> I'm curious - don't people miss big monitors when coding on a laptop? I've done a fair amount of coding on laptops while travelling and it's okay, but I feel like a big monitor is optimal for most work and wouldn't want a permanent situation with just laptop.

That is why we, coders, are different from other 99,99% of population of the Earth. I gave the original post to my wife and her first question was “How’s the guy coping to live alone?”. But my question was exactly this: Why he has no monitor and using that inconvinient laptop stand instead? :)

I directly skipped to finding a solution to that "problem". I literally found myself browsing amazon for monitor stands that can be folded and easily mounted in a van. What happens if I break hard? Hmm... I came up with requirements for a monitor stand suitable for use in a van. For a moment, I remember being depressed about the zero number of perfect solutions for this "basic" use-case.

Now I'm convinced that I'd never give-up my home-office for a van-office until serious advancements are made in the monitor-stand industry.

You didn’t see VESA mounts in your Amazon search that allow you to screw the stand into the monitor and into a solid surface (desk or wall) with an articulating arm that allows you to adjust the monitor’s location!?

Most of them had reviews about how hard it is to make them stay in place with heavier monitors. I can't even imagine what happens if I forget to fix them very carefully before moving and break hard while moving.

But then, of course, I am half-joking. I actually did find myself doing that research but after realizing the sitcom scene I put myself in, I gave up quickly: I don't even have a driver's license, and I'm researching the monitor-mount situation for a caravan-life?!

When searching here in the US with query “vesa monitor wall mount” I find a bunch of ones which would be secure and work well (multiple of which I own). Maybe that’s not the case where you live (assuming you’re either European or Aussie based on the phrase “caravan-life”, but guess that’s not an accurate assumption possibly).

I'm gonna guess Europe based on the "no drivers license" comment.

Your guess is right, I'm living in Germany. But I think I'm in the minority here - I really don't know any German who is in their twenties without a driver's license. I'm not German though and I used to have a license back in Istanbul, which is not valid in Germany. I didn't bother getting a license here because you can get a Bahncard from Deutsche Bahn, which covers 90% of one's public transportation needs. Maybe it's a similar story in other European countries but I think most people still get a license just in case.

not sure if serious or not; but just move monitor back against wall it's attached to and strap it down while moving. Generally solved issue in the RV industry with TVs.

Surely if you're customizing a van for #vanlife you can figure out how to build your own monitor-stand.

> I gave the original post to my wife and her first question was “How’s the guy coping to live alone?”

My knee-jerk response is, "blissfully."

I live with my wife, a 19 month old, and two cats. I love them, but I would love, love, love to spend a week entirely by myself - going to bed and waking up on my own schedule.

Introverted Dad with a wife, two daughters, two dogs, and two cats reporting in. Wife and kid #1 are both high energy. I love my home life, but there is definitely some part of my psyche that is drained by it.

I took a couple of days to drive to the middle of nowhere in Oregon to see the eclipse by myself. My goal was literally to be as far from other people and as solitary as possible for the whole trip. (Not exactly easy given the expected crowds, but that was my hope.)

I slept in the back of my truck and barely spoke to a soul in 48 hours. It was absolute bliss.

I'd like to figure out to get a little more of that solitude in my life, but it's hard. Anytime I'm out recharging my spiritual batteries, my wife is at home solo-parenting with the kids draining hers more than twice as fast as usual.

Pics and video of the eclipse:

https://imgur.com/gallery/AWPxf

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8PDDX1vnXM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WsuxK81KnPw

We should start a club, one where none of us meet up in person :)

There might be some sense in that - pool together resources to rent or lease a large area to camp in, with centralized things like hot showers or kitchens with refridgerators, and maybe wifi, but otherwise mostly just spread-out campgrounds where people can go and not be bothered, but not so cut off as to be worried about breaking a leg and getting eaten by a coyote.

A commune of solitude if you will.

