I’m mainly curious about software developers here, or anyone else whose computer is somewhat central to their life, be it professional or hobbyist.
I only have two monitors—one directly in front of me, and another to the right of it, angled toward me. For web development, I keep my editor on the main screen, and anything auxiliary (be that a dev build, a video, StackOverflow, etc.) on the side screen.
I wouldn’t mind a third monitor, and if I had one, I’d definitely use it for log/output, since currently it’s a floating window that I shuffle around however necessary. It could be smaller than the other two, and I might even turn it vertical so I could split the screen between output and a terminal, configuring a AutoHotKey script to focus the terminal.
What about y’all?
[ cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/13864053 ]
Software engineer. I use three monitors. I primarily use macOS, if anyone’s curious.
Main monitor is a 42" 4K LG C3 OLED, two side monitors are 34" 4K LG IPS displays in vertical orientation.
For work, I keep my IDE and browser on my main monitor and I use it for most other applications that I might use, but usually just my IDE and browser.
Left monitor is used primarily to display my Jira board and tickets, which takes up the bottom 2/3 of the screen. I use Firefox’s video pop out feature to place YouTube or other videos in the top 1/3 so I can watch them while I work, if I want.
Right monitor is used primarily for Slack and Spotify. Slack takes up the bottom half. Spotify takes up the top half, and I often listen when I’m not watching videos.
Could I do all of this with spaces? Of course. Absolutely. I’ve had a one monitor setup, two monitor setup, and now a three monitor setup. Honestly, I really just like that I don’t have to switch spaces all the time. I can reference my Jira tickets while I work and chat with people all at the same time without having to switch spaces around any time I want to see certain details about something in a ticket or something someone said.
I also play games (separate PC) and stream, so the three monitors is useful for that, as well. I have the game up on my main monitor, and I use the side monitors to show my Twitch chat/bot, OBS, Discord, etc.
Same, with smaller monitors, but I also have two laptops open and use those screens as well.
Videos, music, and anything remotely personal goes on the personal laptop over to the side. IDE on one, dashboards on another, email and messaging on the third, calendar and stories on the laptop screen.
I could do with a lot less but I don’t have to right now.
Dude you have one hundred and ten inches of monitor real estate? You need to learn how to use workspaces. 😅 That is insane to me.
I’m also a software developer with docs and IDE and web output (web dev), Slack, Telegram, Spotify, Steam, various terminals for VPN, local dev server, lazygit, various system configs, one browser window for breaks to watch a YouTube video or an episode of some show, other personal browser windows, etc, etc. The list goes on.
For all this, I have one ☝️ single 27" 1440p OLED gaming monitor (I used to have a 1080p monitor until very recently), with i3 and I make use of its workspaces. I also make heavy use of an efficient window switcher.
I can’t imagine panning my vision and spinning my neck around constantly at 110+ inches of screen. Isn’t it frustrating?
Edit: I see you mentioned workspaces so I guess you do what feels best. 😊 Seems like a sweet setup if it doesn’t strain you in any way.
Yeah, like I said, I could absolutely use spaces and I have used spaces heavily in the past. Having three monitors is certainly a nice-to-have and personally I believe having everything up at once is superior to using spaces.
I sit a good 3.5 feet from my displays, so it’s pretty easy for me to look at my side displays without turning my head. Keep in mind my side displays are vertical. I probably would have to turn my head if they were in a horizontal orientation.
Anyway, it’s all about what you prefer, can afford, etc. For me, this is my ideal setup.
The fucking dream.
School work:
Left = Jabref
Center = texmaker
Right = PubMed, Elsevier, sci hub, etcGaming:
Left = discord
Center = game
Right = game guide, YouTube, mediaWork (I hate literally all of these programs):
Left: slack
Center: Asana, onenote
Right: gdocsDesigner/animator, Mac, either two-screen app setup/workflow (ie editing, 3D, etc) or an easy way to have 2 related things going (ie, brief + job, reference + project, etc).
I like the single ultrawide, maybe with the laptop screen for a meeting app. Two monitors just feels like a compromise and for a little extra you can just remove the border entirely
Same, ultrawide with a split screen where it’s 75% my main productive environment and 25% our in-house chat, and a second desktop configuration that’s 50:50 between browser and text processor to write documentation and stuff.
My laptop screen defaults to my email plus calendar view, and will be used for video calls if needed.
I started using two so I could more easily remote game with my sibling.
The second one would have their screen stream up, so it was like we were playing split screen co-op back in the day. :)
Two monitors. One is 1440p and mainly for games and other tasks, while the other one is a really old and kinda shitty 1080p monitor i use while im doing stuff on the better monitor. I usually watch youtube or have a discord voice call open, sometimes i use it to have a tutorial or wiki page open like that i dont always have to alt tab and see the page again. Its really useful and i cant stand using a single monitor anymore haha. Thankfully im ok using the steam deck still
Not a developer, but I will always use 2 monitors when I can - using the secondary for Outlook: inbox on one side, calendar on the other. I will also swivel this for showing presentations/plans/documents to members of my team in face to face meetings, and will move Zoom windows to in webinars etc it whilst I get on with some actual work on the main monitor.
I have three, but while I felt the move from 1 to 2 all those years ago was an insanely huge boost at work, I find 3 to be a nice to have, but I don’t miss it if I only have 2.
Others may have a workflow that heavily relies on three, but I don’t get pissed off until circumstances whittle me down to only one.
Three monitors here. Primary and secondary pretty much exactly like you. Tertiary is a cheap portable one, 15", 1080p, that I’ve mounted above the secondary slightly angled downward and on which I have my communication apps pinned, as well as a full screen
btop.I’ve wanted the overhead comms display off and on for a while now. Two screens for input/output work, then the overhead screen for discord/hangouts/teams/email status. I don’t need the overhead one all the time, but some days it would be insanely useful when things are buzzing in the group.
Haha, ditto. I’ve got the 34inch 4:3 for tasks like cad and image stuff, then next to it the 34inch ultramodern which I use for spreadsheets or multi-pane stuff, then my extra monitor up that lives up at a weird angle is my at-a-glance home for slack, btop, nvtop and any running scripts I want to keep an eye on.
Oh, neat! Yeah, I think I’ve seriously talked myself into getting a small third monitor. Using it for communication apps is a good idea, and I can definitely see having that when I’m just relaxing, or if I’m collaborating. Thanks for your response!
Web developer, couldn’t go without three monitors. Just three 1080p panels. Center monitor has the code editor, right has the browser, and left has the ticket or designs or the music player or Slack.
My sister uses her second monitor maninly for Discord, but sometimes it’s art references or game guides.
Two screens. One is dedicated to the IDE, the other is everything else: browser, mail and chat clients, docs, maybe another IDE with a REPL to play with stuff.
I find I need a large code window. I know devs that use a 4K monitor the same way, but I don’t have one.WFH is one laptop and 2 screens. Email is on Portrait mode screen. That one is also great for reviewing long-ass PDFs. It’s a FUCKING DELIGHT I tell you.
Loads of data sciency stuff - one monitor for normal text editing/terminal work, another for accessing remote environments, and a third for a combo of work comms and music.
When not sciencing, I won’t lie, there’s a lot of Path of Exile with PoB on one screen and a podcast on the third.
I’m in IT/remote administration and have 3 monitors. The left is my main screen and where ticketing/remote windows live, middle screen is email/chats/research, and the right screen is a smaller, portrait oriented monitor for reading long documents (or trying to follow my own code) or I’ll throw my security camera feed and YouTube on that one to have visible out of the corner of my eye.
