I have a two monitor set up going right now hooked up to a dual display KVM switch. Sadly, a recent power outage has caused some finicky behavior in either my KVM or my secondary monitor, since it comes in and out. Will get around to debugging my setup once I have some time this holiday season, but I was also debating on switching to a single ultrawide monitor setup. I’m a software engineer by trade, and I get the most use out of the second monitor while working. However, when I’m doing literally anything else, the second monitor just tends to be Spotify, discord, or some background video or podcast.

What’s your preference? Anyone switch from one to the other? How do you use your setup?

  • Crozekiel@lemmy.zip
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    6 måneder siden

    I bought an ultrawide and don’t think I could go back. Its good for gaming (when a game knows how to take advantage of it, some still suck at this though) but for productivity it is absolutely a game changer for me.

    Highly recommend something like display fusion if you are on windows. You can setup “virtual monitors” so you can “full screen” a game and not take up the whole thing and it works great. Some games are rough at 32:9 aspect ratio so I setup a basic 16:9 ratio virtual monitor in the center, can still see discord on one side and whatever else I need on the other side. Also had a shortcut key to dim everything but active window so you didn’t have brightness bleed while gaming. It’s great. There are similar features baked into KDE, so I didn’t even need further software when I changed to linux.

  • just some guy@sh.itjust.works
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    6 måneder siden

    I had a 3 monitor setup for years until the primary monitor and its replacement crapped out one month. I switched to a 49” ultrawide, got a tiling window manager and I’ve been loving it! The window manager lets me size windows to fit what best suits me for each. I’ll never go back if I don’t have to

    • joemo@lemmy.sdf.org
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      6 måneder siden

      Windows has a tool called FancyZones in their PowerToys tool Link and I have been happy with the results so far.

      I don’t think I have a preference between an ultrawide and a multi monitor setup, I actually currently have an ultrawide and then another monitor 😂. It is a cheaper dell ultrawide and I should have just spent more and got a better one but oh well.

      My issue with multimonitor setups is the bezels kind of ruin things. If you get monitors with thin bezels, and get some good monitor mounts you’re probably fine.

      Multimonitor setups would also probably be cheaper than an ultrawide with similar size.

    • casualhippo@sh.itjust.works
      OPEnglish
      0·
      6 måneder siden

      That’s promising! I was looking at 34" ultrawides when thinking about my ubuntu + i3 setup, I didn’t even consider that 49" was an option. Is there anything that you think the dual monitor setup did better? Or were your concerns solved by the tiling wm?

  • ArxCyberwolf@lemmy.ca
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    6 måneder siden

    I swear by my 3440x1440 ultrawide monitor. FamcyZones lets it act like a dual monitor without taking up a bunch of desk space I don’t have.

  • TheLordlessBard@sh.itjust.works
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    6 måneder siden

    Why choose?

    I have dual ultrawide monitors and a 24" in portrait mode next to them. The 24" won’t connect to my work laptop, but the dual ultrawides give plenty of real estate since I can have four windows open at the same time

    • guyrocket@kbin.social
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      6 måneder siden

      Fuck. Did this cost $2k?

      Seems no one here is discussing value. My guess is that the best value is 2 monitors.

      • TheLordlessBard@sh.itjust.works
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        6 måneder siden

        Decent 34" ultrawide monitors can be had for under $400 each if you don’t care about high refresh rate/VRR/curved. LG makes some great ones. I neglected to mention the size, 49"s would be crazy expensive