HACKER Q&A
📣 herodoturtle

Working on just a laptop (as opposed to multiple monitors)


My family and I have recently moved cross-country for lifestyle reasons. In our previous home I was programming on a desktop PC with dual monitor setup.

During the move - and in light of having to pack up everything and ship it to our new home - I have been working on just a laptop.

I'm finding this new work setup oddly refreshing, to the point that I'm now considering placing my PC and monitors in storage in our new home.

I should add that on my laptop I utilise a handful of virtual desktops to manage my workflow, which has proved surprisingly efficient (and arguably more focused).

I'd be curious to hear the experience of other developers on here who also work on just a laptop - care to share your thoughts?

Thanks.

  👤 gregjor Accepted Answer ✓
More than ten years working solely on a laptop (cloud system admin and programming). I don't miss the multiple monitors at my last f/t job -- I couldn't really use all that space anyway, it was just distracting. I often work on my iPad (with keyboard). I like having just one thing in focus at a time, not a bunch of windows demanding my attention.

Because I travel a lot I have always used a 13" Macbook Air or a Chromebook of the same size, or the iPad. I spend most of my time going between the web browser and multiple ssh sessions (I use the screen utility for that). I feel as productive as the next person, sometimes more because I can start working seconds after I sit down, nothing to set up or plug in.

When I started my career programming a million years ago (late '70s) I used dumb terminals with 80x24 character displays, for a long time. Modern displays are so much better in every way I don't feel the need to keep adding more screen real estate. And I'm 62 years old with failing vision, which makes me scratch my head when programmers less than half my age complain about small screens. Programming mainly happens in the brain, not on the screen.

👤 vmoore
Yeah I have no problems doing everything on a laptop. I experimented with two monitors thinking I would be more productive, but it didn't magically make me more productive. It sounded good but the context switching put me off. I only ever focus on one window at a time, with the exception of webdev, where I typically snap a text editor and a browser side-by-side for quick development.
👤 elmerfud
I think it depends on the laptop. If I had a 15 or 17 inch one I think it would be ok. This tiny 13 inch thing that IT standardized on because sales likes them just doesn't have the keyboard or screen area to be productive.

At home I have a nice ultra wide to use. While I do dual screen 90% of my focus is the external monitor. When I travel I have a portable 15 inch 4k monitor and keyboard I use.