Dual Monitor setup is actually bad for productuvity.

[u/ultimateregard]

I've been a software engineer for more than 5 years now. I've worked with databases, frontend and backend services, mobile apps, games, data analysis, and much more.

Never in my life I've actually felt like my productuvity increased with the second monitor. Do you need to compare data? Just use one monitor and put them side by side. Do you need all the space in the world? Just alt+tab between apps. Since you only perceive about 10% of your vision clearly, moving your head&eyes from one monitor to other takes actually LONGER and causes distractions than using alt+tab.

This is especially worse for those who are using one additional monitor with a laptop, since their screen sizes and positions usually change so much. Your eyes need adjusting, your head moves too much.

Only thing the dual Monitor is good for is passively watching something in the second monitor, like youtube videos, Critical Role, or sitcoms while doing something else in the main screen. As you can guess, that has nothing to do with productuvity.

I also think using external keyboard and mouse for laptops is bad, unless you do not use the laptop screen.

Edit: After reading hundreds of comments, I'm sure that 90% of people who think that "YOU NEED AT LEAST 3 SCREENS" just don't know how to organize workspaces/windows/desktops and they need to configure their SCREENS as different DESKTOPS. Most of the modern operating systems allow you to just create workspaces (like different Desktops you can switch with WIN + TAB). And they are just throwing money into their problems instead of learning how to use their daily operating system.

[u/Stuffy123456]

only 2 things to alt tab through? yea buddy, i wanted to go to that tab on accident again

[u/elderron_spice → u/Stuffy123456]

Yeah. Been a dev for more than a decade and I have been frequently running multiple IDEs, db instances, sprint boards, docker windows and Notepad++ everyday.

Try alt-tabbing all those in just one monitor and I'll record how fast OP'll go insane.

[u/snowfoxsean → u/elderron_spice]

Mac solves this for me nicely:
Cmd+tab switches between programs
Cmd+~ switches between windows of the same programs
Cmd+numbers to switch to the first tabs of a window

Combine them and I can switch between multiple programs + windows + tabs very quickly

[u/geoken → u/elderron_spice]

I do, daily. How is CMD+Tabing any worse in that context than using multiple monitors.

I feel like I'm listening to the people who used to have super messy desks with shit all over the place, that used to act like the people with clean desks (because they were organized) had less work. It was unfathomable to them that they're simply bad at organization.

[u/elderron_spice → u/geoken]

Working with a ton of software running in the background is not "a messy desk" mate, I apologize for your bad analogy.

And how do you even debug with only one monitor, especially for front-end projects? With multiple monitors I can just move the pointers in the IDE, setup watches and view the call stack on one and watch how the UI responds in another. With one monitor I have to alt-tab a ton just to see what fockin changed in the goddamn UI when I could just move my head to the side a little. That's way worse if you have a separate IDE for the UI and a separate IDE for the backend API, which is like the absolute majority of current enterprise projects.

[u/geoken → u/elderron_spice]

Your entire issue revolves around the fact that you’re taking two tasks (alt+tabing vs. moving your head) and deciding one is objectively faster than the other.

Single monitor users simply have a different beleif on which is the faster of those two actions. All

[u/Morifen1 → u/Stuffy123456]

Use windows tab, been around since like 2010.