We could call it a peculiune, given that "commune" comes from the Latin word for things held in common, and "peculiaris" would seem to be its antonym.

What do kids want? Your soul. How much do they want? All of it.

I love my daughter. That's the truth of it though. Sometimes it makes me you happy and you want to give and give and give. Sometimes it makes me you unhappy and you want to curse them for their wretched selfish neediness. It doesn't matter though. They'll take and take.

Of course I was the same way with my parents so it's all fair enough. But like you say, sometimes I find myself humming Hungry Heart ("I got a wife and kids in Baltimore Jack, I went out for a ride and I never came back") and just wishing they'd all just leave me along for a week. A day. A couple of minutes.

I did this for one week last year. I was in the alps, doing some snowboarding, some work and some reading. It was great. Especially being alone in a country where I didn't speak the language well enough to hold casual conversation for too long.

Was still happy when my girlfriend arrived after a week though. But that one week was indeed 'bliss'.

My girlfriend and I broke up a 15 year long relationship approximately one year ago and while I did enjoy having time alone back when we were together, after so much time I still can't stand being alone as the default. I miss the sharing, the laughs, the little moments (good or bad!) that seem insignificant but that turn out to be core to the relationship, that no friend seem to be able to replace. While I do enjoy some activities briefly, everything I do retrospectively seems like an attempt to escape and drown out the drone of loneliness. Being able to share is such a catalyst to any experience that things feel sort of pointless: does a falling tree make a sound if no one's around to hear it? Maybe I'm still getting over that break up, maybe I should just fake it till I make it. Really, I don't know.

> Maybe I'm still getting over that break up.

You almost certainly are. Fifteen years is a long time, longer than my parents were married. You didn't have a break-up; you went through a divorce. A year sounds like the minimum amount of time it would take a person to deal with it. I wish you the best.

I am sorry for your loss.

> That is why we, coders, are different from other 99,99% of population of the Earth.

Not sure if that's coders or autistics (to be clear: NOFI).

That is an interesting point. I didn't even take the lonely factor into account.

>I'm curious - don't people miss big monitors when coding on a laptop?

No. Some of us work even more focused on a single smaller screen even than having 10 BS windows asking for our attention (and I include debuggers in those, the ultimate hop-around time sink for some developers).

Besides, people managed to write software for several decades before larger than 14" screens became the norm. Heck, until the late seventies many people didn't even use a visual editor -- they only edited their files line by line in ed. And until the 90s even color was not that common -- there goes syntax highlighting (and many other uses of color).

So I don't think big monitors are any sort of necessity in the days of 15" laptops with excellent retina screens.

This seems to have attracted a lot of downvotes, I guess because it's overtly antagonistic.

But I too prefer to work on a smaller screen (and I have tried much larger monitors). I switch context and then just work in that context. I don't feel the need to be able to see a load of different things at the same time.

Really though, it's subjective and everyone should just do what works best for them. It's the same discussion that comes up with some people having 200 tabs open in their browser whereas others of us keep it really minimal.

I'm over a decade into working pretty much on a 13" macbook full time and that's my happy place.

>This seems to have attracted a lot of downvotes, I guess because it's overtly antagonistic

Not exactly antagonistic -- meant to give some historical context to answer the parent's question which made it seem like big monitors are some physical necessity that people just can't do without. It's not like big monitors where any kind of norm before at least 2000.

I know tons of people happily coding away on a laptop with no external monitors attached.

Well, the only part of your comment I was referring to was the "having 10 BS windows asking for our attention", because really I agree with you (and I upvoted you to try to help normalise the discussion).

It's a very strange thread to read. Judging by the downvotes, it seems as though there's a really negative reaction to people who code on small screens. Whatever people want to do is fine, but it's pretty weird to almost shout down anyone who does it a different way.

