Why I Stopped Using Multiple Monitors

64 点作者 vanni超过 7 年前

43 条评论

justboxing超过 7 年前

> So why are we spending money to display multiple things simultaneously?Full-stack and front end developers can really improve productivity drastically and reduce ALT-TAB Keystrokes and back-and-forth scrolling when developing and testing web-pages, responsive sites as well as web applications that they use an IDE for.At work, I have 2 monitors (21-inch each). On 1 monitor, I write my code in an IDE, usually Visual Studio or sometimes in Notepad++. On the other Monitor I have the website that I am building, open. As and when I make changes, do a build, I simply have to refresh the screen on the other monitor instead of pressing ALT-TAB over and over again and selecting the other window, if I had just 1 monitor.The 2nd use case, also common for full-stack or web developers, is when debugging front end stuff like Javascript, CSS, HTML. I have the webpage open in 1 monitor, and the chrome debugger in the other one, so I have a full screen on each side to do the debugging. This exercise becomes especially tedious with a single monitor, wherein, when you go F12, the chrome debugger will occupy a good portion of your screen, no matter how you've docked it (to the left, or right or the bottom).On a single monitor, this means endless clicking, scrolling back and forth on the page you are trying to debug, next think you know, your fingers and wrists are sore and you haven't gotten too far in your work and your coworkers tell you that you have RSI.I wonder if OP is a command-line / backend developer, in which case, you may be able to get away with a single monitor and not feel the pain :)

评论 #15142277 未加载

评论 #15142256 未加载

评论 #15142321 未加载

评论 #15142213 未加载

评论 #15142197 未加载

评论 #15142216 未加载

评论 #15144096 未加载

评论 #15142165 未加载

评论 #15142280 未加载

评论 #15143229 未加载

oxguy3超过 7 年前

Not a big fan of the judgmental attitude in this article.> So why do so many workers demand multiple monitors? I believe it’s a case of the illogical allure of extremes.> Too much of anything becomes its opposite . — Tim FerrissIf you don't like multiple monitors, fair enough, but don't dismiss everyone else as wrong without considering how their workflow may differ from yours.I can work fine with one screen, but I can work even better with multiple. Just like the author of this article, I make heavy use of macOS's workspaces. Being able to have three workspaces visible at once is highly preferable to just one -- it is easier to turn my head than to jump through workspaces with my keyboard shortcuts.Unlike the author suggests, I am not trying to focus on multiple things at once -- my focus remains on one monitor at a time. The multiple monitors just makes it easier to shift focus when I need to.

评论 #15143821 未加载

评论 #15143179 未加载

KillerX超过 7 年前

I claim that a major issue is that people do not use a good window manager. The window managers provided by default by most OS are frankly crap.The author writes that he "spent way too much time fiddling with the windows". If you have a window manager that does the "fiddling" for you, suddenly multiple screens and/or huge screens become super useful as the windows will arrange themselves in a sane way no matter what you are doing. A prime example for me is Xmonad. Yes, it takes a day to configure it and learn it but after that you will find yourself super annoyed as to why new application window that just opened did not automatically resize itself to the side, etc.

drabiega超过 7 年前

This may be a function of the somewhat fickle nature of my short term memory, but I find the transition of looking between screens to be noticeably easier than switching between virtual desktops or something similar.This is despite the fact that I use keyboard shortcuts for switching between maximized windows on a single monitor and do so pretty fluidly.

willtim超过 7 年前

He says "I rarely need the docs visible at the same time I’m writing code. I read the relevant doc, then code. My workflow is modal."This is certainly not a common opinion. Most people want to glance back and forth quickly. And most people hate modal dialogs.

评论 #15142239 未加载

评论 #15142163 未加载

makecheck超过 7 年前

Multi-monitor support is still hugely flaky even in 2017. (Even Apple, which had done this perfectly for years, had a phase in the days of Lion where all their new full-screen crap was horribly useless on two-display setups.)W10 will utterly destroy your window layout for having the audacity to undock a laptop from a two-display setup. Sometimes it will completely forget the 2nd display that had been working for weeks, with no clear way to fix. Sometimes the display is not "on" yet it is "functional" from W10, leading to aggravating scenarios like windows only located/usable from the display you can't see, requiring you to practically disconnect a laptop to use anything again.Conceptually not hard but apparently rocket science for OS implementers.

