. With a tabbed text editor (ST2), browser, and terminal combined with Lion full screen & OSX spaces, everything is so nice and compact and you can switch around in less time than it takes to turn your head across to the other side of a monitor. I seem to be hitting flow very easily and have been doing some great work since I started using this laptop. Of course, being able to take my primary machine with me everywhere I go is also a real bonus. I'm getting some great work done on my side projects on my commute or on flights, and am quickly able to dial in to customer sites etc without being compromised in any way. I'd recommend that anyone give this a go. I'm definitely going to keep trying to minimise and simplify my tools after this experience.
sceaj 14y ago
I used to strongly feel the same way. My setup used to be 24" screen in front with keyboard and mouse, with the 13" MBP to the side. Code on the monitor, browser on the laptop usually. I thought I was the king of productivity, and I couldn't imagine ditching the dual monitor setup. I'd been rocking the dual monitors for the past 4 years. I gradually drifted away from the monitor, and now just sit in front of the laptop. I think I just got sick of wasting time every morning plugging 4 cables into my mac (power, monitor, usb, headphones). I also like the mbp keyboard better (a LOT better) than Apple's quiet low-profile key usb keyboard. Yeah, I could have just gone with a different keyboard, but I _really_ like the keyboard on my macbook. Not using a mouse, I move my hands less. The gestures make me more efficient (and I use BetterTouchTool, as well). I also _really_ like the trackpad on my macbook. I think there are several benefits to using just the laptop: 1. The browser is usually hidden behind the code I'm working on, instead of staring me down. I'm distracted less, and with the keyboard I can quickly switch to the browser just as quickly as I could turn my head. 2. Whether I'm at my desk in the office, the table at home, or lounging in bed, I'm always using the same setup. I typically do most of my work ssh'd into the cloud, so I don't really care about transporting my .vimrc all over with Dropbox, but if that weren't the case, my dot files always with me. 3. I'm more comfortable since I don't have to keep turning my head back-and-forth between the two screens, and I don't have to keep swapping my hand between the keyboard and mouse. My 24" monitor mostly just sits and collects dust, but I do sometimes plug it in. The 13" mbp screen isn't really big enough to do side-by-side comparisons, so if I ever have the need for that, I'm glad I still have the monitor around. I'll also use it if I ever have to fire up the javascript debugger, which I find easier to use expanded to the full screen.
sophacles 14y ago
I used to have that same thought with my n>1 monitors setups. Then I realized I was using one monitor for "dashboarding" and one for development. And a lot of virtual workspaces. So when I got my macbook, I decided not to plug extra screens into it for a while. I find that it keeps the distractions out of mind while focusing on something. So my current setup goes: A virtual desktop for each of the following: browsing, comms, notetaking. And the rest of my desktops (usually 9 total) partitioned per-project. When doing web dev stuff, i tend to put a browser in one desktop for that project, and dev stuff in the desktop immediately to the right of it. When I'm in an appropriate place, (home, work, the occasional hotel room where heavy dev is going on between meetings et al), I'll arrange another computer or attached monitor/tv to do dashboarding (preferring the another computer approach). The dashboard has test pass/fail lists, tailing logs, other information as needed for the particular project. It makes it easier to ignore, but accessible when needed. One thing the reduced screen space has done for me is help me identify opportunities for good dev practice. For example, if I find myself annoyed at the number of times I'm switching between vim and the terminal, it might be time to write a script that I can call (or even hotkey) from vim. It also helped me learn to use tabs/windows in vim and eclipse better and more productively, because I couldn't just put them next to each other anymore. Now when I do have the option for mutliple screens, one is usually blank anyway, because I find myself anoyed at switching windows, even if its a simple mouse move away. Of course, this is just my experience, influenced by my preferences, but hopefully it can give you some insight into other modes of working :)

by Rudism 14y ago

jurre 14y ago

I went from dual 24" monitors to macbook air with one 24" to just the air and it's just a matter of getting used to it. The swiping to next desktop feature is awesome for this though, not sure if I could live without. I just notice that having one or two things to focus on is better for me than having 10 things open at the same time.

jonstjohn 14y ago
Agree, but I guess it depends on the work you're doing. When I'm working on something in my spare time, by 13" macbook air has plenty of real estate. At my day job, however, I have 3 main screens and one off to the side. The three usually have 1) instant messaging w/ team (constant, I'm remote) 2) code editor 3) browser - minimizes having to swap out what's on my screen and love it.

dionidium 14y ago

I've got two working, external monitors sitting next to the laptop on which I'm typing this, but they're rarely turned on. I don't think it affects productivity much, either way.

ajross 14y ago

The advantage to not relying on dual monitors is that when I need to work somewhere else (which is routine) I'm prepared for it. Some of this is software -- my experience is that OS X users make pretty poor use of virtual desktop schemes, where as the gnome 3 navigation hotkeys are in my muscle memory.

notJim 14y ago

I tried to make the switch from dual to single monitors earlier this year. It's really nice to only need a laptop (or one monitor + kb/mouse) on your desk. I also find the border between the two monitors really interferes with my ability to use the space, somehow. During the experiment, the only time I ever found myself wanting a second monitor was when I was testing in the browser, and needed to view a whole web page, plus an inspector. Since I have periods where I do that a lot, I now have a second monitor hooked up to my laptop. The second monitor goes unused abou 90% of the time. I think my ideal setup would be to have a very high-resolution display like an Apple Cinema display.

mgcross 14y ago
You're right - I just switched to a 2560w 27" (from 1920w 24") and can now fit a browser at 1280px on the left side of the screen, and Sublime Text at 1280px on the right. The display, ST with the SFTP plugin and LiveReload have made much more of a difference than I imagined.