>Well, the only part of your comment I was referring to was the "having 10 BS windows asking for our attention"

A, yes, thanks. I think where big/dual monitors make more sense are for admin style work -- when you need to, non pun intended, monitor, several things at once.

> This seems to have attracted a lot of downvotes, I guess because it's overtly antagonistic.

A fine example of how it's really difficult to express tone via text (I read it as pretty breezy, not antagonistic), and why we should all attempt to apply the principle of charity to everything we read before assuming someone's being a dick.

I'm going to be totally honest—I personally thought the tone was ok but felt like I should err on the side of caution, lest I too suffered the wrath of the large-multimonitor crowd :-)

And that's the way it was, and we liked it, dag nabbit!

The core thing is that some people STILL like it -- including people who never lived in that era, and could trivially buy 3 30" monitors.

And not because of primitivism reasons ("who needs fancy IDEs" etc), but because of a quite concrete reason: increased focus.

In the era of 1000 distractions for programmers, it's perhaps more valid than it would have been in 1984. Then, if you had dual monitors, they'd still show just your code, some log, some documentation, etc. At best, xeyes.

Use an OS that doesn't attack you then. Ubuntu with i3 and I never see a single OS screen. On a 34" wide monitor it's editor, terminal, browser. Pixel edge to pixel edge. No fluff. No bullshit. No battling window sizing. It's like focus mode, only with more windows :)

+i3 life changer for programmer productivity!

That's some serious gatekeeping.

Keeping the gate of what?

As I wrote "some of us" prefer smaller/single screens for focus. If it doesn't work for you, or if you can manage NOT to get distracted by 5 open windows in 2 x 24" monitors, then more power to you.

It was your tone. It reeked of "real programmers" don't use debuggers etc.

Aah. I'd say real programmers use debugger when they make sense -- but lots of programmers use them to jump around checking this and that without any reasoning what is going on, and thus taking 5x the time of a simple printf.

Respectfully, I disagree with the notion that lots of programmers don't know best how to manage their own time and productivity. Of course, we can all stand to do a better job of meta-cognition and thinking critically about our workflows, but I trust that if most people spend a lot of time in a debugger, it's because it helps them get their job done faster.

Personally, I definitely find myself going through stretches where I just use printf debugging. (I work on a lot of hobby language implementations where that's often the only kind of debugging there is.) Then I remember, "Oh, yeah, debuggers are a thing." More often than not, I'm surprised by how much faster I am at tracking down an issue using one.

I know my post will also come off as smug here, but is the solution to perceived gatekeeping really tone policing?

AKA "an opinion".

Probably getting downvotes because of your tone, but I agree with the focus. I find I work much better on tasks requiring deep focus when I’m just on my laptop.

I agree in sentiment. This is why I love i3. Just the will down I want where I want. No OS fluff.

And once upon a time, people built automobiles with hand tools instead of power tools, conveyors, and robots.

You can still do that, of course, but you will not be competitive with the likes of Ford and Toyota.

A higher-resolution screen, positioned closer to the eyeball, can substitute for a larger monitor. But even then, that uses only a fraction of my available visual field. VR technology could eventually solve the monitor area problem in a van-sized workspace. But for now, parent post is correct, screens with smaller pixels are the way to go. Just stick your face closer to it, and it will look bigger. This probably means you'll need an external mouse and keyboard, though.

As a programmer, my limiting factor has nothing to do with my available visual field.

Has nothing to do with resolution, either, once I've achieved a relatively normal resolution. Today, that's 1600x900.

I don't think I'm "using hand tools."

Not really, I prefer to code on my 13" MBP. I have 24" monitor but I rarely ever use it. Ability to lay back and put legs on coffee table are more important to me.

A huge desk, huge monitors, comfy executive chair, and a foot rest gives, IMHO, the best of all worlds.

This might be something for you two guys if you can afford it...

http://mashable.com/2015/10/28/altwork-station-laying-down

I've thought of getting a dental exam chair and using it for something like that, mounting the monitor in place of the light.