评论 #15142352 未加载

评论 #15142481 未加载

rconti超过 7 年前

I hadn't used multiple monitors in perhaps 6 or 7 years. When stuck with small displays I used 2x19" but I hated not having a "central" monitor -- for me, it's gotta be an odd number. And I hated using dissimilar-sized monitors. And of course 3x24"+ is kind of overkill, desk space-wise.Managed to use a 27" Thunderbolt display at each of my last 2 jobs, and I love it. I never would have used a laptop screen as a second display, because the size and pixel density is different. I don't 100% agree with the author though, as I frequently have 2 items side-by-side, and unless you're fullscreened, they resize/rearrange improperly when you switch from desktop display to laptop display.I also kind of disagree with his use of virtual desktops -- don't get me wrong, I use them too, but I ONLY use them because I have multiple windows on a single display arranged the way I want them. If I was just using single fullscreened apps, you could just as easily alt-tab between them. Virtual desktops are for when you want a collection of windows to stay together.I also find my biggest distraction is switching to another virtual desktop while I wait for a 10-120 second task to complete, and I get distracted. So instead I use desk toys and am willing to allow myself to "look" unproductive, waiting for a computing task to finish while I fiddle with a piece of bike chain or whatever, rather than getting lost in another task and losing focus.Today I am using a single 27" display with my laptop display right under it. I know, violating my own rule, but it's working well for my use case of web learning+chat on the main display and a terminal window on the lower laptop display for running examples. When I'm back to "real" work I'll likely go back to a single display for focus.

LyndsySimon超过 7 年前

I mostly agree with the author here - I work on a 15" MBP, and am remote more than I'm in the office.Where I differ slightly is that when I am in the office, I have a single, 24" 16:9 monitor connected in addition to my laptop's screen. I use it very sparingly. It contains only iTerm, which is running tmux and has all of my dev stuff running. I almost never need to see both my terminal and my IDE/browser/whatever at once, but when I do need my terminal it's very nice to have twice the history I would normally have on my laptop's monitor on the screen at one time. I find it invaluable particularly when reading logs.

pfarnsworth超过 7 年前

That's great that OP is happy with a single monitor.I love my multiple monitors. It lets me organize my windows without having to alt-tab between them. I find it helps me a great deal.I don't think there's anything wrong with OP using a single monitor, but don't shit on my choices just because you think differently.This is one of the biggest problems with people today, they believe their OPINION is the BEST, but they forget that it's just an opinion. Other people can have different opinions for perfectly valid reasons, and they're not wrong.

tomsthumb超过 7 年前

I also use one monitor for a similar combination of reasons. The ergonomics are better and work flows are similar on just my laptop compared to my large everyday monitor at work.Many of my coworkers use multiple monitors as a way to "deal" with sprawl, except it really just facilitates sprawl. Using just one makes me be more disciplined with regards to floating and extra 4 dozen browser tabs. Multiple workspaces with their own separate reasons for existing help preserve context when switching out of a task is necessary, and again makes it easier to prune terminal and browser tabs because they exist to a particular end.Multiple desktops and good window management are a must. Spectacle on OSX or a tiling WM on linux (not familiar with windows) are a must. Toss in tmux (obviously not mandatory) and it's great. It takes discipline, and a bit of up front work, but once you have your patterns it's much quicker to find information, tabs, terminals, etc and then toss out three chrome windows with 50 tabs and 8 terminal shells.I do ops, and so might have to juggle a larger variety of contexts than some devs who spend 90% of their time in an IDE, but maybe not.There is a good case to be made for two monitors if you spend extensive periods of time working with, e.g. wireshark or similar, but that's the only case I've come across in almost a decade where two monitors > one (large) monitor + good wm w/ multiple desktops.

nxsynonym超过 7 年前

My workflow dictates using 2-4 browser windows + email + excel all simultaneously. I currently use 2 monitors + laptop screen as third. I can't image cutting down to just the laptop screen.I see the point about less distractions, but tbh I find it more distracting to swap between multiple tabs/windows/desktops than to just move my eyes.

