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I am still always shocked at the number of people that have single monitor setups... I have to have at minimum 3, I have quads setup in my home office.. I cou

I am still always shocked at the number of people that have single monitor setups... I have to have at minimum 3, I have quads setup in my home office.. I could not function on a single monitor system

dublinben 12y ago
Many users don't even have a desktop anymore.
- silverbax88 12y ago
  Do you mean ignoring laptops? Because I believe the most recent statistic I saw was that 60% of users still do a considerable amount of computing on a desktop/laptop.
  - freehunter 12y ago
    Generally the category desktop excludes laptops, which are in the category of laptop.
- gabemart 12y ago
  Given that laptop screens tend to be smaller than desktop screens, the benefits of a second monitor for a laptop seem even greater than for a desktop. Sent from the second monitor attached to my laptop.
- the_ancient 12y ago
  And? I have a workstation +_ tablet now, but I use to have a laptop, and I had a dock with 3 monitors that run off that laptop. I commonly deploy 2 monitors with a dock to laptop users.
ChuckMcM 12y ago
What is amusing to me, is that started programming on a 20 x 80 line terminal (Beehive Bee3), then got spoiled by a 25 line by 80 character terminal, and then one with multiple 'pages'. When I got to Sun and had all that space of a 'workstation' I could never imagine going back to a single terminal, then I got two monitors and couldn't imagine going back to one (although I operate that way in a pinch on some systems). Certainly there is always "something" to put up in the extra real estate. At the moment I think my ideal is 3 (a 2K landscape in the middle) and two vertical 1080P monitors, one on either side. I'd really like something like a 2440 x 800 "strip" to put along the bottom for a high res "task bar" kind of deal but can't find anyone with that particular glass and I don't want to glue together two 1280 x 800 panels. One trick though is keeping the PPI the same (or close) on the monitors so that things don't distort weirdly when they move from one to the other.
bluthru 12y ago
Monitors are getting large enough for many to be productive using just one. A single monitor can also help one be more productive by not having always-on distractions in your periphery. Putting the inbox away is a very effective way to be productive. (There was an article about this on Slate but I can't seem to find it.)
- astrodust 12y ago
  I can get by on a 27" display (full-resolution, not upscaled 1080p) alone, but for certain tasks having a second screen is almost imperative. If you're doing development and need to see the output window, some logging, and are watching your performance monitoring application, you'll run out of real estate in a hurry.
  - seanmcdirmid 12y ago
    A large curved screen with a decent tiling window manager would solve the problem of real estate much better.
- the_ancient 12y ago
  I am probably in my inbox less than 1 hour a day... I hate email and avoid it as much as possible so that is not a source of distraction for me. Today I have 2 1080p 22in monitors, 1 1900x1200 27in monitor, and 1 1440x900 19in monitor the 19in monitor i use to display various monitoring tools and automation outputs. the 27in is my primary work area one of the 22in I use for Media (spotify) and reference/docs so I can reference and/or update documentation while I work on a project The 2nd 22in is simple overflow, a post can drag things when needed. It is used less often i could probably get by with out it but it is nice to have when i need it
maximilianburke 12y ago
I've had multiple but I find I am going back to single monitors on all my computers. They're not small single monitors (27" or 24"), mind you. I find that I've been suffering from information overload with multiple monitors and that it's been too hard to focus. I would always have my email open on another monitor and whenever I found myself waiting for a build, or stuck on a problem, I'd glance over to my email and lose myself in that for a while. With a single monitor all the distractions tend to go to the back; while they are still easily available to me I now do need to consciously move to another task, rather than have my context switch because of a sideways glance.
smoe 12y ago
I, on the other hand probably couldn't work with more than two screens. I always had two screens at my last jobs but I always ended up using only one of them actually. First I had the typical setup of putting the editor/shells on one screen and the browser on the other. But I found that moving the head and re focus all the time was more of a hassle than just cmd+tab. After that, I just put things that selfupdate and I can look at once in a while on the second screen. Like Mail, Twitter, etc. Now since I rarely work in any kind of office anymore, I'm glad I never really got into the multi monitor thing:) If I would do more design work I'd probably have use for more than one monitor. But as a programmer, having a editor with good split screen and code/project navigation support is way more important to me than the size or number of monitors.

