Funny how you seem to believe that "checking stock prices" is a good use of a whole monitor but don't seem to see how literally any other task could benefit from having reference material up on a second monitor.

Because lots of productivity tasks, including coding, involve looking at a reference material while creating the output. I'm frequently looking at a database structure on one window, an API document on another, and coding in an IDE.

You don't necessarily need two screens, but it helps to have enough real estate to view two or more applications at once. Personally I use a 50" 4k TV and tile things in halves or quarters - which is the equivalent of having four 1080 monitors.

Lol an actual unpopular opinion. I use 4 monitors. Sometimes I'm looking at reference documents on a second monitor to determine how to implement the function. Sometimes I have my dbms app up on the third screen so I can look at the data structure as I'm implementing it. And the 4th monitor is usually for YouTube so I have a background noise/video to keep me focused

As someone who has 4 screens at work and 3 at home, you've done a great job picking a truly unpopular opinion, as I had a gutteral negative reaction when I saw this.

Should I upvote because it is an unpopular opinion or down vote because he is wrong? I know it's the former but I really don't want to!

What's faster, switching desktops or turning your eyes a bit to the side?

Was going to downvote this until I saw the community. You have a terrible opinion. Well done.

I felt the same way until I started using two monitors. Then I wanted 3. Using multiple desktops didn't compare for me personally.

You can't look at two screens at a time, anyways.

Unless you are sitting right in front of a single 50inch+ screen, your field of view can definitely accommodate more than one screen!

How else am I going to play games while watching a Twitch stream?

There's a TON of reasons for a second monitor, but the biggest undisputable reason is to be able to monitor something while doing work on your main monitor.

Switching virtual desktops every few minutes to check the progress of something is crazy.

I have 3 monitors and it's not enough. I'm convinced anyone who thinks 1 monitor is fine is slower and less efficient at any job than those with 2+

I have 3 27" 4k screens in this layout: | - -. That's from left to right, portrait landscape landscape.

I have a terminal and sometimes on the 1st screen. Code/Work on the second. Documentation/chats/email on the 3rd.

It works well for me :)

Except vitual desktops can't quite replicate the usefulness of a second screen in portrait orientation.

I'm a mobile phone only person outside of work, but for work I refuse to exist with less than 3 screens: One main one for working, the screen of my docked laptop for references and documentation, and a 90° tilted screen with my Outlook calendar and Teams constantly open so that I can always check them both on a glance (got all Teams and Outlook notifications off since they're distracting).

Honestly, I'm actually thinking about either upgrading my main screen to something curved/ultrawide or getting a fourth one, but the extra weight might actually be a concern for my stand/sit desk lol

One screen is fine if it’s huge :)

You really can see more than one at a time, though. I have a lot of tasks in my day that take some minutes to complete.

When I’m working on two screens, I can leave the window open running the task on one screen, and work on something else or read the news or whatever on the other screen. When my task is done, I notice right away and get on with the next step.

When I’m working on just one small laptop screen, I have to remember to switch back and check periodically. It takes me much longer to notice the task is done this way, and distracts me from whatever I’m trying to get done in the meantime while waiting.

Two screens, or anyway enough real estate that I don’t need to full-screen the app I’m working in, is extremely useful to me for this reason.

Used to feel the same until I got the second setup and working well, and now I can't live with just one.

I've been telling myself three is just overkill and pointless, but I secretly want to try it.

Using a tiling wm and hate the idea of another screen, I dont see any benefit but it introduces less desk space and worse ergonomics imo

I have two 40 in 4K monitors and a little 28 in 2K, my job involves network monitoring and diagnostics. No way could I work efficiently on just one screen unless it was ginormously bigly huge. I actually wouldnt mind another 4K but work machine hasnt the outputs

I wish I could see well enough that I could use two but that will never happen so one is more than enough for me.

If 1 is more than "enough", how many screens are enough then? Technically, if you never need any visual feedback from what you're doing with keyboard and mouse, then zero screens would be enough.

I agree, but only if you have a big enough monitor

It kinda makes me disturbed to have something bright in the corner of my eye when I concentrate to read text. And even though I use tiling WM, most of the time I only have one window at once, rarely two windows split horizontally, but no more.

Back in my days we only had space for one crt screen on the table so that's what we used and we liked it!

Nowadays I'd rather have a second screen though. Not essential but there's no real downsides either.

I've always changed tabs, or at the very most, copy-pasted. I don't use split-screen though, as I find it too overwhelming and cramped for me. I've never found a reason to have 2 monitors.

Imagine you have to cross examine 3 papers on your computer, you have to take notes and you have to input information on an excel document for your research paper thats on another word document. Try doing this on 1 screen.

Wait, if one monitor is "more than enough", then wouldn't that imply that 'enough' is <1? Is my mans out here running a desktop without a screen?

It comes down to preference in the end.

I'm just the kinda guy who likes having everything spread out. I have two monitors at my desk, great for anything that benefits from having a reference nearby, such as having a wiki open for a game or splitting two code windows on one monitor and having the web page up on the other.

I agree. I’m fine my my Samsung Odyssey G9.

Once I went double monitor, I can't see myself falling back to a single monitor. I've used a single monitor for a good decade and a half before toying with double monitors. I just like being able to have things on one monitor and other things on another. It doesn't necessarily have to be a programmer-specific thing. I now reflect back and hated the idea of having to manage and check so many things while under one monitor. Things would be blinking, but oh wait, I'm gaming, oh wait, I'm browsing too and it's just too much.

You're goddamn right.

NEVER