One or two monitors?
 

I need some help setting up my Linux workstation. My problem is the numbers of monitors. I am deciding on either one or two monitors. Here are the day to day things I do:

• Game
• Surf the internet
• Code
• Play around with the settings
• listen to music
• watch videos and movies

I rarly multitask. Any thing will help.

I've got two monitors, used for 3D printer monitoring or FreeCAD on one and browsing/email on the other in general.

Terry Pratchett, The Disc World fantasy writer, was once asked why he had SIX monitors on his desk.

The answer... "Because I don't have room for EIGHT!"

Play Bonny!

:hattip:

^ was he using GNU/Linux?

I have know idea. He wasn’t helping either.

If you rarely multitask, just get one monitor. Preferably one with a high resolution (figure out what your computer will support).

However, you mention "Code". Most coders I know, including myself would go with 2 monitors at least for software development. This depends on what you're coding, of course. But generally it's good to at least have the code on one screen while having the test software on another screen. And then another screen for the Internet helping you out (Stack Overflow etc). And another screen for e-mail, because clients. And...

Basically, the fact that you even have this question at all tells me that you're not doing the sort of software coding I'm used to thinking about. Maybe it's mainly text/console stuff, where it's much easier to fit everything necessary in multiple windows on one screen. I don't know, I'm not a mind reader.

Two is nice, even if you don’t multitask much. Can run a VM on on, have a browser or IDE, keeepng the other one for terminal emulators, internet etc.

ok, i'm sorry, but i'm having a hard time taking your question seriously.
even a 14-year old should understand that only you yourself know how many monitors you want.
it also has nothing to do with linux per se, so at the very least it's in the wrong section. more something for "General".

now if you'd asked a more specific question, e.g. you started with a dual monitor setup and ran into difficulties, that would've been better.

i would choose two monitors anyday over just one.

Minimum of 2, I prefer 3 and generally:

Left - Monitoring
Middle - Main workspace
Right - e-mail

Just One, you know it's not a big deal if you have your workspaces set up.

One, you can only look at one at a time and hotkey virtual monitor swapping is quick.

for coding, 2 is handy since you can have your DE open on one screen and test the code you wrote on the other, but it isn't mandatory. I would say the biggest concern is budget, It would probably a better investment to get one good monitor over two cheaper ones, quality is more important than quantity for sure.