Dental exam chairs can be quite comfortable. The ones my dentist uses are comfortable enough I've almost fallen asleep during cleanings.

Tried something similar back when I was a student. The leaning back angle doesn't seem to work over longer than a few minutes, when you're trying to focus.

Looks great (if it is real) but for me I guess it is not about laying down but freedom to work from anywhere.

Sometimes, I work from patio while smoking a cigar. Other times, I just need to try out a new coffeeshop on other side of town.

Haha. The look on that guys face just made my day.

I'd be paranoid that the monitor would fall on me. That may be good thing though as I'd avoid procrastination to get out of the danger zone as soon as possible.

Reminds me of https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohcwksrvDOg

I can't see how the mouse would avoid sliding down, without adding unacceptable (and perhaps asymmetric) resistance to motion.

They mention magnets in the article. Presumably you get a custom keyboard and mouse?

I don't imagine I'd enjoy moving a mouse that feels like shuffling refrigerator magnets!

Trackball? Touchpad? Or, given this is HN, keyboard shortcuts?

I share that sentiment. A big screen doesn't mesh well with moving from one corner of the bed to another.

Virtual desktops mostly solved the area problem for me: switching between code/result/docs is just a chord away. The rare situations where switching is happening all the time account for less than 10% of my usage.

Personally, whenever I long for a second monitor, I'll use my iPad and hook it up via duet, which is usually only for web-dev where I need the browser to be a minimum size, with live reload. Else I heavily use spaces (macOS Mission Control thing), iTerm with quake/visor-style terminal on hotkey, and usually have my code wrap around 80 chars, which gives quite a bit of screen real estate leftover on a retina mac.

I greatly prefer mobility over a monitor, and back when I used to have extra monitors it didn't provide that much more of a benefit. It would still be as much of a context switch the distance my eyes would travel to that other space on the monitor, as pressing ctrl + 2 into my second space.

I prefer to code on my laptop. You may be able to see more on a big screen, but you can't concentrate on more. I have GNU Screen set up with multiple command line tabs that I can switch between using hot keys, which is automatic enough that it happens at least as fast as I can mentally switch. I keep things in a consistent setup (bash on tab 0, editor on tab 1, etc.) so I never have to figure out what tab I need to go to.

When using a large screen, I struggle with figuring out where to look on the screen quickly. I could build habits that would remedy this by distributing things consistently on my screen, but then I'd have to build separate habits for my big screens and little screens.

Yeah, for coding my 12" is fine. I only use my large screen for movies, games and the occasional image editing.

You can still have big monitors and live in a vehicle. I built my bus with a standing desk and a Dell 34" ultrawide monitor.

Photo: https://www.instagram.com/p/BUhYiNhFQOA/

I've seen others with projectors and big TVs. It's doable even in a standard size van.

got a 24" LG 1080p monitor in the van that needs less than 20W - doable with a small extra battery and 100W solar. the 4k monitors from LG are quite energy efficient as well (<30W)

I develop wth a mobile setup (3G/4G + laptop + laptop stand) most of the time, but not with a nomadic lifestyle.

I don't miss big monitors while on the go. Either I forgot how good they were or one get used to it. What I favor infinitely more is the mobility itself. I don't understand why remote people don't move more when given the chance.

YMMV, I still have a big monitor at home, else I would feel cut from my customers' typical setup. A problem with smaller screen is the additional eye strain.

> A problem with smaller screen is the additional eye strain

I almost have more of an eye strain with multiple monitors because of more horizontal movement of my eyes, and often being a little bit further from the monitor. (and my bigger monitor isn't the same resolution as my laptop)

My home setup has a screen directly in front and one to the side, as if I have them both offset then I am always at lesst a little bit strained and I end up using the inner parts of the monitors anyway.

I have considered one below and one directly in front as well so it's up movement instead but I have yet to come up with a good mounting solution!

