Which do you prefer for programming? Widescreens or fullscreens? I prefer a 5:4 monitor to wider resolutions like 16:10 or 19:10. I have found the excess width to be distracting.<p>What is your typical tool of choice? I typically use Vim which does not usually have the sidebars common in IDEs such as Eclipse. Does the UI of the tool may affect your choice of monitors?
I prefer widescreen with multiple windows tiled horizontally.<p>edit: Usually terminal+MacVim windows. Or sometimes, xcode windows, with left-most one being the project window.
The nice thing about the widescreen is that it fits multiple emacs windows side-by-side, so that you can view substantial portions of more than one buffer at once (or two substantial portions of the same buffer).<p>That said, the first rule of screen space is to have more of it. Whether or not it's optimally distributed is secondary. In web development there is always a use for more windows. (Docs, server logs, logins under multiple identities, multiple browsers pointing to the same thing for design debugging, IRC...)
I have Dual Dell 2408WFP's... lets me see four apps at once with plenty of real estate.<p>Screen 1: Browser (showing whatever I'm working on) and gVim (with my code).<p>Screen 2: Browser (with whatever references/interweb material I'm looking up), multiple terminals (tail logs or for messing with git/whatever).<p>I use AwesomeWM (tiling window manager), so I don't have to bother arranging all this myself. Other tags (workspaces if you are from the gnome/kde world) have things like Pidgin and last.fm open.
I prefer one widescreen next to one widescreen turned vertical. this way I can view plenty of code on the vertical monitor, and yet enjoy the benefits that the widescreen monitor brings.
For virtually any activity I would do while sitting down at a computer/workstation, I think wide screens have a much more natural fit to a person's eyesight. I think they're just more comfortable to look at.<p>On the other hand, I can definitely see a reason for vertically oriented screens in eBook readers and some hand-helds. I can't think of a time when I would rather have a more square screen.
I prefer widescreen, with windows tiled horizontally as well on my mac. I use terminal with visor (google blacktree) which is sweet, and then a bunch of different spaces - coding w/ textmate for ROR dev.
Why isn't this a poll question?<p>Widescreen 22" + Macbook screen. Textmate for some things, but Xcode and its (many) requisite windows for iPhone stuffs.