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Bhagya
Bhagya

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How many monitors do you use for coding?

Developers, how many monitors do you use for coding?

I am using 3 and you πŸ‘‡

Here we goπŸ’ͺ​

Top comments (69)

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kasuken profile image
Emanuele Bartolesi

One wide-screen 49 inch.

setup.emanuelebartolesi.com

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Volker Schukai

Is it good to work with? Is this windows or macos? Do you use a window placement tool?

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kasuken profile image
Emanuele Bartolesi

I use Microsoft PowerToys to split the screen in three parts.
The main in the center and two bars on the sides.

I will write a blog post about my monitor setup here on dev.to

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camco profile image
Camco

I have never seen anyone who has the same setup (49 SUW using power toys)... Which I have been doing for 2 years now and thought I may be crazy! I went from 4x 24" down to a single 49" SUW. Now I want to stack another 34" on top 😎

Ps, your setup is super awesome!!!

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Peter Benjamin (they/them)

1

The constraint of 1 monitor and its real-estate forces me to be intentional about what I'm focusing on. More monitors lead to a lot of distractions for me (e.g. chat apps, browser tabs open to Twitter/YT/HN, ...etc).

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Gedi

i guess depends what you are coding, but as web dev i can't even imagine productive day with one screen.

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Abhishek Keshri

Here's my workstation!
my workstation

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Jon Randy πŸŽ–οΈ

One

I've used multiple screens in the past, but always find I'm more productive with just one.

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Keff

I'm on the same boat, even if I have 2 screens I tend to prefer using the one in front and ignoring the secondary screen!

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crowdozer • Edited

2... I prefer having one screen for everything I'm primarily using (vscode, my browser, or my console if doing tdd) and a second screen for any of my command lines that are open but not immediately needed. I prefer alt/tabbing between two windows that are in my immediate view rather than looking left and right between things.

Any more than 2 monitors I find cumbersome and I don't make much use of them. I do have a third monitors at home, but it never gets used while doing any dev. If anything, it's for extras, like youtube.

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Peter Vivo

I work my MacBook Pro 13inc M1 touchbar with extra monitor if work hard. But so many times 1 screen is enough. I like this machine for extreme mobility. I can coding with 8+ hours without power supply. Doesn't matter where I sit down, even I can share my mobile net. Extra: I use Touch Pad instead mouse, so it is really nomade way of coding.

home office with cat

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Brandon Williams

My setup is a bit unconventional. I have my main workstation and a macbook.

I have 3 monitors on my main workstation where actually write my code. Then I have 2 more monitors, macbook and another monitor.

I'm currently working with React Native so the macbook mainly handles the emulation for iOS and Android if I don't need the physical devices.

I use VSCode's Remote Development extension to SSH into the macbook and work in the project folders from my Windows workstation.

TL;DR - I have 5 monitors.

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James Auble

Two. One for my browser/devtools and one for my editor (VSCode).

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ibrakhimzhanovit profile image
Islam Ibrakhimzhanov

Me too

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Chris Greening

Usually 3

My job is a lot of quick juggling so being able to have VS Code, RStudio, terminal(s), AWS, Stack Overflow, docs, Slack, Asana, and Spotify all on screen at the same time is pretty great

I'm frequently on the move though so working with just my laptop screen is something I'm also used to, it's just a slightly different workflow

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Mario Gutierrez

1 monitor and herbstluftwm. Used to have dual monitors but got tired of moving my neck. Once you get used to tiling window managers, the workflow stays the same if you're on the laptop at a coffee shop or at home.

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Tony Miller

I currently have my 27" 4k as main one and laptop monitor for stuff like background videos, slack, mail, etc. I type on my laptop's keyboard and laptop's monitor is under my main monitor. This setup worked for me perfectly for almost 5 years now. Although, I want to try having another 27" 4k in vertical orientation for docs and reading stuff.

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Bram Hammer

Went from 1 normal (27 inch) screen to 1 normal + laptop (15 inch).
After that i bought the Odyssey G5 32 inch + my 27 inch (vertical) including my laptop screen. That was a total overkill and my laptop didn't like that many screens... (enough resources just noticed that it struggled more then usual)

Ended with the G5 + 27 inch and closed the laptop.. vertical screen is perfect for mobile development or discord, devtools, app etc..

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Brad

I used to have to up 4 and have a laptop open. But today I usually only use 2.

I'm also someone who could easily work fine with just a laptop, as I usually use virtual desktops to keep things organized.

I found in the past I usually don't need that many windows to be productive, nor did I really use all that space. A main monitor for main tasks and a "secondary" monitor for secondary focus tasks is usually good enough. If I'm down to one monitor then everything has its own virtual desktop.

At some point you'll have extra monitor space and you will "do more" with that space just to fill it, even if that means "doing stuff" that isn't really that important to see at a glace as you would.

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Sean Boult

I'm a single monitor user πŸ–₯

It's more ergonmic to have only a single one as you're not relying on moving your head around.

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Jorge Escamilla

I'm equaly productive using one or many. Now in my current position/job I'm using just one: an "amazing" 18" with a low resolution... which is a huge pain! but job politics doesn't allow me to use a wider neither another one. So any way, I'm still trying toget used to it :(.