Asklemmy

• Left (horizontal) - communicators, btop, Spotify.
• Middle (horizontal) - browser with GitLab, terminals and editors, main development in general.
• Right (vertical) - browser for googling and docs, terminals for tests / logs / whatever I want to see at the same time as the editor, Obsidian for notes.

Anything less than that will completely ruin my workflow. I'm even trying to come up with a feasible way to fit a fourth one.

I have three. The third doesn't really boost my productivity much, I have it vertical just to show my file browser because I open and switch through different files quite a lot. The other two are to show the actual files I'm working in or comparing.

Gaming: I have a game that has tons of third party software that tracks game elements real-time that are far easier to read, contain more information, and more readily understandable than any in-game menu. So play the game on one monitor, have the apps running in windows on the second one.

3D design. Have the work window open for maximum real estate on one monitor, have pop-out menus and tools on the other for things that maybe don’t have hot keys or shortcuts assigned. Also, a small browser window for “how do I” question when I hit a roadblock.

I only have 1 ultra wide monitor. It's slightly less screen space than 2 monitors, but it's enough, and I like the simplicity of it.

A little different, but I do a lot of random 3D printing related stuff on my computer including CAD. I got one of those small ultra wide monitors meant for a raspberry pi, and put it under my main monitor. I run rain meter widgets on it for time, media control, etc. I also throw videos and stuff on there for while I'm working. It's been pretty sweet! I can use solidworks on top, and have a little video working on the bottom, and have a clock easily visible for time management.

• Left (vertical) - Notesnook (or whichever knowledge management system I'm on at that particular moment), Signal, and Slack all tiled so I can see them all together.
• Middle (horizontal) - IDE.
• Right (vertical) - Browser.

This works well, but I'd enjoy another monitor for Spotify or, more likely, so I could make all the terminal, debugger, run, database, etc from my IDE full-blown windows on the fourth monitor.

Left reference, middle work, right email/IM

Not a computer person; just a worker with an office. I keep my laptop vertical to the right with my email/calendar usually open. I use a monitor left of this - it's big enough that I can comfortably have 2-3 windows on it - so i can have 4 things open at a time. When i have a zoom, meet, or WebEx, that takes one; second is whatever I'm supposed to report in that meeting; third and fourth are what I'm actually working on. My biggest problem is that the vertical laptop has the camera and in some video meeting apps I'm in portrait while everyone else is landscape.

Data on one side, assessment write up on the other. Extremely convenient. Not sure if I’m more productive or if I’m just happier.

Two and a half monitors here. Two connected to my desktop (one normal one vertical) and my laptop below them.

My laptop is for Teams calls, and the occasional reference page or video, but is mostly ignored until I need it. The main large monitor for editors and email. The vertical one for references and notes.

I would love a third monitor for the desktop but my desk is too narrow for that to be realistic.

not a software dev, but a linux user and a stout technology enthusiast.

I have 3 monitors setup on my primary workstation. Two landscape in a stacked arrangement, it's just tidy and works well enough for a secondary media display, organizational monitor. And then my third is portrait for anything i keep long term tabs on, chat programs, music player, system resources, etc...

I recently switched from KDE to i3wm, and i find i need inherently less monitor. i3wm does all the sorting organization and bullshit i hate for me automagically, it's perfect for opening a terminal to check something, or work on something real quick, and being able to have one static window, and two tabbed/stacked windows on one monitor is HUGE. Super nice for terminal breakouts with a browser for documentation. If you're ever balls deep in a config and testing shit actively, you'll immediately understand how much of a godsend it is.

Anyway, floating window managers are dead and anything shipping a floating window manager is a dead product on arrival.

I have 2 at work. Sometimes I just have our ticket software on one and Firefox on another both full screen. When works crunching I might have multiple PDF manuals open on one and PDF schematics on another and could use a 3rd for a browser window to search for old similar problems in our daily reports. I'm able to work best when I can keep 1 screen dedicated to what I'm working on and the others for information gathering.

At home I typically just have 1 screen for gaming. I might set my laptop up on the desk if I want to browse the web or chat while playing.

I used to use my 3rd monitor for company email and chat programs so they would stay out of the way of my actual work.

I'm a FE and A11y focused SWE

Laptop screen: IDE / main browser

Main monitor: terminal with dev server, and browser to localhost

I wish I could have a small, third monitor for just the terminal but my Mac struggles with one extra monitor. I also tend to work at 150% zoom because of terrible eyesight, so I don't actually have that much screen real estate.

I've got two monitors which mostly ends up meaning I have twice the amount of screen to lose application windows in.

I have an 34inch ultrawide as my main, and two 27inch screens, one above and one to the side. It's pretty awesome, play a game or do some work on the main monitor, videos, web pages, instructions in the right, and discord or other pages on the top.

i work in video. i have one monitor as my primary "work" space. that's where i put my timeline, or whatever I'm working on the most in that moment. sometimes it's color controls, sometimes it's keyframes and effects controls.

monitor 2 is actually my best monitor. that's the video clean feed. that's my big color accurate monitor.

monitor 3 is bins and scopes and effects and whatever other control surfaces and monitors i might need.

Media editing and production. Otherwise it's dope to have my email, texts, torrents, Explorer/Finder, and music occupy one screen, and my web browser in the other.

I use three at the office, and two at home.

In both setups the laptop is my keyboard and small screen, above it is a 34 inch 21/9 aspect ratio curved display. At the office I also have a standard monitor off to the side.

