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 ]

  • @[email protected]
    12•3 months ago

    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.

    • Victor
      4•3 months ago

      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.

      • @[email protected]
        6•3 months ago

        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.

    • @[email protected]
      2•3 months ago

      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.