I had some problems some days ago setting up 2 monitors to work in Ubuntu. One of my colleagues pointed out that he was using a Nvidia card and it worked out of the box in his machine. So, I took his advice and replaced the ATI hardware here with a Nvidia card. We took the Nvidia from a Windows user and left my old ATI there. Let’s face it. Microsoft scored. Both cards worked by just inserting the hardware and clicking the buttons “Yes” or “Next” in the Windows box.
Now my machine is running with 2 monitors on Ubuntu and with all fancy but cool effects from Compiz. We use 19″ monitors here. Hardware in Brazil is so damn expensive. Let’s say thanks to the government for all taxes and making the acquisition of TOOLS we NEED to WORK this HARD.
Anyway, I was curious on how people work with 2 monitors here. Right now, the best approach for me is to have Emacs on the left. On the right monitor I have the browser and the terminal. I leave the terminal maximized since it has transparency in it and it’s such a nice feature. I can type my bash stuff and still read what’s on the browser. Wohooo!! There’s just one feature missing in GNOME. I can’t set a different wallpaper for each screen. KDE has this option though.
Whenever I need to use another program or do some unusual task I go to a different Desktop. Two Desktops are enough for me. I can only do an unusual task at a time. I guess Rands is right when he says I Don’t Multitask.
After some time working this way I’m changing my mind about two monitors. I’m now willing to work with only one monitor. But it must be HUGE!!