The large screen is my primary work space, with various code editors, UI dev tools, web browser, reference docs, and terminal windows.

The laptop screen has email, all my short cuts, and a virtual version of the UI I'm working on because it is also a touch screen.

When I have the third screen I use it for teams, a few system monitoring tools, and youtube for music.

I used dual side by side monitors for years, but found that having the split in the center meant I was always sitting with my neck turned, and this lead to a lot of pain and headaches. Having them top / bottom is a lot more comfortable and my large screen is high enough I now sit up straight.

A curved screen at the right distance also means a lot less eye strain.

Virtual desktops, multi monitor and tmux allow me to go full ADHD, everything open at once, multiple projects on different desktops with like 5 windows open

Bonus points when I've got multiple terminals connected to the same tmux session because I forgot I already had it on another desktop or wanted it split with something else

My home setup is an ultrawide and a 1080p monitor. I find with tiling and virtual desktops more than that is surplus to requirement (even the 1080p monitor usually just has a browser open)

Software engineer. Work from home and I use the same monitors for work and personal.

Usually for work, I have code in the middle, specs on the left and the app on the right. When I’m not using specs, I have Spotify or video related things on one monitor.

For personal use, gaming is done on the middle monitor. Sometimes I have Spotify on the left, video on the right. Sometimes it’s a mix of discord/video/spotify on the left and right monitors. Sometimes I have a hockey game on one monitor and YouTube on the other.

Middle is my main.

It’s not often I don’t have something on all monitors.

2 27” 4k monitors. I do 98% of everything on the main monitor. The screen to the right contains a few sticky notes (I use Zhorn Stickies) and a Ticktick widget with all my tasks for the day. When I start up Obsidian, I have a saved Ivy Lee list that appears in a spot on the right side monitor as well. It’s just basically quick-glance scrap space.

I'm a dev. Right monitor has my browser, center monitor has my editor, left monitor for everything else (terminal, dev tools, file manager, http client etc)

I have two monitors but swap between two desktops. I wish I had a triple setup. I usually do hella coursework on it. I use split screen in each monitor so I have the guidelines of the project the full window project, documentation/notes, word, then discord, IRC, and background music.

2 is the bare minimum for work as a sysadmin.
3 is better, then I can dedicate one to communication (email, Teams, softphone), one for documentation and one to actually work on. I could see 4 being useful if you work both locally and on terminal servers but I've never tried it.

Video games. On one screen is the game, on the other screen is a web browser with the wiki opened. Also have YouTube for the tough puzzles. Helps a ton.

I always have used 2. I use multiple desktops really hard (for a long time in Linux and MacOS, and with third party Windows stuff till they finally caught up) and find it more convenient for compartmentalizing than multiple monitors.

The only times I want to (and occasionally do) go more than 2 is watching F1 with data viewing and so many camera angles up

On a Mac the Expose features such as ability to customize your screen rather than have to deal with fixed real estate plus additional virtual desktops are also highly notable in that regard. There are definitely advantages of having additional physical screens over the window management approach, but also vice versa too. I would say just try it, but note that it does take quite a bit of getting used to, as too in a sense does multiple monitors especially if trying to use different windows from the same app - browser - on different ones.

Also if cost is no factor at all, instead of multiple monitors you can have large nice screen + laptop, for the ultimate portability. There too there are advantages and disadvantages both - e.g. while working on one the other will fall asleep, if the nice screen is a separate computer rather than mere monitor.

To someone wondering what to try: something will appeal to you - listen to your inner voice and let it guide you! If you are wrong, you still learn from the experience;-).

After having tried most standard configurations at various jobs and home (never a third monitor though, I prefer the ease and simplicity of a single large monitor. Everything is a few keystrokes away but I tend not to need to see all things at the same time. Sometimes, extremely rarely, it does seem too constraining, but not enough to justify the additional cost of a second monitor (not just money but setup and my attention time), and this works well enough for me. Others will similarly do what works best for them in turn.

Three monitors here. I'm an engineer so left monitor is usually reference material (drawings, spec sheets, formulae, etc), center is usually my primary workspace (email, python, CAD, etc) and right is music, communications, and calendar for the next goddamned meeting.

Left and center are 24" 1080p, right is 15" laptop. I'm thinking of upgrading the next time the office gets tech money.

Designer/animator, Mac, either two-screen app setup/workflow (ie editing, 3D, etc) or an easy way to have 2 related things going (ie, brief + job, reference + project, etc).

I do fiber optic tech support

Left monitor is for account software (includes customer info, ticket manager, etc)

Middle monitor is email, browser (most of our management tools are browser based), and putty

Right monitor is ms teams, notepads++, and a softphone app

I have an ultrawide as my main monitor and a regular wide screen monitor floating above it on an arm. The main thing I need all that space for is running ttrpg games, honestly. Roll20 or some other vtt open on one side of the ultrawide, then other side has rule book pdfs, enemy stat blocks, notes, etc. The top monitor has discord for chat as well as everyone's webcams.

But outside of that it's nice to have a browser or discord visible on one screen while playing a game on the main display, but you could get by without it.

• Monitor 1: Outlook
• Monitor 2: Browser and various messaging apps
• Monitor 3 (the big screen): IDE

I'm more productive than anyone else on my team, and would argue more productive than the majority of people in my whole department. I use a single 28" monitor.

2 +1 chatgpt

work and play at the same time. discord, weather map, cameras, password manager, firefox, chrome, citrix etc. also use a tiling manager so much easier