Loren:
Some monitors rotate. I’ve got a Dell 1907 FP (Just one.) It rotates so I have a tall screen. It’s fantastic for programming. Regular monitors look like PDAs now.
I’ve had no problems with Cleartype.
If I had three of these, it would be amazing.
Hmm.
I have 24" widescreens at home and at work.
That’s a fair whack of resolution, but I find the most frustrating aspect is that I can’t define “sticky lines” on the screen that I can snap windows to.
Windows multimonitor is a good solution for this problem because Windows treats each screen independently, as a “maximize target” (if you suggested I had no idea what I was talking about here, you’d be absolutely right).
Having that sort of target would help me more efficiently manage the resolution I have available - if I could “draw” a right-hand 1/3-sized “maximize target”, I’d get much of the benefit of multimon for no additional hardware investment.
Um, did that make any sense? Anyone heard of any program that can help me divide up my screen area? 
(Aaaaand I might just order another monitor. Sigh)
Can anyone reccomend a good solution for multi- screens, and a KVM? I currently have one screen connected to my 4 home systems (2 servers, 1 workstation, 1 laptop) that I switch between regularly. I’d love to have 2-3 screens but I cant lose me KVM.
-Fish
These days you can get mid-range graphics cards with 2 Dual-Link DVI outputs on them - with a splitter cable, you could put 2 monitors onto one DL output and it should be pretty easy to get 3 or even 4 monitors running off one card (disclaimer: I have not tried this. Yet…).
The nicest 3-monitor setup I have seen recently is a Dell 30-inch widescreen TFT with two regular 20-inch TFTs in portrait mode, one on each side like “wing mirrors”. The 20-inch screens in portrait mode are almost exactly the same height as the 30-inch, and the resolution matches (the 20’s are 1600x1200, and the 30 is 2560x1600) so you get a 4960 x 1600 desktop. Real estate for everything you need, plus it looks pretty elegant too.
Interestingly, with the price of TFTs these days, if you’re anything above junior level and you can get even a 5% improvement, you can break even on the Giant Desktop From Heaven in less than a year.
Hi,
I had a two-monitor setup for a very long time, but recently, I went back to having just one monitor. You see: It’s a question of resolution. When I’m combining two 1280x1024 screens, I’m getting 2560x1024 pixels with a nasty black divider at pixel 1280.
When I use my nice Apple 30" cinema display, I’m not only getting more mixels (2560x1600), I’m also getting them without any black divider.
I very much prefer this one screen to two smaller ones, though I could certainly imagine myself adding another secondary monitor, but the vertical pixel count could be an interesting problem as 1600px isn’t exactly something many monitors have and I’d have to have the pixel-heights not match.
Philip
Utternoncesense: No KVM? o.O
Loren: Many widescreens let you rotate them. Then you’ll have your three (or five!) pillars. =D Nvidia does not support automatic rotation (manual works), but ATI does, if you need that.
TristanK: Acer has something called Gridvista, where you define maximize-targets (sort of like 4 monitors within one screen). ATI has a more robust version, uh… Hydravision, there we go.
Hard to believe the 30" display is only $1500 now. Right now I’d rather have a cheap LCD TV for gaming, but, wow. …I’d need a graphics upgrade, which means a laptop upgrade, for gaming on that one though…
at work I use http://www.nvidia.com/page/quadronvs.html cards x2
I had 4 monitors but recently switched back to 3. We have some custom monitor setups ( similiar to: http://www.soyogroup.com/products/proddesc.php?id=410 ) with a widescreen ViewSonic VP231wb (1680x1050).
I tried working from home. I couldn’t do it. being able to reference something from one screen while working on the next is now so ingrained into me that a single monitor setup leaves me feeling handicapped.
I’ve been a member for almost a year and a half and I have a hard time imagining ever going back. I have two computers (two different development environments) both with dual video cards and I can switch between computers and get the same three monitor span. I know at least from my point of view there is a definite increase in productivity and ease of use (as they are related, narf.)
I use the center monitor as my coding window. With the right monitor I have my solution explorer, output, immediate window, etc. With my left monitor I have a nice auxillary surface where I can surf the web, open email, use textpad, etc. It’s the only way to fly.
with two regular 20-inch TFTs in portrait mode
Beware, portrait mode has serious problems with ClearType. Remember that ClearType depends on a very specific arrangement of the RGB subelements in a LCD. And when you rotate, that arrangement changes…
These days you can get mid-range graphics cards with 2 Dual-Link DVI outputs on them - with a splitter cable, you could put 2 monitors onto one DL output
Hmm. Has anyone tried this? Does it work?