How about a mount like this one? https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01CUW5HDU/ref=psdc_490624011_t1_B...

In Emacs switching between all needed buffers and tiling them around is very fast, once you learned the keystrokes. Emacs can display almost every information in its buffers. No big screen needed to have all the information immediately available. Emacs was designed on and for small screens.

s/emacs/vim

Different people have different work styles - some prefer the focus.

Fun fact: Antirez worked on Redis solely on a MacBook Air 11"

http://oldblog.antirez.com/post/apple-mba11-my-sole-computer...

> I'm curious - don't people miss big monitors when coding on a laptop?

i don't. i have a laptop and a couple 24" monitors but over the last few years i've found myself just using the laptop more and more without the externals.

I use the app "duet" to connect an iPad as a second monitor for the cases when a second display is really useful (like playing spot the difference with a site vs Sketch design).

This would be wonderful I'm sure with one of the newer 12.9" iPad pros.

And for 1/10 of the cost you can pick up something like a "15.6” Widescreen Flat-Panel USB 3.0-Powered Portable LED Monitor - $99"

The problem is the USB powered monitors generally all use the same driver, one that frequently crashes on macOS and Linux. The driver is literally one of the worst I’ve ever used.

If you're using the tablet for terminal stuff (log tailing etc), I've found just sshing into your laptop from the tablet using juice ssh or similar to be more stable as well as your laptop graphics card doesn't need to be rendering two screens

Agree re: using a tablet, but I was talking about the USB3 monitors that use a DisplayMate (think that’s the name) driver.

Ah sorry I mixed up with Duet in the gp

The only time I want multiple monitors is when doing web work because of the design aspect and needing to referring back and forth as constantly.

Sometimes, like when I'm working on a UI, it's nice to have the code, the chrome debugger, and the UI view all up and running. But I'm finding it less necessary, because of the trade-off.

I really enjoy the simplicity of my 11" MBAir and the portability of working anywhere. You get really good between swiping between desktops. And having limited screen space means I quiet down all the distracting notifications, popups, email, etc...

Also, a lot of dev work I do REPL-first development, then copy the code into the actual editor (on a different virtual desktop) and this minimizes the swiping around, and increases my productivity that way.

> REPL-first development, then copy the code into the actual editor

side topic, and not to start editor wars.. but you might want to look into emacs.

It depends on what work I’m doing - in the office I have a 32” and two 19”’s, when I’m remoting I use my T420 which has a 14” (I think). If I need to tail logs or remote onto a few servers the extra real estate is invaluable, if I have a coding or SQL-script-writing task it doesn’t make a difference. It might even help having a single small screen by removing obvious distractions e.g. emails I don’t need to read, IRC messages.

I've used all types of setups from triple 24" and dual 27" monitors, and every laptop from 11" up to 17"

In the end, I'm most productive on a 15" macbook at 1920x1200 resolution, the main reasons are:

0. I have my full perfect environment with me at all times, there is no switching between laptop/desktop etc. This is huge.

1. It's small and light enough that I can carry it around everywhere (unlike 17") - increasing productivity by a lot.

2. I'm forced to use the keyboard more which exercises the muscle memory so I switch much faster to any window in the current state without thinking about it.

3. My head doesn't need to move from one screen to another, this action is more expensive than an instant alt tab.

4. I found that the best work gets done in certain "focus scopes". Adding more windows/screens to this as you say "logs, command line, and editor all visible, and ideally a browser too" - leads to unnecessary visual data - since you can't process all those windows simultaneously anyway.

The 15" has just enough room to comfortably fit the necessities for each one I use:

a) 2 side by side editor @ 80 chars + file tree b) a browser window + debug tools c) terminal sessions with up to 8 panes d) a combination of browser / editor / terminal

The one exception is when needing to run background tasks which output logs - which you want to 'keep an eye' on - for this I found a vertical monitor on the side is helpful - although in the end replicated it by putting the terminals to the bottom right/left of the screen beside the dock - that way I can see the output, but they are not distracting.