Overtonwindow超过 7 年前

I would like to see studies of specific industries. In government affairs, have multiple monitors is a lifesaver. Research on one screen, writing on the middle, email and other time sensitive resources on the right. I tried it with just one monitor and my quality and time dramatically improved with three.

chrisper超过 7 年前

At home I only have one monitor and it is plenty. I don't need to focus on multiple things.At work (as a Software Engineer) I'd not want to have to work on one display only. I am way more productive if I don't have to switch between a billion tabs in Visual Studio.

otterpro超过 7 年前

I find it easier to work on 3 small/midsize (13"-24") monitors rather than 1 large (28" and above ultra-wide) monitor. It's the best of both world, because of large combined screen estate, and at the same time, a single monitor for focus. I have that monitor on the center, directly in front of me, and I have my editors, shells, etc, and it allows me to focus on that task, but have additional monitor on the sides, just in case I need to glance at books, to-do list, schedule, etc. Having other monitors at the side prevents them from becoming a distraction, where it would be if it were placed in my primary line of sight.I don't like to use needless Alt/Cmd-Tab, if I can. Not only that, on Windows, Alt-Tab is poorly implemented, and it takes me forever to search for the right window. If I have few editor windows open, it would take me a while to hunt and peck for the right one, because they all look similar. On Mac, it's a lot easier since Cmd-Tab cycles through different apps, and Cmd-backtick cycles through same apps.Using my laptop outside wasn't that great, and I've even contemplated getting one or two small portable USB monitors, or use tablets as secondary monitor using AirDisplay or Duet.

feelandcoffee超过 7 年前

In the office I have a triple monitor solution, maybe the last one it's an overkill but as someone who does front-end programing and content creation I can see the productivity advantages of this setup, when I have to work from home where I only have one monitor I feel a little claustrophobic.In my case usually I use it something like this: [youtube/google music/docs][code][browser] or [folders/video files/script/client brief-indications][video editor][preview fullscreen]I think this it's the kind of stuff that depends a lot on the way some people feel with multitasking, distractions and specially on their nature of the job.Like the article says, probably writers, spreadsheet people, or even programmers who needs little documentation and makes all the testing in the IDE can benefit from this approach to "focus" only in one monitor.

thanatropism超过 7 年前

There has to be a name ("Foobar's Law") for the idea that computers are optimized to developers' needs.In my open office floor plan the people who have two monitors do heavy spreadsheet work. In some fields of work deeply horizontal sheet designs (long timelines for cashflow models) are common, which makes non-maximized windows impracticable. More generally, most of the common office worker's day is developing spreadsheets and writing reports on them. Not having to alt-tab is invaluable in such situations.(Myself, I use a laptop with an additional monitor. The laptop screen is smaller and "underprivileged", it runs web research and work chat, the larger screen holds whatever I'm intensively working on.)

thinbeige超过 7 年前

These one or two monitor discussions often miss an important information.It makes a big difference if you mean with 'monitor' a 27" 5k monitor or a 24" 1080p monitor. If you mean latter you definitely need two. If former one is better than two.

评论 #15142274 未加载

cjbillington超过 7 年前

Hm. I'm not convinced.Right now I'm writing a thesis. It's in LaTeX, and auto compiles when a file changes. So on one monitor I've got my text editor and the PDF output. It's very nice to keep writing and get the output asynchronously, with the PDF flickering to indicate it's updated, which I can see in my peripheral vision and look over at it.And, what if something goes wrong during compilation? I want my terminal to be visible, and again in my peripheral vision I'll see a sea of red error messages and know to look over there to see what I did wrong. So on my other monitor I have the terminal running the make command for auto-compiling.In practice I have more windows open: version control, citations manager program, file browser. They're all part of the same task, they are not distractions. But for this workflow I need at least the text editor, the terminal, and the PDF viewer. I'm not sure how I could do this with a single monitor without seriously compromising on the amount of my actual thesis I can see on my screen in either the text editor or the PDF - maybe shrinking the terminal down tiny so I can see the last line of output and then making it larger to see the context of the error if there was one, but that's getting a bit ridiculous.Maybe if I used a monolithic IDE for everything it would be able to fit all this information into one maximised window in a clever way, only showing me what was relevant at any one time. But if you're not using an IDE, I find that my workflow for any non-trivial task almost always involves multiple programs and windows, and switching is a pain.And when I'm making plots for my thesis, it's text editor and terminal, and then multiple matplotlib plot windows popping up when I run the command from the terminal. If I don't want to spend all my time moving the plot windows around so that I can see the code that made them whilst I decide my next move, then multiple monitors are a godsend.It's not like I'm leaving my email or facebook up permanently - that would be a terrible idea. My browser is minimised (unless I'm typing code based on online docs) and spotify is over on another desktop.

