For the past couple years, I've been using a pair of HP Omen 32" QHD (2560 x 1440) monitors. I've been pretty happy with these displays, especially for what I paid for them. They've been fine and I really appreciate the space they give me. Back when all the work from home stuff started, I ended up getting rid of my big L-shaped Galant desk for a 36x72" Friant sit-stand ergo desk, and mounted the monitors on a Humanscale dual-monitor arm.
This has worked great, and I love the desk but I've noticed lately that I'm starting to get some neck strain, and my experience with ergonomic injuries is that it's only going to get a lot worse and is hard to undo. I think I've finally figured out that when I was using my Galant, it kind of forced me to sit right in front of one of the displays, and the second was off to the side. Now I sit in the middle of the desk with each monitor to the side, and because my desk is against the wall and the way the monitor arms are, the screens sit about 4-5" apart. This means I've got my head turned quite a bit for most of the day and it's starting to wear on me.
I'm seriously considering going back to a single monitor, such as the Dell 43" 4K display or the new 38" Dell ultrawide. I think having the single center display will help the ergonomics quite a bit. I also have a sort of a strang quirk that makes me think this might work. For most tasks, I rarely ever use a program full screen. Not sure why, but on external monitors I almost always do this. The only time I use full screen windows is for things like photo editing, where a lot of applications have gone to a single-window mode, AutoCAD, and really only occasionally for spreadsheets. Both of these monitors have more real estate by themselves than my dual 22" monitors at work, so I feel like I also can lay out my windows side by side without much trouble. I also tend to lay my windows out just slightly staggered so that I don't have to click the task bar or use hot keys to scroll through apps and just give a quick click on the screen. I hear a lot of complaints about managing window locations and not having the snap-to, but I'm not really sure that's an issue for me.
For reference, other than my work productivity, for home use I do all the regular BS that everyone does. However, I don't play games on the computer anymore. Nothing against it, I just have gotten out of it and use the living room for that. My hobby is photography, so that's the most work that I do from home. I think for the majority of time, the second display is used for things like Netflix and media, and I could use my laptop open instead of a second display.
Is my thinking crazy, and if not, are these good displays to look at? What else should I consider? My laptop is a new MacBook Pro, and my desktop is an AMD based OpenSuSE system, so I need to be conscious of that. My biggest concerns, other than leaving a dual display, is that whatever works with both of those systems. I could always consider running a smaller secondary display on the side, but I feel like the laptop would cover the majority of that use.
This has worked great, and I love the desk but I've noticed lately that I'm starting to get some neck strain, and my experience with ergonomic injuries is that it's only going to get a lot worse and is hard to undo. I think I've finally figured out that when I was using my Galant, it kind of forced me to sit right in front of one of the displays, and the second was off to the side. Now I sit in the middle of the desk with each monitor to the side, and because my desk is against the wall and the way the monitor arms are, the screens sit about 4-5" apart. This means I've got my head turned quite a bit for most of the day and it's starting to wear on me.
I'm seriously considering going back to a single monitor, such as the Dell 43" 4K display or the new 38" Dell ultrawide. I think having the single center display will help the ergonomics quite a bit. I also have a sort of a strang quirk that makes me think this might work. For most tasks, I rarely ever use a program full screen. Not sure why, but on external monitors I almost always do this. The only time I use full screen windows is for things like photo editing, where a lot of applications have gone to a single-window mode, AutoCAD, and really only occasionally for spreadsheets. Both of these monitors have more real estate by themselves than my dual 22" monitors at work, so I feel like I also can lay out my windows side by side without much trouble. I also tend to lay my windows out just slightly staggered so that I don't have to click the task bar or use hot keys to scroll through apps and just give a quick click on the screen. I hear a lot of complaints about managing window locations and not having the snap-to, but I'm not really sure that's an issue for me.
For reference, other than my work productivity, for home use I do all the regular BS that everyone does. However, I don't play games on the computer anymore. Nothing against it, I just have gotten out of it and use the living room for that. My hobby is photography, so that's the most work that I do from home. I think for the majority of time, the second display is used for things like Netflix and media, and I could use my laptop open instead of a second display.
Is my thinking crazy, and if not, are these good displays to look at? What else should I consider? My laptop is a new MacBook Pro, and my desktop is an AMD based OpenSuSE system, so I need to be conscious of that. My biggest concerns, other than leaving a dual display, is that whatever works with both of those systems. I could always consider running a smaller secondary display on the side, but I feel like the laptop would cover the majority of that use.