dublinben 12y ago

Many users don't even have a desktop anymore.

silverbax88 12y ago
Do you mean ignoring laptops? Because I believe the most recent statistic I saw was that 60% of users still do a considerable amount of computing on a desktop/laptop.
- freehunter 12y ago
  Generally the category desktop excludes laptops, which are in the category of laptop.
gabemart 12y ago
Given that laptop screens tend to be smaller than desktop screens, the benefits of a second monitor for a laptop seem even greater than for a desktop. Sent from the second monitor attached to my laptop.
the_ancient 12y ago
And? I have a workstation +_ tablet now, but I use to have a laptop, and I had a dock with 3 monitors that run off that laptop. I commonly deploy 2 monitors with a dock to laptop users.

ChuckMcM 12y ago

What is amusing to me, is that started programming on a 20 x 80 line terminal (Beehive Bee3), then got spoiled by a 25 line by 80 character terminal, and then one with multiple 'pages'. When I got to Sun and had all that space of a 'workstation' I could never imagine going back to a single terminal, then I got two monitors and couldn't imagine going back to one (although I operate that way in a pinch on some systems). Certainly there is always "something" to put up in the extra real estate. At the moment I think my ideal is 3 (a 2K landscape in the middle) and two vertical 1080P monitors, one on either side. I'd really like something like a 2440 x 800 "strip" to put along the bottom for a high res "task bar" kind of deal but can't find anyone with that particular glass and I don't want to glue together two 1280 x 800 panels. One trick though is keeping the PPI the same (or close) on the monitors so that things don't distort weirdly when they move from one to the other.

bluthru 12y ago

Monitors are getting large enough for many to be productive using just one. A single monitor can also help one be more productive by not having always-on distractions in your periphery. Putting the inbox away is a very effective way to be productive. (There was an article about this on Slate but I can't seem to find it.)

astrodust 12y ago
I can get by on a 27" display (full-resolution, not upscaled 1080p) alone, but for certain tasks having a second screen is almost imperative. If you're doing development and need to see the output window, some logging, and are watching your performance monitoring application, you'll run out of real estate in a hurry.
- seanmcdirmid 12y ago
  A large curved screen with a decent tiling window manager would solve the problem of real estate much better.
the_ancient 12y ago
I am probably in my inbox less than 1 hour a day... I hate email and avoid it as much as possible so that is not a source of distraction for me. Today I have 2 1080p 22in monitors, 1 1900x1200 27in monitor, and 1 1440x900 19in monitor the 19in monitor i use to display various monitoring tools and automation outputs. the 27in is my primary work area one of the 22in I use for Media (spotify) and reference/docs so I can reference and/or update documentation while I work on a project The 2nd 22in is simple overflow, a post can drag things when needed. It is used less often i could probably get by with out it but it is nice to have when i need it

maximilianburke 12y ago

I've had multiple but I find I am going back to single monitors on all my computers. They're not small single monitors (27" or 24"), mind you. I find that I've been suffering from information overload with multiple monitors and that it's been too hard to focus. I would always have my email open on another monitor and whenever I found myself waiting for a build, or stuck on a problem, I'd glance over to my email and lose myself in that for a while. With a single monitor all the distractions tend to go to the back; while they are still easily available to me I now do need to consciously move to another task, rather than have my context switch because of a sideways glance.

smoe 12y ago

I, on the other hand probably couldn't work with more than two screens. I always had two screens at my last jobs but I always ended up using only one of them actually. First I had the typical setup of putting the editor/shells on one screen and the browser on the other. But I found that moving the head and re focus all the time was more of a hassle than just cmd+tab. After that, I just put things that selfupdate and I can look at once in a while on the second screen. Like Mail, Twitter, etc. Now since I rarely work in any kind of office anymore, I'm glad I never really got into the multi monitor thing:) If I would do more design work I'd probably have use for more than one monitor. But as a programmer, having a editor with good split screen and code/project navigation support is way more important to me than the size or number of monitors.