gozur88超过 7 年前

I use multiple monitors at work and a single monitor at home when I work from home. I find myself far more productive at the office. There are just too many instances where I need to code and look at a document at the same time, or code and look at the program output at the same time. Sure, I have to move my eyes from one monitor to the other, but that's far preferable to switching tasks and then switching back, trying to remember what I was looking at.The other alternative is to have tiny windows of text scattered around my screen. Some people seem to enjoy working like that, but it drives me crazy.

protomyth超过 7 年前

I can see it in the pictures for the article, that the author elevates the smaller monitors, but it doesn't look like the LG Widescreen was elevated as high. I really like the LG for my use, but I found that having the center of the screen (both width and height) straight across from my eyes. My posture is better and the stuff on the sides of the monitor are clear. Plus all the movie playing software that centers the movie. I really wish on laptops that movies would align to the top of the monitor.I've never liked two monitors because one always turns into a weird status display.

ulisesrmzroche超过 7 年前

I used to do double/triple monitors but it's easy to slip into the habit of swiveling the neck instead of the whole body, and over time, that could lead to injury. At least it did for me. Neck pain stopped a while after I went single-monitor. Well, it's still there, but definitely got loads better.Personally, I work with netflix/youtube on for background noise so I can't attest to the attention stuff, but if you're feeling a little neck/shoulder pain, try single-monitor and see if it helps.

barrkel超过 7 年前

I, for one, don't maximize any applications other than my editor - and emacs has panes, so those things aren't maximised either. I also don't move or resize windows except when I'm forced to use a single monitor. My windows are distributed such that any two that need to be visible at the same time never overlap.Code under test, including a web browser and terminals are on my left monitor. My main web browser, debugger and editor / IDEs are on the right. It's really rare to have them mixed.

rocqua超过 7 年前

I have recently considered the same switch. For me, the second screen is very often a source of distraction. I already have the problem of not being able to do any work at home. Previously I attributed that to the use of my PC for entertainment. Perhaps this is also a factor.I originally bought 2 screens for productivity reasons, now I find I am much more productive working on my laptop else were. There were certainly moments where it helped productivity, but maybe that is offset by the distraction.

no-s超过 7 年前

The OP has a treadmill desk. Of course then turning his head will be a PITA. Perhaps he should change jobs, say do something door-to-door where he'll always be moving about and not have to deal with the weighty issue of how to allocate his screen real estate productively when his peripheral vision is inadequate for reading.His manifesto is perhaps built upon some faulty premises...

githubber123超过 7 年前

I basically stopped programming from home when it came to refactoring code or front end design because of how annoying working on my laptop is with a single screen. I either need 2 monitors in my office or a giant screen like my 2 monitors at work. Once you get use to life without alt+tab hell just to read something it's hard to go back. Now that I think about it I wonder how I ever got into blender modeling on my laptop while trying to watch tutorials.

Spartan-S63超过 7 年前

I went from a 3x24" 1080p monitor setup to a single 34" Ultrawide recently and really enjoyed the move. I'm just as productive, if not more, and having more horizontal screen space makes up for losing the extra monitors. Overall, I would recommend one larger, higher resolution monitor over multiple smaller ones. There's less context switching because you're looking at the same monitor the entire time.

BrandoElFollito超过 7 年前

I was surprised to see at the end the author does frontend development.I do some (purely amateur) and find that having the code in front, the ability to glance on a livereload browser on the left and on DevTools on the right is quite comfortable.But as I said, I am a pure amateur and (seriously) sit in the corner "not good enough to understand why this is not effective"

danans超过 7 年前

I also made the switch to a single large monitor several years ago, for all the benefits the article mentions.However, I do still find it useful to have a laptop on my desk for my non-work email, browsing, etc. Not only does this make it easier to "find" my personal content without sifting through work-related windows, but the physical separation also helps keep it in a separate mental space from my work, which benefits both.

