Ask HN: How many screens do you usually work with?

1 points by vpaulus 172 days ago | 7 comments

In my programming team, it’s pretty common to use two monitors (sometimes one is turned vertical) along with a laptop as a third screen.

But I usually stick to just one screen and switch between them using keyboard shortcuts or hot corners instead.

What about you? What do you prefer, and why?

ingonealan3 172 days ago |

Small startup. I don't use a laptop. I prefer work/home separation, so I use a workstation, and I'm in the office 5 days a week. I have three screens attached to my PC. A main 27" (slightly curved) screen in the middle, horizontally, and two 24" screens turned vertically, on each side. I also use a tiling WM for managing desktops and windows. I have arrived at this setup, that I really enjoy using, because I have a lot of screen real-estate, but I don't really need to rotate my head much, just glance a little to one side or another. Tiling WMs also allow you to create muscle memory for where each one of your tools is, and you can get there instantly, rather than having to cycle through everything all the time.

Flundstrom2 172 days ago |

At work office; three 1080p screens+laptop. Allows me to keep 6 browser windows+outlook/teams visible,or 4 browsers+vscode+outlook/teams.At my home office; a single 4k and laptop. Same at home.

Neither combos are perfect. Especially whenever I undock for a meeting or move between work and home office, there's always a mismatch between window placements.

I'm using virtual desktops to separate work for different projects, but there's two critical programs that don't allow me to be properly (in accordance to my needs, that is) opened on several desktops at once; Word (where I keep my diary) and VS Code (!).

specproc 172 days ago |

Bounced around between a few setups, but happy and productive with a single 1080 and a Lenovo Legion laptop monitor.

I had a third monitor at one point, but it was pretty poor quality so I let it go. Can't say I really miss having three.

The laptop is my point of focus, I'll have reference materials on the screen above it when I need them.

If I had money and wasn't about to move country, I'd go for a nice big main monitor and relegate the laptop to secondary. Maybe next year.

sema4hacker 172 days ago |

One screen per computer, but two computers total. One computer is on the internet, the other isn't, for security reasons.

lordkrandel 172 days ago |

One big screen, one fullscreen window at a time. Browser, terminal, discord, gimp, thunderbird and spotify in different workspaces, and shortcuts to switch between them on i3. I do feel the need to reduce visual clutter on what I'm focusing on. Heck, I even use UBlock to remove bloat from the Github web UI

tstrimple 172 days ago |

I used to have two 27" 4k monitors, but recently upgraded to a 5k2k ultrawide. So basically two 4k monitors with no bezel in between them. I'm loving it. Finally made the switch to a tiling window manager to help tame the space. I have a 16" MBP on the side as well.

wsgeorge 172 days ago |

2 screens, laptop hooked to a monitor. But I usually have a second laptop next to me, so 3 screens.

Then there's my phone (when testing apps), so sometimes I do 4 screens. That's my limit.