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 ]
I have lived with multi-monitor, but I have to say I don't generally feel the need and haven't for a few years. Desktop workspaces and a tiling WM help a lot.
The one exception is if I'm doing web dev, where I need the browser, the browser dev tools, and my IDE, and having two monitors can be nice. But that's occasional for me, and I make do with opening the laptop and using it for the browser, and then having the dev tools + IDE sharing my 27" 4k everyday monitor.
Most of the time I can only read one thing at once anyway and I want it in front of me. I have hotkeys to switch workspaces instantly, which is often less disruptive than swiveling my eyes/head between two monitors. Any screens beside my 27" monitor are too much of a head swivel for more than transient use anyway.