I wfh and do a lot of screensharing. With multiple monitors I can just share a monitor and put everything I want to share there (browser, IDE, terminal) and other things I don’t want to share on my other monitors. With 1 screen it is hard to do that, I have to keep switching share window. Not sure if there’s any other way, I’m an old fart.
I just put all the shit I don’t want to share on an entirely different computer and then use a kvm switch, to make sure I don’t accidentally share anything. Also old fart here.
As others have stated, the cleanest option for a single monitor setup is to either share a specific window, or start making use of multiple virtual desktops, sometimes referred to as workspaces. Windows, Mac, and Linux are all capable of it, now - the only difference is how you set up, arrange, and navigate them.
Linux options offer the most versatility, Mac’s implementation is a decent balance between ease of use and scalability (with caveats), and the Windows native implementation is the newest entrant to this playing field… but it’s an adequate offering that gets the job done for this use case.
I’m with you. A common example is the weekly meeting I chair. I can have everything we are going over on my left monitor. Center monitor has my meeting notes that I type up discussion points to complete after the meeting. Right monitor has slack up which is useful if I need to ping someone for input on something if they couldn’t be on the meeting or another resource. Even if I don’t get a response right away I typically have one by the time I’m finishing up the meeting notes. My mind works better having a separate physical monitor to break up my space. I have a 42” wide screen and 24” monitor for my personal computer and I want to downgrade the larger one. The 42” is too big for me, I enjoy snapping windows around with the arrow keys and changing virtual desktops feels too abrupt to avoid interrupting my mental processing. I think folks all process things a little bit different and I’m just happy I’ve found something that works for me and others have options that work for them.
Suuuucks for development at least, it’s too small to divide into 3 zones, and if you divide by 2 you will just end up with a kink in your neck from always looking to the side.
I’d rather have a single 27" with infinite virtual desktops I can shuffle around, than a 49" (my 49" has actually been collecting dust in storage for a couple of years now).
What’s a good virtual desktop application?. Windows used to have an amazing animation when you switched desktops, but it’s gone now and I’m not sure I can learn to trust again
I bought a 49” super ultrawide to replace my dual monitor setup and I found while 32:9 gaming I still wanted to watch fullscreen videos so I added back my 27”. Might add back my other 27” so I can do fullscreen discord/other stuff. Lemme tell you, SUW absolutely ruins a person.
I finally joined the club and got a 34” curved monitor this month. Pretty good so far. It has also cleared up space on my desk instead several monitors taking up most of it. I still use my laptop as an extra screen to the side though.
forget a 3rd monitor, you need 1 giant curved one.
I wfh and do a lot of screensharing. With multiple monitors I can just share a monitor and put everything I want to share there (browser, IDE, terminal) and other things I don’t want to share on my other monitors. With 1 screen it is hard to do that, I have to keep switching share window. Not sure if there’s any other way, I’m an old fart.
I just put all the shit I don’t want to share on an entirely different computer and then use a kvm switch, to make sure I don’t accidentally share anything. Also old fart here.
Only ever used KVM switches at workplaces, never seen one privately owned.
As others have stated, the cleanest option for a single monitor setup is to either share a specific window, or start making use of multiple virtual desktops, sometimes referred to as workspaces. Windows, Mac, and Linux are all capable of it, now - the only difference is how you set up, arrange, and navigate them.
Linux options offer the most versatility, Mac’s implementation is a decent balance between ease of use and scalability (with caveats), and the Windows native implementation is the newest entrant to this playing field… but it’s an adequate offering that gets the job done for this use case.
I’m with you. A common example is the weekly meeting I chair. I can have everything we are going over on my left monitor. Center monitor has my meeting notes that I type up discussion points to complete after the meeting. Right monitor has slack up which is useful if I need to ping someone for input on something if they couldn’t be on the meeting or another resource. Even if I don’t get a response right away I typically have one by the time I’m finishing up the meeting notes. My mind works better having a separate physical monitor to break up my space. I have a 42” wide screen and 24” monitor for my personal computer and I want to downgrade the larger one. The 42” is too big for me, I enjoy snapping windows around with the arrow keys and changing virtual desktops feels too abrupt to avoid interrupting my mental processing. I think folks all process things a little bit different and I’m just happy I’ve found something that works for me and others have options that work for them.
Most modern desktop environments have virtual desktops, even Windows does iirc, Windows 11 I’m sure about.
But then when you switch to that virtual desktop you’ll be sharing it too, and I don’t want that.
Suuuucks for development at least, it’s too small to divide into 3 zones, and if you divide by 2 you will just end up with a kink in your neck from always looking to the side. I’d rather have a single 27" with infinite virtual desktops I can shuffle around, than a 49" (my 49" has actually been collecting dust in storage for a couple of years now).
or three 27" monitors so that the middle one is centered. it’s the coolest shit ever imo
What’s a good virtual desktop application?. Windows used to have an amazing animation when you switched desktops, but it’s gone now and I’m not sure I can learn to trust again
GNOME virtual desktops are quite good
I like dwm from suckless. Specifically, I am using the voidwm fork that has much more functionality out of the box.
I bought a 49” super ultrawide to replace my dual monitor setup and I found while 32:9 gaming I still wanted to watch fullscreen videos so I added back my 27”. Might add back my other 27” so I can do fullscreen discord/other stuff. Lemme tell you, SUW absolutely ruins a person.
3rd giant curved one
I finally joined the club and got a 34” curved monitor this month. Pretty good so far. It has also cleared up space on my desk instead several monitors taking up most of it. I still use my laptop as an extra screen to the side though.
I hate curved monitors, can’t stand the distorted image. Fortunately there are a few non-curved ultrawides on the market.
I went curved and now the flat monitors at work are annoying because the far edges are too far away ='(
frfr