I just have to have the real estate. You can’t find any laptops with larger than 1280 pixels across in stores. You have to order the better resolution machines. Once I started working with multiple monitors I have never gone back. I have even connected to the TV in hotel rooms when I travel to get as much real estate as I can.
This is a made up problem if I’ve ever seen one. I have multiple setups with several different OS’s and don’t have this problem with any of them. I mean, really, how much time does it take you to drag the windows to the size you want? Does saving a half second over the course of a day add that much to your productivity?
I also have a macbook pro, and yes, I am in love with her, but that doesn’t stop me from being sensible. I just don’t understand your dislike or confusion with the mac maximize button. There is no mystery, it’s going to grow the maximum size needed for that app. That’s it, it’s not like it randomly changes size every time you hit it.
I’ve been a lurker for a long time on your site (well, your feed anyway) and I really appreciate you sharing knowledge and tips, but it’s time to let this one go dude. I just fail to see the issue.
i do -all- my programming on a laptop with the standard 14 inch display, which is completely adequate. the reason larger laptop displays are gaining in popularity is that people are buying them for desktop replacements, or for luggable computers, not for actual use as a laptop.
i fail to see why you’d really want to see more than one window at a time, especially since your eyes can only look in one place, and then you have ambiguity for which window has focus. i run with 20 virtual desktops (kde’s limit. gnome only gives you 12 though), and switch between them with alt-Fx and mswin-Fx. generally one application runs per desktop. i get to any application i want in one keystroke, and it has focus as well. muscle memory makes switching to certain tasks almost automatic.
What I’m proposing here is different-- maximizing to a space that the user determines, not the application.
Maybe something like Devil’s Pie? ( http://burtonini.com/blog/computers/devilspie )
“This tool will find windows as they are created and perform actions on them, such as resizing, moving to another workspace, or pinning them to all workspaces.”
WinSplit Revolution looks very neat, I’ll sure try that out. However, I find that tiny Sizer tool convenient as well: www.brianapps.net/sizer.html
very informative article!im also tempted for a multi display workstation!
I use a little program called zMover. It can automatically resize any window to a predefined size. Incidently I have it maximize all my windows.
abdu
For me, it is not the size. Its the pixels. It is fairly easy to get a large monitor these days. It is harder to get 1200 or 1920 pixels across. The only way to get that many pixels without also losing huge amounts of valuable desk surface ( as in where I can put my coffee cup and magazines and other non-electronic stuff ) is to get a laptop.
When will people realize that their reading text may be because it there are not enough pixels to fully render it. Not because it is too small. Making that same paucity of pixels bigger doesn’t really help.
3 monitors = virgin
For me the appeal of a large monitor is the vertical pixel count. I was using a large CRT, but I was able to work at 2048x1536. This gave me 87 lines of code vertically at all times, so I could generally see the entire class I was working on, or minimum the entire method. My issue with multiple monitors is that 1200 vertical pixels is a step back.
My ideal setup would be multiple monitors at 1200x1920 each.
I like sizer, gridview, and ultramon - but they are all windows tools. What options exist for Linux users?
I currently use 2 1600x1200 CRT displays, with Xinerama (I believe) to allow me to drag windows between. I plan to move to two 1920x1200 or 1680x1050 LCD’s, but would like the functionality of Gridview (but require the ability to drag windows between monitors).
Jeff I’ve never been able to see eye-to-eye with you on this maximize thing. How do you switch tasks? Do you take your mouse and move it from the top of the screen (where the most clickable things are) all the way over the main monitor, then to the bottom, then carefully click on the correct one?
Or do you use alt-tab to step through what can sometimes be dozens of tasks?
With my non-maximized setup, when I want to switch from this browser to my visual studio, I’ll just hurl my mouse to the left edge and click. I find it faster and more convenient to have the handful of key windows making use of the infinitely large clickable areas at the edges of my monitors, but when anything is maximized that space is wasted.
It’s true that I occasionally spend a few moments resizing to get things the way I like them, and maybe I underestimate that work… but I do that a lot less often than I switch tasks.
I have a 22" wide LCD and when my wife uses my computer she usually maximizes her web browser which makes lots of pages look like crap.
I would much rather prefer your method of setting my maximize size .(maxisize? - ew no… that sounds like something completely different)
As long as you can still drag the window to as large as you want, but have it SNAP to a predefined region would be great.
Unfortunately, GridMove doesn’t work with PuTTY SSH windows which is the main thing I wanted to use it for. Apparently, this must be a problem with the way that PuTTY creates its windows, and makes AutoHotKey (the scripting language in which GridMove is coded) unable to resize them.
If only everyone were Mac-proficient. This wouldn’t even be a topic. Could it be that Apple displayed almost Nostradomic foresight in making the maximize button work the way it does? Windows needs to follow suit in the following years, if not by changing maximize behavior then by adding another button next to the minimize/maximize that “fits to content.”
I have 2 20" displays and I still feel cramped, especially while working with Visual Studio. I hate navigating toolbar tabs and such-like when trying to do my work, so I naturally try to give every tool pallet it’s own space. As you can imagine, real estate gets scarce quickly. I think if I had 3 20" or maybe just 2 30" displays I would cry from joy.
Jeremiah, there are quite a few 20" LCDs that support a “pivot” function - i.e. you can rotate the screen 90 degrees and make it 1200x1600 instead of 1600x1200.
Line up three displays in that way, and you have 3600x1600 pixels of desk space. And quite a few lines of code.
You have three monitors, I get it. Stop bragging. 
But have you seen the movie swordfish, where he is cracking that bank code? Now that is a monitor set up! He had like 9 of them or something.
hey… I’ve got a great idea!
why don’t we start using those enormous resolutions to increased image quality… like maybe we could have larger, easier to read icons and text (in pixel sizes at least)
I don’t see any good reason to keep using the same old 50x50 and 100x100 icons when we have so much more real estate… lets kick it up a notch!
Saw a great set up while on the net a few months ago. 30 monitors great configuration abilities. one problem $360,000. Maybe my cable company will get me one to make up for their other faults lol