How many monitors do you need and how do you use them?

I have three monitors at work, I used to have 2 in portrait and one landscape in the middle, during the last months I switched to the opposite (2 landscape and 1 portrait)

In my home I use 2 1080p displays landscape

WFH, I have 2 27 QHD IPS displays, one in landscape and one in portrait. The one in portrait I set up like this just because of space constraints in my current arrangement, but I found it to be pretty useful for tall windows; the downside is that it limits the useful space when watching a [horizontal] video.

I'm considering getting a high refresh rate 34" QHD ultrawide, currently torn between a good IPS panel and an OLED.

I use 2 4k 27" monitors and if i need a third i just open my laptop but normally i roll with lid closed

3x 1080p, left in portrait, center and right in landscape.

Left one for slack, teams, docs and such, middle for code and right for reference and/or what I'm working on (mostly web stuff).

Also, all of them are on an hdmi switch, so i can easily switch to my xbox on the center one for example

One big ass 4k monitor

2x 24" hd monitors + laptop screen
Both horizontal, the vertical screen just doesn't do me any justice and reduces real estate.

I use laptop for teams / outlook / slack, comms really.

Left screen for terminal / code / utility apps.

Right screen for browsers, db explorers, excel, stuff I need to actually look.

No matter what, it's over crowded most of the time and I still end up loosing things.

@nitwhiz brother!!! Same setup here

(please feel free to steal any sensitive information I didn't censor out of laziness)

@Manuch the only sensitive information i see is that you want your eyes burning with all this light theme stuff

I only use the built-in laptop's display. I know having more monitors looks cooler and is somewhat more efficient, but I can't stand it when I get used to this huge setup and then have to travel light somewhere. And then it's very inconvenient to only work with my laptop's display. So I got used to working with only a lappy and I am very happy about my decision and achievement.

EDIT: 2560x1600

@jonas-w right now I'm developing a program in Visual FoxPro, it wouldn't be right if you don't do it like they did 2 thousand years ago.

Actually I use VS Code and a very well made syntax extension for VFP but I use the light theme there too cuz I'm a fucking maverick.
My monitors are at 2% brightness and yellow like mustard.

@Manuch portable secondary displays are available

I can get by with one if needs be, but alt+tab gets a workout (especially for web development).

At the office I have three, and that gives me a nice separation of work, reference and communication.

At the home office, I only have two monitors which is easily plenty.

I need two, but three can be nice depending on what I do. Currently I have a quite particular setup, which is basically one very big monitor that's software divided into 3-4 (OS/WM level, not some wonky software that only works half of the time). It's unusual but so far I prefer it to my 4 monitor setup, but I guess that's also because it's much better quality than the random screens I used before.

see also https://devrant.com/rants/5539226/...

0 like last week

For me it isn't about the count of monitors but about the available screen space. So i just use a single 32" 2160p60 VA monitor for work and games.

Got one 32” QHD and my old 27” HD that I occasionally use but mainly just use the QHD one

the tiny one that's part of my laptop is all i need. i've tried but never really benefitted from having more, for coding. for video editing, sure, but not for coding.

@netikras exactly! kinda the same reason I still use vi instead of emacs or some other fancy shit. it's always gonna be there.

@steev as long as it's used as an editor - I agree. But I sure as hell would not exchange intelliJ for vim for java development..

I've got a 32:9 49" ultra wide that's the same as 2 27" monitors but debating whether or not I should get a 4k 49" 16:9 monitor.

Either 2 or 3. I sometimes use iPad as an extra monitor. 2 can be turned as needed.

Use 1 for coding and 1 for testing. ipad is used for searching stuff on the interwebs or testing code on a tablet/mobile device