Asklemmy

What is a rainbow computer?

I use multiple monitors for audio production. My use case is a bit weird since I code Csound and use a DAW, which is unconventional. It's great for having the DAW up on the 4k, and some code or docs or both on the 1080p, 144Hz. If you didn't guess from the mixture of resolutions and frame rates, I've got gaming covered as well.

Truthfully, the 4k probably has the real estate to do all that on its own, but it was the last monitor I bought and why not use the other? I'm too lazy to figure out a setup to hook up the other 1080s I have lying around. (And don't need the space in any case)

Teacher here. I have my laptop (16”) and an ultra wide (34”) on my desk, and a projector behind me. I keep my email, attendance, and calendar on the laptop screen.

On the ultra wide, I keep my grade books and various spreadsheets, since more width makes it easier to see more data, and I have my daily agendas/lesson plans. Again, more width makes it easier to see the whole week at once. I keep that fixed to 2/3rds width of the screen, and the other side is reserved for Spotify at like 1/6th width

The projector is used to show the daily agenda, videos, instructions, etc. I very frequently screencast my iPad to the projector, so I can fill out worksheets on it with the class and they can see me write or circle things.

I can’t even fathom having any less screen real estate now. I gotta be able to see it all at once!

I have 4. My main and second are 46" each, the 3rd. is a 27" in normal/landscape, and the 4th is a 27" in portrait. The main is in front of me, the 2nd. is to the right and angled toward me, the 3rd. faces me at 90 degrees from the main, and the 4th. Is mounted above the 3rd. I used them originally for streaming and all of the windows I had open to monitor everything at the time as well as the game I was playing. Now I find them useful for working on projects, watching videos or movies while I play a game, and working on multiple spreadsheets at the same time. The one in portrait is especially helpful when I'm looking at a season's worth of a scheduling spreadsheet.

I have three identical monitors in a row. Primarily I use the center one, for productive work and gaming, but often I'll have something up on the second screen that I'm working with as well. It's more rare that I actively use the third one, but some tasks have more than two or three windows and now I can see all of them full size at once.

I've occasionally used them as a single ultra wide screen for gaming, but since then I've gotten an hmd for VR and that is better.

I have two monitors but I do all my work on one the other is completely separate. Plays YouTube all day so that I have background noise to work with.

Four monitors plus the laptop screen. It’s…a lot visually, but my productivity is significantly higher than when I only had two and the laptop screen.

They’re arranged in a square so clockwise from top right:

1. Work entry screen - this is where I’m typing a lot

2. Reading screen - this is the general source of what I’m working on

3. Outlook - I’m fully remote, Outlook is life

4. File folders - I work mainly with two or three folders all day so it just makes sense to have them uncovered

Laptop - Teams!

Of note, I use a ton of keyboard shortcuts and have generally optimized my workflow so I’m not hitting the mouse nearly as often as my coworkers. Having Outlook and Teams each have their own screen means I can keep them open and see what’s coming in while still working on my stuff on other screens. Final thing I’ll say about the arrangement, because you’re probably visualizing this making for a good gaming setup, no it wouldn’t because of how the screens are placed.

No matter what, get yourself a mirror. I don’t like people suddenly appearing by me, and since I’m using noise-cancelling headphones with music/podcasts 40+ hours a week, this keeps me from jumping out of my skin.

Backend dev. I have an ultrawide (like two monitors in one).

Sometimes I need to test the full stack and need a lot (8+) terminals. I try to tile them all on a separate virtual desktop.

Most commonly though, I center my main application and can have two smaller, peripheral applications, one on each side.

When doing full stack, I need a browser, IDE and two terminals, tiled to give more space for the browser.

I have a central monitor in landscape orientation which is where my IDE lives. Then a monitor on the left in portrait, which has the bottom quarter or so dedicated to work chat, music controls, and the browser developer window, then the rest of it is a web browser for documentation. On the right is my laptop screen, which is used for more documentation and watching TV shows while I work

A little different, but I do a lot of random 3D printing related stuff on my computer including CAD. I got one of those small ultra wide monitors meant for a raspberry pi, and put it under my main monitor. I run rain meter widgets on it for time, media control, etc. I also throw videos and stuff on there for while I'm working. It's been pretty sweet! I can use solidworks on top, and have a little video working on the bottom, and have a clock easily visible for time management.

I do fiber optic tech support

Left monitor is for account software (includes customer info, ticket manager, etc)

Middle monitor is email, browser (most of our management tools are browser based), and putty

Right monitor is ms teams, notepads++, and a softphone app

For work, it's usually IDE on the right (my larger screen) and a live build of the thing I'm working with on the left (a laptop screen). Though it varies a lot throughout the day. Primary screen gets the app that needs most scrutiny, small screen gets auxilliary things like passive communication apps or reference materials.

For home use, where I have two monitors of equal size, it's usually Discord on one screen and a web browser on the other. Comms on the left and active task on the right.

I don't see a use case in my workflow for a third screen, especially not one that is a weird size or is in portrait orientation. But if one was simply bestowed upon me, I'm sure I'd find something to do with it sooner or later. There was a time where I though two monitors was overrated, I'm sure I can adapt my opinion again for 3+.

Left reference, middle work, right email/IM

One additional vertical monitor for e-mail, papers or documentation is great.