When I’m combining two 1280x1024 screens, I’m getting 2560x1024 pixels with a nasty black divider at pixel 1280.
That’s one of the biggest reasons why three monitors is the way to go.
i have 2 machines, 3 monitors: dual monitor on my windows box, and a single on my linux box. using a piece of open source multi-platform software called synergy, i use the same keyboard and mouse on both machines. i even run it on my laptop and control all three machines (4 displays) from the same keyboard and mouse.
it acts like one big desktop, but no drag drop between different machines (now that would be impressive) – however the clipboard does transfer between machines – copy from windows, paste into KDE… copy from the desktop, paste onto the laptop.
it provides amazing productivity for a multi-platform developer like myself.
Uh, I use Workspaces in Linux and will use them in Mac when they become available. Swapping between different workspaces is far easier than trying to do something productive while looking at another monitor. Try workspaces for awhile, see what you think…
TristanK: check out GridMove (GIYF). It lets you define areas on the screen and easily size windows to those areas with a drag or quick key combination. Mandatory addition for big monitors, IMHO.
Foxyshadis: Utternoncesense: No KVM? o.O
I used a KVM for a little while, but I just wasn’t too happy with it. I didn’t have a top of the line one, and I was having some issues with monitors self powering off, and when I turned them off. I like seeing my display to tell if there is a problem, so that precludes the monitor on the KVM, and I moved my hands faster than the delay in the switch. And I’ll often rest my wrist on the top or bottom keyboard in a pause from typing and quickly use the mouse on the other. Besides that I find it easier to use - I think it looks a lot cooler/more intimidating.
TristanK:
I know exactly what you’re talking about, and if there was an application that did that, I don’t think I would hesitate before shelling out for a 30". The lack of ‘snap-lines’ really holds me back from widescreen monitors.
The only thing I know of that approximates it, is control-clicking multiple taskbar buttons, right clicking and choosing “Tile Vertically” (In XP). It’s not perfect by far, but it is something.
There’s definitely something to be said for focusing solely on a single task, but I think virtual desktops are no replacement for multiple monitors.
When working with one monitor (virtual desktops or no), Photoshop is pretty much unusable and it becomes necessary to hide a lot of important information in Visual Studio.
Two monitors is enough to use Photoshop and VS at max efficiency, but leaves no space for other tasks. If I wanted an MSDN document or chat window visible at the same time, I’d need monitor #3.
So go ahead and install VirtuaWin. But babies, when you walk outta here, y’all gonna be usin’ gold-plated monitors.
if you want large not wide just flip a 24" and you get 1200x1920
I create a 3 monitor club group at flickr : http://www.flickr.com/groups/3monitorclub/
Any 3-monitor solutions for a Mac G5?
3x23" or even 3x30" would be sweet, as I agree, the lack of focus on a 2x setup isn’t great…
Remote Desktop is excellent but still with a few limitations
*it is unacceptable for gaming on a second system and not responsive in comparison for rich media tasks
*referencing images, documents, programs and interacting with them at the same time. This is the biggie and always will be. If you can’t see this clearly, you never will
*multi monitor and remote desktop gives more freedom and control - embrace them both!
Core 2 duo with sli 7900 pci xpress cards,
first head has matrox triple head to go with 3 x 19" TFTs and second card head has a pair of 19" widescreens and lastly an ergodex dx1 and microsoft lazer desktop combo
IOgear Dualview (awesome bit of kit) 4 port KVM links this with a second system, mac g4 and 4th port for changeable testbed.
This means with the help of the afore mentioned gridmove, matrox power desk and synergy software I can do anything I need to usually with a couple of button presses or a swivel of monitor.
Gaming and movies are surround or widescreen and can still view the double widescreens on same system while gaming or switch focus of the audio, video, control or usb hub of anything to the double widescreens to check status.
Even the clipboard lets the copy paste between machines and two widescreens in portrait for browsing and coding is joy. No problems with truetype in portrait here.
Bring on the quad head to go DVI dual KVM with ethernet and usb hubs support then even a 5 monitor desktop won’t be enough. Or support 2 x THTG on the same system.
…oh yeah, and wirless power already. Ram used to be my bottleneck, now its my power plugs
To Utternoncesense, there is a small utility called synergy that allows you to use one keyboard and mouse across two physical computers. It is great and does not require any hardware, other than a network connection. You can even run Linux on one machine and windows on the other. Look for it at synergy2.sourceforge.net
SplitView lets you split the ‘one large monitor’ back into two smaller monitors - windows no longer maximize across both monitors, and dialog boxes do not pop-up in the middle of the two screens.