Asklemmy

Used to have two. Went back to one. Professionally I feel like 2 monitors is a must ( excl. Laptop ). Or a single big ass monitor.

We've got ( a single ) curved screens at work. It also works because it's wide enough.

Professionally I do believe it boosts productivity. Personally/at home not really ( for me ). It can be convenient if you play an MMO and want to look something up while still seeing the game.

I do have a spare monitor but I disconnected it as I was rarely using it.

1. IDE
2. Browser
3. DB Client or browser dev tool

Embedded software developer here. One monitor, virtual workspaces. Because I don't need distractions.

People in here with 2+ monitors, how do you stay focused? Probably it's just me, but I have a hard time getting into the flow after getting interrupted.

Not a dev, but I have 3 monitors on my rig that I use for work and play.

A 24" 1080p as my main monitor for stuff like games or Blender, a smaller 18 and a half inch 720p for secondary stuff like Firefox, Discord/TeamSpeak, and monitoring Cura when the 3d printer is going, and a 21" 1080p Wacom on a monitor arm. The Wacom is kinda outside my field of view unless I'm actively using it, so most of the time it just has a performance monitor running so I can see what's hogging my resources. Having Spotify on there is nice though, the touchscreen/stylus makes running it quick and easy.

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. :)

Basically, for all situations, left is communication, center is the application I'm using (game, ide, etc.), right is information (documentation, other resources, guides, or whatever else). What each application is changes based on what I'm working on, but the function is the same essentially always.

I do 'light' software development for a SAAS. I use a single ultra wide. It has PiP settings so I can display my personal if I'd like while working, or have everything displayed on the work side as a triple window or dual window setup. The flexibility is great but overall ultra wides are still niche and a general pain in the ass. Good luck getting any game to run more than 90fps when you're pushing a 5k resolution and 240 refresh.

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.

At work I have two monitors. One for input (my IDE for programming) and one for output ( the browser to watch changes for my react app).

At home I bought the 49 in. Samsung and have three monitors. Third is normally the log output.

Backend dev. I have an ultrawide (like two monitors in one).

Sometimes I need to test the full stack and need a lot (8+) terminals. I try to tile them all on a separate virtual desktop.

Most commonly though, I center my main application and can have two smaller, peripheral applications, one on each side.

When doing full stack, I need a browser, IDE and two terminals, tiled to give more space for the browser.

I use two monitors: one in landscape orientation and the other vertical. I usually keep console windows in the vertical one and that's where I write code. Typically its code editing on the left side and a few console windows with compiler/server output on the right. Landscape gets firefox web UI: current app, time clock or notes window.

So that's two workspaces. I have additional monitor-level workspaces I can flip to: #3 for chrome (google products), #4 for signal/thunderbird, #5 for keepassxc, #6 for an additional set of console windows for a second project, or for other things like system upgrades and etc.

I run pretty much the same workspaces on my laptop with only one monitor, the main difference is having to flip back and forth more. Its a little more mental overhead. On the dual monitor rig I like the vertical orientation for my code window, I can see 2x the amount of code at once.

Overall I'd say the productivity boost from multiple monitors is low to mid. Its nice to have but I can still get work done on a laptop screen. That said I do most of my work on the dual setup.

I'm a 3 monitor person as well. 34" ultrawide as my main with two 24" widescreens side-to-side immediately above it. I use it for work and personal use.
Ultrawide has my main programs for work: internet browsers and job specific programs get about 60% of the real estate on the left, while pdf's, and other less essential programs go to the right 40% of the screen.
The top left monitor gets Teams, Excel docs, or auxiliary browsers.
Top right gets email and media (YouTube, Spotify, etc) or any overfill if I'm dealing with a particularly cluttered job.

For personal, ultrawide is obviously used for games, movies, etc, while top left has task manager, MSI Afterburner, and Throttlestop (I run a laptop). And the top right has Discord.

I have 4. My main and second are 46" each, the 3rd. is a 27" in normal/landscape, and the 4th is a 27" in portrait. The main is in front of me, the 2nd. is to the right and angled toward me, the 3rd. faces me at 90 degrees from the main, and the 4th. Is mounted above the 3rd. I used them originally for streaming and all of the windows I had open to monitor everything at the time as well as the game I was playing. Now I find them useful for working on projects, watching videos or movies while I play a game, and working on multiple spreadsheets at the same time. The one in portrait is especially helpful when I'm looking at a season's worth of a scheduling spreadsheet.

1. Teams, Outlook
2. VNC/Second virtual machine monitor if needed
3. Virtual Machine

Software dev here, and I'm pretty confident that 4 is the ideal number, as long as you have window snapping to split them in half:

Left (inputs): half current ticket, half whatever documentation you need

Main (work): IDE, half test code, half actual code

Right (outputs): half terminal, half web page (frontend) or postman (backend)

Bottom (comms): Smaller laptop screen dedicated to slack / email

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.