I bought a second display for my last job because the pan got us wfh. I’m on a Mac and ran my Windows VM o the second display. My current job doesn’t allow me to connect to VPN from a personal device, so the second display is dormant. I throw web browser windows for things I want to look at later over there so I don’t forget to come back to them (I have a billion open web windows / tabs on the main display).

Code, editors, terminal, and most browser tabs on the right..

Calendar, Slack, some more browser windows on the left, sometimes some debugging tools.

Third smaller screen off to the side for media if I want to throw on something in the background.

• Left (wide screen): Teams and Jira
• Center (Ultra wide screen): IDE, file browser and other main stuff
• Right (portrait): Terminal and ocational documents

Two monitors one computer? Bah! Why not two monitors two computers!

One main monitor connected to my Windows machine, and a second monitor next to it connected to my work Mac. Using Synergy, one mouse and keyboard plugged into Windows controls both machines.

Then, add a Framework laptop propped up on the left running Linux, also controlled with Synergy. Three monitors, three computers! Now when people ask what OS I run it's an easy answer: all of them at the same time lol

• Left (horizontal) - communicators, btop, Spotify.
• Middle (horizontal) - browser with GitLab, terminals and editors, main development in general.
• Right (vertical) - browser for googling and docs, terminals for tests / logs / whatever I want to see at the same time as the editor, Obsidian for notes.

Anything less than that will completely ruin my workflow. I'm even trying to come up with a feasible way to fit a fourth one.

Two screens and a laptop screen, could find use for more. I find myself shuffling things around depending on what I need, but most commonly I have the left screen split between notepad++ on one side for any notes keeping, and either documentation I'm reading, documentation I'm writing, a browser I'm using, or something such. Whenever I need to compare text files, notepad++ gets to take the whole screen.

On the middle screen I usually have the remote desktop or VM I'm working on at the time.

Right (laptop screen) is usually reserved for Outlook and Teams.

I use 3 monitors. One is for the task I'm doing, one is for reference material for the task, and the third is for my sanity. That last one is where youtube/memes/whatever are. I can focus extra hard if I need to, but I prefer not to. When I started out, I used to get home completely burned out, and incapable of doing anything but eating, showering, and vegging out in front of the TV or PC.

Independent IT Contractor: I have a 4-wide 1080p screen setup. I keep Slack/Teams on one screen, the semicircle setup means I can only really look at 3 at the same time. I upgraded from 3 screens because I kept having to juggle windows around while troubleshooting someone's webserver.

Also used this setup when I was really heavy into FFXIV- I like having wikis/alerts open and visible, so one screen for that, the game, discord, and then the last one was just for youtube/netflix.

I have four monitors. Two slightly angled directly in front of me, one angled on the left and a small 10 inch directly below my two main monitors that I use specifically for discord and my friend's chat app he's working on.

Why two directly in front of me with the split in the middle? I only have to shift my head slightly to move between the game I'm playing and whatever I'm watching.

But it's more useful when I'm working on pixel art because I can have my drawing on one main monitor and my reference in the other while having a show or stream on the secondary angled on my left and chat stays on the small monitor.

As for if that helps productivity, I have no idea.

But I sure like my setup now.

Music production. Left: tracking and editing window. Right: mixer and plug-ins

• Left (vertical) - Notesnook (or whichever knowledge management system I'm on at that particular moment), Signal, and Slack all tiled so I can see them all together.
• Middle (horizontal) - IDE.
• Right (vertical) - Browser.

This works well, but I'd enjoy another monitor for Spotify or, more likely, so I could make all the terminal, debugger, run, database, etc from my IDE full-blown windows on the fourth monitor.

• Monitor 1: Outlook
• Monitor 2: Browser and various messaging apps
• Monitor 3 (the big screen): IDE

Chat/docs/IDE across three monitors. Throw in a terminal and music player too tiled on the two vertical monitors.

My work setup has two monitors in a horizontal layout.

Left (in front of me) contains the main stuff for my task at the moment. That's where my meeting app goes as well so I can look straight at the webcam during meetings.

Right has the supporting stuff, reference docs, IM just in case I need to be pulled away for some critical issue, etc.

At most, I can work with three monitors for increasing productivity in terms of screen real estate. More than that would be a case of diminishing returns for more physical space taken.

I have three. The third doesn't really boost my productivity much, I have it vertical just to show my file browser because I open and switch through different files quite a lot. The other two are to show the actual files I'm working in or comparing.

The thing I've always noticed about getting more monitors is that you never really think you need one more monitor until you end up getting one somehow. After that you start getting used to the extra space and it feels wrong to go back to having less. When I originally had one monitor I was just used to that and didn't see anything wrong with it. Once I got two monitors I again felt good and got used to it. It was really nice to be able to watch stuff while playing games or have Unity and Visual Studio on separate screens at the same time. Eventually I got a nicer monitor and decided to go up to 3 monitors which again felt really nice and I found uses for all 3. That's where I'm at now and I don't have plans to get anymore but if I ever got a newer monitor there's a good chance I would end up giving 4 a try cause why let one of my older but still good monitors go to waste. And I imagine I would still be able to find uses for the extra space. I feel like at some point there is a limit but at least so far every time I've gained more monitor space even when I'm not sure what I would use it for I always end up using that extra space for something.

Big center monitor: ide, terminal

Big left monitor: browser. Jira ticket, documentation, email, etc. sometimes also notes. Http client (trying Bruno now).

Small laptop monitor: slack, sticky notes