Void_ 14y ago

What do you do, if you just wanna read an article. Which monitor do you put it on? And don't you mind always keeping your neck turned at a slight angle? I had 27 inch, and I would mind the angle of just looking at the side of it. I hated, that I had to turn my neck in order to see something.

novalis 14y ago
Ever tried a two monitor stacked (on top of the other) setup ? I had the same problem you had with the looking to the side, but need two monitors and that did it for me.
- Void_ 14y ago
  I can imagine that working well! Also I wouldn't have to buy the monitors at the same time. (Should they be side by side I would want the exactly same monitor.)
  - novalis 14y ago
    Exactly, I actually have 1680x1050 on top and a higher than full 1080p on the bottom. If you try this, go to the monoprice site and look at the vertical stands they have, they are exactly the same as the costly option HP sells but sold at a fraction under their brand. Flawless really, I have had this setup for 3/4 years now and the neck weird pain never came back. Cheers.

benjaminwootton 14y ago

I've always been a real screen real estate whore. I currently run a dual 30" setup at home and always thought I could never go smaller. Around a month ago, I started using an 11" Macbook air as I was travelling a lot, and I must say, I'm absolutely blown away at how productive I have been for development work. With a tabbed text editor (ST2), browser, and terminal combined with Lion full screen & OSX spaces, everything is so nice and compact and you can switch around in less time than it takes to turn your head across to the other side of a monitor. I seem to be hitting flow very easily and have been doing some great work since I started using this laptop. Of course, being able to take my primary machine with me everywhere I go is also a real bonus. I'm getting some great work done on my side projects on my commute or on flights, and am quickly able to dial in to customer sites etc without being compromised in any way. I'd recommend that anyone give this a go. I'm definitely going to keep trying to minimise and simplify my tools after this experience.

sceaj 14y ago

I used to strongly feel the same way. My setup used to be 24" screen in front with keyboard and mouse, with the 13" MBP to the side. Code on the monitor, browser on the laptop usually. I thought I was the king of productivity, and I couldn't imagine ditching the dual monitor setup. I'd been rocking the dual monitors for the past 4 years. I gradually drifted away from the monitor, and now just sit in front of the laptop. I think I just got sick of wasting time every morning plugging 4 cables into my mac (power, monitor, usb, headphones). I also like the mbp keyboard better (a LOT better) than Apple's quiet low-profile key usb keyboard. Yeah, I could have just gone with a different keyboard, but I _really_ like the keyboard on my macbook. Not using a mouse, I move my hands less. The gestures make me more efficient (and I use BetterTouchTool, as well). I also _really_ like the trackpad on my macbook. I think there are several benefits to using just the laptop: 1. The browser is usually hidden behind the code I'm working on, instead of staring me down. I'm distracted less, and with the keyboard I can quickly switch to the browser just as quickly as I could turn my head. 2. Whether I'm at my desk in the office, the table at home, or lounging in bed, I'm always using the same setup. I typically do most of my work ssh'd into the cloud, so I don't really care about transporting my .vimrc all over with Dropbox, but if that weren't the case, my dot files always with me. 3. I'm more comfortable since I don't have to keep turning my head back-and-forth between the two screens, and I don't have to keep swapping my hand between the keyboard and mouse. My 24" monitor mostly just sits and collects dust, but I do sometimes plug it in. The 13" mbp screen isn't really big enough to do side-by-side comparisons, so if I ever have the need for that, I'm glad I still have the monitor around. I'll also use it if I ever have to fire up the javascript debugger, which I find easier to use expanded to the full screen.

sophacles 14y ago

I used to have that same thought with my n>1 monitors setups. Then I realized I was using one monitor for "dashboarding" and one for development. And a lot of virtual workspaces. So when I got my macbook, I decided not to plug extra screens into it for a while. I find that it keeps the distractions out of mind while focusing on something. So my current setup goes: A virtual desktop for each of the following: browsing, comms, notetaking. And the rest of my desktops (usually 9 total) partitioned per-project. When doing web dev stuff, i tend to put a browser in one desktop for that project, and dev stuff in the desktop immediately to the right of it. When I'm in an appropriate place, (home, work, the occasional hotel room where heavy dev is going on between meetings et al), I'll arrange another computer or attached monitor/tv to do dashboarding (preferring the another computer approach). The dashboard has test pass/fail lists, tailing logs, other information as needed for the particular project. It makes it easier to ignore, but accessible when needed. One thing the reduced screen space has done for me is help me identify opportunities for good dev practice. For example, if I find myself annoyed at the number of times I'm switching between vim and the terminal, it might be time to write a script that I can call (or even hotkey) from vim. It also helped me learn to use tabs/windows in vim and eclipse better and more productively, because I couldn't just put them next to each other anymore. Now when I do have the option for mutliple screens, one is usually blank anyway, because I find myself anoyed at switching windows, even if its a simple mouse move away. Of course, this is just my experience, influenced by my preferences, but hopefully it can give you some insight into other modes of working :)