I find the ultra high-res (what apple calls 'retina') modern displays make reading much easier on the eyes.

An external USB 3 monitor like the Asus MB168+ or MB169+ fits great in the backpack, and gives 1920x1080 resolution for a little under $200.

https://www.asus.com/ca-en/Monitors/MB169BPlus/

I got used to it. A nice high DPI display like that on the Macbook Pro 15" helps, 2880x1800 is a pretty nice resolution to work with.

Helps focus and minimize your toolset in a way too, you want to be focused on one thing more than multiple things, so I guess that's kind of a good thing also, making things simpler.

I find it ok as long as the laptop display is high resolution (mine is 3200x1800) and at least 13-14" big. If I had to do it more permanently I'd have probably gotten a 15" laptop tho.

It also reminds me that when I got started the common display was a 14" CRT (i.e. viewable area more like 13") :)

I travel and code mobile a lot and yes, I do miss my 2 big monitors, I have in my office.

Especially if I only use my 10" Laptop. And then for example sitting in a loud, bumpy bus - well sure, office is much better.

But ... sitting on top of a mountain or somewhere else in the wilderness, is an awesome place to code. And combined with solar panels and camping equipment, can lead to very long and productive sessions(over days) ....

Because the outside beauty easily offsets the less comfortable workspace for me ...

But it also depends on the kind of work I do. If I have to do bugfixing ... that involve lots of logfiles, debugger-windows, console output etc. etc. than I am more productive in my office. But allmost everything else, especially designing a new module and also implementing it, I rather do outside ... much better inspiration.

They're nice but if you don't spend a lot of time with one you don't miss them that much.

I'm flexibily minimalist with my setup and I don't miss big screens for programming work. I did lots of development on a 12" Surface Pro (although for small setups, I like 13").

Terminal/editor/browser are areas one doesn't work on at the same time, so windows switching does the job, at the condition of having only the strictly required windows opened (I have four: browser, email client, terminal, and editor), and even the browser has generally at most 2 or 3 tabs open.

I can see the convenience of having a log open while debugging, but I can live with terminal tab switching while having a REPL session.

System administration is different. It may be almost necessary at times, to have an individual look at several systems at the same time.

I have a 42" monitor and a $1000 Herman Miller chair, and for some reason I end up doing all of my work in bed on my 15" MacBook. It doesn't feel like working when I'm in bed and the dogs are there hanging out with me.

I spend most of my coding time on just a laptop (15" MBP with 1680x1050 matte screen) and the only thing that bothers me very much is the position it puts my neck in. I try to sit lower than usual to help that.

I do use multiple desktops on macOS and a quick swipe of the trackpad to switch them is almost as good for me as multiple displays.

I do tend to use an iPad as a aux display though. Sometimes I run Duet Display to have it act like an extra display for my MBP but most of the time it's home to my distractions like Slack, email, social media, etc. But it is good for books and websites while coding.

Unless you're looking for a neck injury, you should get a laptop stand. It's close to impossible to maintain a good posture while working on a laptop over time.

I definitely do miss my multi-monitor setup in our travel camper. I've been fulltiming (thanks to some articles and prodding from other HN members) in a trailer for almost a year, and can admit that I am looking forward to a bit of a break with at least one more monitor. Like a few other comments I've looked at some swinging arms I could mount but space is at such a premium that its hard to justify. On the plus side, it has made me simplify my work and life overall. I get outside more and go for walks, exercise, spend more time with my wife and friends.

Personally, I've never had a problem developing on a 13" MBP with no peripherals except headphones.

There are plenty of options for portable monitors these days though, if you do want a second screen while traveling.

I used to have 2 24" monitors and a 15" MacBook Pro.

Nowadays I prefer working on my 12" MacBook.

