I feel like I'm less productive on multiple monitors. I've tried them a number of times, but they've never felt natural. I just prefer looking straight ahead, managing a single screen, and clicking between the few programs I'm running in the taskbar. Also, I like some room on my desk, and big monitor displays just seem overwhelming.

Screen resolution is important though, otherwise everything just feels cramped. I'm perfectly happy with a nice 23-30" monitor. Anywhere within that size range is fine, but it needs to be a quality panel. I work with a lot of very subtle colors, and light gray tones. With a TN panel they're invisible half the time, or I'm constantly shifting up and down in my seat trying to find the sweet spot for more accurate colors.

If I had to pick my dream setup, it would be a single 30" monitor. If Dell gets those 4K 30" displays rolling out, I'm sure they'll be great. For now, I don't feel like my productivity is suffering in any way with a 24" monitor.

Personally, I find I'm most productive when I have a nice clean workspace, natural light, and a good chair. For example, I just grabbed a photo off Google...

http://articlesofton.files.wordpress.com/2011/12/01-04_home_...

Replace the chair, and it's ideal for me. Bright light, and minimal clutter.

>> I feel like I'm less productive on multiple monitors. I've tried them a number of times, but they've never felt natural. I just prefer looking straight ahead, managing a single screen, and clicking between the few programs I'm running in the taskbar. Also, I like some room on my desk, and big monitor displays just seem overwhelming.

You might (maybe, just saying what I like) want to try one 'main' monitor and one subsidiary. Can be the same size or smaller. Main monitor is for the work you're focussed on, the other monitor is where you have documentation or other reference material you need while working. I quite like this pattern rather than just throwing programs all over the two screens.

Tabbing between windows can be an distraction. The stack-like function of the tab mechanism does not help it either.

You should try a tiling WM in which you can switch between windows based on their location. eg, alt+{left,down,up,right}

Any recommendations? I dived into xmonad some time ago but I never found a good and fast windows manager for OS X.

I use bspwm, which has a very simple design and follows the unix philosophy quite nicely. A single daemon process which manages windows, and all configuration is done with the shell via the `bspc` command, which talks to the daemon over a socket. A separate daemon (sxhkd) is used for keybindings, and the configuration for sxhkd is just a map of keybindings (including mouse buttons) to shell commands, with a very simple DSL to allow groups of commands, and the use of the cursor position. Example from my configuration:

    alt + {Left,Down,Up,Right,h,j,k,l}
        bspc window --focus {left,down,up,right,left,down,up,right}

    {alt,super} + Tab	
        bspc {window,monitor} --focus next
    
    alt + super + {Left,Down,Up,Right}
        bspc window --swap {left,down,up,right}

    super + {Left,Down,Up,Right}
        bspc window --edge {left,down,up,right} push
    
    super + shift + {Left,Down,Up,Right}
        bspc window --edge {right,up,down,left} pull

    super + q
        bspc window --kill

Worth noting that bspwm treats monitors individually when using window commands, so you need a separate set to handle windows on diff monitors (unless using Xinerama).

I've no idea whether it works on OSX though. 2bwm seems to be popular among OSX users, but I've not tried it.

wow, the tiling concept looks even more flexible than the tiling in xmonad. I will definitely try this.

I wouldn't say it's more flexible, as XMonad has all the power of Haskell behind it (+ ability to create sub layouts), and is easier to create more complicated arrangements than hacking together a bunch of bash scripts - but I think it's a good balance of flexibility:simplicity. XMonad is pretty complicated to configure even pretty basic things.

There was some discussion about OS X window management options on another thread the other day: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6998309

I like SizeUp a lot: http://www.irradiatedsoftware.com/sizeup/

I personally use Divvy on my Mac, I needed something simple and it works perfectly for me :)

slate

Nope..hate that too. I've been using virtual desktops since the 90's to overcome that issue. I use up to 8 vdesktops that I address absolutely by using numpad1 .. numpad8. Each number has a specific function (generic browser, email, editors, db, virtual servers, gimp, ...). Nothing generally overlaps, and switching is instantaneous.

Assuming your window manager has some overall spatial layout of desktops, or a preview that highlights the current desktop: why not add a 9th one? Then you can arrange them in a 3x3 grid in your window manager, the same way they already are on your numpad.

I do this and it gives an incredibly tactile feel to desktop management.

Totally agree. Using a single monitor works well if you use an IDE otherwise a multi-monitor setup is better.

Even then, IDE on one monitor; web for reference material on the other.

For a lot of devs having a third monitor for the database IDE is very useful.

A 39" monitor on your desk can block a lot distractions... from behind the monitor.