How many monitors?

[the.spike]

Here's quick one:

DO you think I'd be better off with a 22" wide screen monitor or 2 19" normal monitors? (all would be flat screens).

I don't play games and I don't watch TV on the computer. I do tend to have many windows open doing stuff on my current 17" monitor though..

Thoughts please!

Cheers,

spike...

[happybunny]

get yourself one of these
http://dtti.wordpress.com/2006/09/14/athens-display/

[trilarian]

I'd suggest dual-monitors. It is very nice to be able to full screen something and still have a reference screen. The only reason to get the larger widescreen(other than getting two of these^^) over the other two monitors would be for games or video(imho) - which you said you don't do both.

At work, I actually have a three monitor setup. I easily get over 250 emails a day, so one monitor is dedicated to email. I have another that holds my work order list, browsers, etc. Then the center one is a full screen of the main software I'm always in.

Now if only I could take these monitors home....

[loopback48]

get yourself one of these
http://dtti.wordpress.com/2006/09/14/athens-display/

Holy, S***! If that's not an orgasm in the making, I don't know what is. Love to get something like that.

Damn you happybunny! Now, I'll never be happy until I get my hands on one of those.

[knute]

Holy, S***! If that's not an orgasm in the making, I don't know what is. Love to get something like that.

Damn you happybunny! Now, I'll never be happy until I get my hands on one of those.

One?!?! I was thinking 2! One on top and one on the bottom! :D

There was one job that I was at, doing web design actually, and I had a gentoo setup on the machine. I had 2 crts set up. One monitor was misc stuff (a couple of upgrades compiling, gaim, system monitor, network monitor (we ran an internet cafe as well), and a few terminal windows open). At the time in question, a client was there, and we were figuring out what colors and such he wanted on his web page, so I had firefox full screen with the site in question up on it. He would say what he wanted changed, I'd change the focus, type a couple of things, hit reload on the browser and it would change.

It took, not only him, but also the owner (a friend of mine) to realize that it wasn't 2 computers, it was one. It was funny, but I stayed professional, as they went from slightly rushed (client was a cardiologist), to slightly intimidated and I hadn't changed how I was acting at all. It was a riot! :cool:

2 monitors are nice though, as was previously mentioned, you can have the misc stuff out of the way, yet accessible while working on something else full screen on the other monitor.

[bs_texas]

I agree with trilarian. I have a dual monitor setup at work and it's nice being able to open something up full screen on one monitor and then still have the other monitor for doing other stuff.

Typically, I have a lot of windows popped up all over the place and don't usually open them up full screen, but we do a lot of remoting into users' computers. We can open up one screen with just their computer and still have the other monitor for all of our tools, etc.

At home I'm still using a single 19" Hitachi CRT. One of thee days, when I'm rich and famous, I'll replace it with 2 LCDs. Then I can try to get Linux to do dual monitors! ;)

[IsaacKuo]

The way I use multiple workspaces in Linux, I'd rather have one really big monitor than multiple smaller monitors. However, that gets frightfully expensive--a large 1920x1080 HDTV can cost thousands of dollars. A 22" screen is too small.

One of my workstations has a triple 1600x1200 monitor setup, but it's more of a gimmick than anything else. I don't find myself any more productive on it than on my main workstation (single monitor at 2048x1536).

[cybertron]

A 22" screen is too small.
:eek:

Wow, I was just thinking about how if I got much bigger than a 22" I would have to start sitting further away, which would kind of defeat the purpose.:)

As far as the question goes, I personally have the best of both worlds. I have a 17" 4:3 LCD next to a 20" widescreen and I love it. I personally would have a hard time giving up the dually setup for one big one, but it's really going to come down to how you use it.

[IsaacKuo]

If you were using a single 37" monitor instead of a 17" next to a 20", then you wouldn't have to sit any further away. But a single 1920x1080 37" flat panel can cost easily twice as much as a 17" 5:4 plus a 20" widescreen.

(I'm presuming your 17" monitor is actually 5:4 instead of 4:3. AFAIK, no 4:3 17" LCDs exist.)

[cybertron]

(I'm presuming your 17" monitor is actually 5:4 instead of 4:3. AFAIK, no 4:3 17" LCDs exist.)
Whoops, yeah it's 5:4. Just a habit to refer to standard monitors as 4:3.:o

The only thing about comparing my current setup to a 37" is that I'm never actually looking at both monitors at the same time. I'm either reading something on one or typing on the other, so the extreme wideness isn't a big deal.

In any case, I expect I'll find out for sure next time I upgrade since I'll probably have the money to go as big as I want.:)

[folkert]

current 17" monitor
Could you consider going for the 22" and keeping the 17"?
I won't vote, since I do want to watch movies and don't have the experiance

[IsaacKuo]

There's nothing forcing you to use full-screen windows. I find a single high resolution screen more convenient than two or three lower resolution screens because of the flexibility in deciding how to lay out the windows.

For some tasks, I like to split it half-and-half (like a GUI file manager on the left, and a shell window on the right). For the GIMP, I like to have a huge area to the right for the image and a small cluster of windows to the left for the controls.

Sometimes I like to have three columns of stuff (like multiple shells). Sometimes I like to have WIDE shells (when working with really long paths or using cut-and-paste with long configuration lines).

That said, I sometimes think a good paradigm shift for GUI interfaces would be to assume an asymmetrical split between a big "main" screen and a small "controls" screen. The "controls" screen could include tabs and menus and toolboxes, as well as status bars for all of a workspace's applications. Ultimately, the "controls" screen could be a wireless touchscreen PDA or something; it doesn't need to be a second traditional monitor.

[cybertron]

That said, I sometimes think a good paradigm shift for GUI interfaces would be to assume an asymmetrical split between a big "main" screen and a small "controls" screen. The "controls" screen could include tabs and menus and toolboxes, as well as status bars for all of a workspace's applications. Ultimately, the "controls" screen could be a wireless touchscreen PDA or something; it doesn't need to be a second traditional monitor.
I think this is actually similar to what I'll end up doing eventually. I already use my duals in a similar fashion, Gimp controls go on the 17" and the actual image goes on the 20" (which is a completely clean screen whereas my 17" has all of my system monitors, task bar, and the like). Documentation goes on the 17" and code goes on the 20". Stuff like that.