Instead of getting greedier, I learned to manage my space, reduce distractions and improve workflow.

I learned to appreciate sane defaults and keep shit simple. My Terminal.app+tmux+vim+Bash setup is plugin-free and a git clone away. I mostly use standard Unix tools and feel super comfortable on any box. My Mac is light, synced with iCloud, uses little battery and has very few dependencies. I can work from anywhere and expect little. It's very liberating.

> don't people miss big monitors when coding on a laptop?

Yes. I've been on the road for more than 10 years now; travel with a lightweight (6.5 lbs) 23" LG monitor and my 15" Dell Precision laptop.

It's a fair bit of gear to heft around, but I tend to setup shop for at least 2 months at a time so the added weight isn't much of an issue.

Of course, I'd like a giant primary monitor to accompany the laptop, but that will have to wait for the day when I finally settle down.

I code on a laptop, and I prefer it to big, dual-screen setups.

I do admit it's a very large laptop, but it doesn't have to be.

I code in Vim, inside tmux, inside a terminal. All of my ide-type tasks happen there. Tests, code, whatever else.

Then I have a browser open. I keep it on a different virtual desktop and switch between.

I'm a web developer so that's about it. Sometimes I have postman or insomnia open, and I typically keep that on the same desktop as my browser.

I used to use three monitors: Two 22 inches plus my 15 inches laptop monitor. It though it was a really efficient way of working, but it had a problem: Moving was a hassle. I decided to get rid of the monitors for a while to test their value and I found out it's not such a big improvement. Now I only work in my laptop screen. I have a full mobility and I love that. I don't miss my monitors at all.

If I'm in full-on development mode, I like to have at least one separate screen, though for more casual maintenance stuff I'm happy on a laptop.

I seem to recall DHH (Basecamp/Rails) said in the past he frequently developed on an 11" MacBook at some point, only using a monitor when sat at a desk, so I guess it's doable.

I do all my dev and other work on a 13" MacBook Air and have done for years. I haven't had a desktop monitor since my last gig with a client in the City.

Yes, the ergonomics suck relatively speaking, especially now that my eyesight is getting worse with age (and from falling off a Segway!), but it means that I can work anywhere and my desk at home can be tiny.

I don't really get this rationale. You're basically saying that you know that you are hurting yourself, but on the plus side, you are able to be hurting yourself anywhere.

I mean that I am a real developer still (and have been one of the world's relatively best paid), and 13" works fine for me to get stuff done. Here I am 200 miles from home in a hotel right now with all my tools. No monitor lugging required.

Yes, laptop ergonomics aren't ideal, but neither is life. There are always trade-offs. And I have some colourful language memories from earlier sysadmin jobs getting horrific shocks while lugging other users' colour CTRs around for them...

I'd suggest that anyone who thinks that they "need" a huge monitor as opposed to "prefers" should considers needs vs wants.

If I was living in a van, and I'm a tiny house fan BTW, a large monitor would NOT be on MY 'needs' list.

Another commenter made a good point about more screen space being more distraction, and debuggers being a big part of that as an example of not solving the real problem. Given that you only have a few cm^2 of full-definition vision anyway, you have to manage that one way or another. More pixels is not necessary that way.

The screen-space-as-a-distraction argument sounds to me more like an excuse for not being able to keep one's attention on the task at hand. If a person can not resist filling the screen space up with useless clutter, it's that person's problem, not the problem of having the screen space. Someone else is able to use that extra screen space productively. All in all it seems a "I can't have it, so I convinced myself that having it would be bad, so I don't miss it as much" self-deception.

No.

Having (a) tried it various ways, and (b) having complete freedom as to how to organise my work life, I believe that keeping it small and simple and focussed works well on balance, at least for me. And it may work for others.

You do know that humans (other than yourself, maybe!) are not perfectly rational creatures? B^> Oscar Wilde's quote "I can resist anything except for temptation" is an astute observation.