Not a software developer, I just do QA on written documents, and being able to have 3-4 windows side by side is really nice. I usually have 1-2 tracking spreadsheets open on the left, and two documents side by side on the right. I use a laptop at work as well, so sometimes I'll leave it's screen on for email and Teams chat so neither interrupts my work.

I use multiple monitors for audio production. My use case is a bit weird since I code Csound and use a DAW, which is unconventional. It's great for having the DAW up on the 4k, and some code or docs or both on the 1080p, 144Hz. If you didn't guess from the mixture of resolutions and frame rates, I've got gaming covered as well.

Truthfully, the 4k probably has the real estate to do all that on its own, but it was the last monitor I bought and why not use the other? I'm too lazy to figure out a setup to hook up the other 1080s I have lying around. (And don't need the space in any case)

Teacher here. I have my laptop (16”) and an ultra wide (34”) on my desk, and a projector behind me. I keep my email, attendance, and calendar on the laptop screen.

On the ultra wide, I keep my grade books and various spreadsheets, since more width makes it easier to see more data, and I have my daily agendas/lesson plans. Again, more width makes it easier to see the whole week at once. I keep that fixed to 2/3rds width of the screen, and the other side is reserved for Spotify at like 1/6th width

The projector is used to show the daily agenda, videos, instructions, etc. I very frequently screencast my iPad to the projector, so I can fill out worksheets on it with the class and they can see me write or circle things.

I can’t even fathom having any less screen real estate now. I gotta be able to see it all at once!

I have three identical monitors in a row. Primarily I use the center one, for productive work and gaming, but often I'll have something up on the second screen that I'm working with as well. It's more rare that I actively use the third one, but some tasks have more than two or three windows and now I can see all of them full size at once.

I've occasionally used them as a single ultra wide screen for gaming, but since then I've gotten an hmd for VR and that is better.

What is a rainbow computer?

Not a software dev but tech is central to my life.

3 monitors for normal use

1 - personal streaming, video meetings

2 - remote business desktop access, main personal browsing window

3 - online chat presence window, personal email client, other

3 monitor gaming

3 monitors for racing simulators and any games that support it (which make sense)

Single monitor gaming

1 - Game related content on left 2 - Game window in center 3 - Game related social media or streaming

3 monitor home labbing

1 machine or app per monitor Triple monitor stare and compare windows GUI / CLI / Monitoring system interface

I didn't realize how extensively I used my monitors until this exercise. Feel better about the spend and space tax related to it.

I have 2 monitors. My primary is ultra wide for gaming and the secondary is discord, Spotify, etc. so I can view messages and stuff without leaving my full screen game.

For work? I just use my Mac monitor like a neanderthal. Idk why but I don't really find multiple monitors helps me work faster.

spaces > monitors

portability > exactly what I want

If I am...

...gaming, I run the game on one monitor and something like a Wiki for said game on the other.

...doing music I have the DAW on the big screen and everything else on the other.

...working I have my focus point (CLI, IDE, SQL Dev, etc) on the small screen and all the noise (e-mail, chat, browsers, etc) on the big screen. Small screen is better for focus.

Not an IC anymore but my workhorses for the better part of 13 years were 13” laptops. Nice and simple. I don’t get the multiple monitor thing honestly.

Two 4k 32 inch monitors and docked laptop screen.
One monitor directly in front which holds code, research or video call.
One monitor to the right mounted vertically and angled towards me that holds a terminal, notes/email/jira or reference documentation for whatever I'm doing on the middle screen.
Laptop is to the left of the main screen and has slack open.

I'm big on tilling window managers, so I tend to do a lot of flipping between workspaces rather than apps, in my mental model. I've gotta use a Mac for work which sucks for tilling, but I can mostly make it work.

I do a lot of video editing. 3 monitors all the same size. Right is main edited output. Center is all my editing tools. Left is file management, chat, stock footage, etc.

Two monitors is the absolute minimum, but I think three can be very useful.

On one, I have reference materials, on one I have code, and on one I have the application I'm developing. I think it makes for a pretty good workflow.

I’m a video editor with two 27” monitors. One landscape the other portrait. I used to use both monitors for premiere but found moving the mouse around that much annoying so I condensed all my panels into one monitor and use the portrait one for notes and communication. I feel like I could go back to a single monitor system in the future but I like having two

Single large 48” 4K gang here. It’s like 4x 24”+ 1080p monitors in a square with no bezels.

Three 27" monitors. Right one is portrait, has Slack and music player split screen, left is email or reference material, center one is for doing the actual work.

I work in a customer facing role but also do graphic design, write books, make music, and occasionally code things.

Massive productivity boost. When I work from my laptop I feel like a grandma.