评论 #15142265 未加载

amag超过 7 年前

This is highly dependent on the kind of work you do as a developer. A lot of times I'm just using one monitor and switch between windows and that's fine. Edit some text, run a build script, run some tests, commit to git. But when doing some serious debugging, e.g. remote debugging a kernel mode driver on a virtual machine, using two displays is almost mandatory.

dugmartin超过 7 年前

I used multiple monitors for years but for the last year or so I've switched to a single 44" 4k TV as my monitor (at 4096x2160). I still use virtual desktops but they are for organizing sets of the work - one desktop for my current contracting work, one for personal projects, one for financial apps, etc. Once I get the windows setup on a desktop they rarely move.

ghostbrainalpha超过 7 年前

It seems like everyone in the comments who prefers multiple monitors has a strong use case for each.If you are chunking your tasks such that each monitor really is a window into a different process or different machine, then it really makes sense to have two.If you ask yourself the question, what is my second monitor for specifically, and you can't answer it, you might prefer only having one.

ge96超过 7 年前

Love dual monitor, display on the right code on left and i3-wm, but would like to get used to just using a single monitor/laptop.

评论 #15142090 未加载

评论 #15142261 未加载

mrfusion超过 7 年前

The best use case for two monitors is to have a reference document on one screen and the thing you're doing on the other screen.

评论 #15142254 未加载

FiatLuxDave超过 7 年前

One thing I don't see in the discussion here, is how many monitors your users are using. Developing and testing on a different environment than your customers are using is asking for problems. It's the same issue as developers who develop and test on high bandwidth connections and then end up missing issues that customers on low-bandwidth connections see.I remember working on an application that ran in a clinical environment where available screens were limited (so the user base was almost 100% single screen). The developers used two screens exclusively. There was an issue that was reported by the customers which the developers could not reproduce, which would cause a complete freeze of the system. Finally, I went through the process step by step with one of the developers. I noticed that the developer would click on a pop-up message that was appearing on the right screen. The customers did not have a right screen to click on. So the process required clicking on a pop-up appearing off-screen. The problem was simple to fix, but was never noticed because the environment was different. I stuck with a single screen for years because it was what my users were using.

rubicon33超过 7 年前

Windows management software on Mac sucks.I use the same windows every day. I should be able to quickly hit something like "ctrl+cmd+9" and send all my windows to pre-defined places on my screen. It should allow grouping of windows by type (so all Chrome windows go to the same area) or by tagging a window.

atsaloli超过 7 年前

Coming soon - 49" curved monitor<a href="http://www.samsung.com/us/computing/monitors/gaming/49--chg90-qled-gaming-monitor-lc49hg90dmnxza/" rel="nofollow">http://www.samsung.com/us/computing/monitors/gaming/49--chg9...</a>

评论 #15189562 未加载

ctrlrsf超过 7 年前

I also switched from two monitors to one a few months ago. Main reason was I wanted to eventually switch to a standing desk and one monitor was going to make that easier. Also, when I work remote I can just use my laptop's screen and not be used to that second monitor.

SomeHacker44超过 7 年前

I use one 27" 4K monitor at work, and one 38" 21:9 1600p monitor at home. I think I would prefer a 30" 4K monitor instead at home, as the screen is so wide it requires a head turn to see the edges.I used to run three 30" 2560x1600 monitors, but that was just insane.

lanius超过 7 年前

It just depends on what you're doing. If I'm streaming on Twitch, I use one monitor for fullscreen gaming and use an additional monitor to check viewer chat.

brightball超过 7 年前

Couldn't even imagine going back. There are so many times when I'm typing on one screen while looking at a different screen.

yc-kraln超过 7 年前

Thanks for your useless blog opinion, I will continue to use 4+ monitors and be productive.

donald123超过 7 年前

Why is this old article brought up again? Already discussed almost half year ago.<a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13968519" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13968519</a>

jdalgetty超过 7 年前

One screen work and one screen for communication