It's not about being rational or not, it's about discipline (or perhaps about ADHD for some people). I can fall for many temptations, but when I want something done (either as a hobby, or at work), I have no problems concentrating on what I need to be doing. And having extra screen space often helps.

Depending on the task, of course - there are times when all I need is one 80x25 terminal, and then there are times when having several as large as possible windows open side by side helps a lot, e.g. when analyzing logs from several cluster nodes.

I love the Wilde quote, by the way, I don't think I've seen this one before. :)

I used to be like that, too. But I've been working primarily on my 15" MBP for the past 4 years and I love it. I still have a triple monitor 27" iMac sitting in my office upstairs, but I hardly ever use it. I find the ability to work out on my patio much more relaxing than sitting in my home office.

I code on a 13" laptop screen, regardless of where I am. I have a 27" monitor on my desk at work that I never use. I find the lack of extra screen real-estate helps me focus.

(I used to code quite happily on an 11" MacBook Air, but Apple seems to have stopped caring about that line, so I abandoned them.)

The 12" is an absolute gem, and is quite obviously the successor to the Air line. Pricey, unfortunately.

Healthy eyes with good eyesight, Super HD 15 inch monitor can work just as efficiently and effectively.

I have used 7-inch and 15-inch USB powered LED monitors is the past with my laptop, at least once simultaneously. Works great for debugging CAD, Computer-Aided Design related bugs.

Thought I would, but haven't done. Bigger screens, I just put more distracting stuff on them. As mentioned elsewhere, you can mirror a big-ass iPad on to it, and there are some large USB displays that are very portable too.

I’ve been thinking about building an RV similarish to what’s described by the article for a long time. All the plans I’ve drawn up explicitly have a setup for big monitors (VESA mounts make for secure attachment).

I've been using an iPad with Duet as my secondary monitor when working from coffee shops. It's pretty awesome, very portable. The FPS is a bit low, but for a debugger window its excellent.

At work, i love having two monitors for productivity. At home it turns into dedicated youtube, facebook, etc screens which distracts me. I guess it depends on how you're going to use them lol.

I have a thunderbolt display and the my macbooks screen when at work. Text editing, bash, and web browser are on the monitor, with e-mail and slack on the laptop screen.

I think for a lot of developers, it's a style thing.

Coding hunched over a laptop looks cool and hackery, coding with a big 27-inch monitor (maybe a couple) looks businessey.

I know a guy who does a lot of Excel work on a Macbook Air (1366x768 IIRC), and it just looks painful. When I suggest investing in a decent size/screen resolution monitor, he looks at me like I have two heads.

Looking like Mr Robot is more important for a lot of people than being practical, even if they end up with back problems in later life!

When I was a broke student, I scrouged CRTs people threw out and had a 3-4 monitor setup, but still found myself only concentrating on the middle monitor ignoring stuff off to the sides.

Then I got Apple's nice big 30" cinema display and everything was good.

Then it broke and right after that I started living nomadically with my 1900x1200 equivalent 15" retina laptop and never minded the difference.

I have good eyes after correction and use 9 point fonts everywhere so I can fit a lot of text on screen.

I researched this. With a decent battery and solar system you can power a monitor and laptop all day long.

The most demanding hardware requirement list ever.

Lol. It reminds me of that scene from the Steve Martin classic.

A laptop, monitor, keyboard, mouse, Herman Miller embody, Heat/AC... That's all I need.

If you want to be inspired by some cool hacks, though, look up Sprinter Van Conversions. People get into it and do some amazing work. They share their specs too! You can outfit a van with my above hardware list for about 4000-5000 if you don't get fancy. You have to plug in th AC usually. Heat is easier, you just have to insulate well. I got pretty far along this path of research. Some day.

You can buy a portable display by Asus or Acer . Or you can use an iPad / iPhone on a Mac.

Just take a display with you...