[HN Gopher] Show HN: Use an old tablet as an extra monitor ___________________________________________________________________ Show HN: Use an old tablet as an extra monitor but only for terminal and curses apps Author : alex028502 Score : 212 points Date : 2023-10-06 11:36 UTC (11 hours ago) (HTM) web link (github.com) (TXT) w3m dump (github.com) | trevcanhuman wrote: | I've used Weylus [0]. It works over LAN, lets you control the | mouse from your tablet. Sometimes it's laggy, but you can | configure the resolution so it's not using too much bandwidth. | I'm not sure if it's stable at all. Haven't used it on a regular | basis. | | [0] https://github.com/H-M-H/Weylus | DakotaR wrote: | In the same vein, Remote Touchpad [0] is fantastic if you don't | need an extra screen. | | [0] https://flathub.org/apps/com.github.unrud.RemoteTouchpad | aaron695 wrote: | Computers still only have three mainstream input devices, | keyboard, mouse and gamepad after 60-80 years | | I'd try and bring the addition inputs a smart phone has to | computers, like touch. | | I know there are programable keyboards and many other things. But | no one has cracked it yet. | | It's a cool project as is. Just an idea if you were thinking of | iterating forward. | ben_w wrote: | Given how much we use them to talk to each other, I'm surprised | you're not counting the microphone; likewise video calls and | the camera. | | And given how phones and tablets are so much more common than | laptops and desktops, touch screens. | | Arguably there's also passive continuous inputs like GPS and | heart rate sensors, accelerometers, etc. -- mainstream, but I | doubt it was the category you had in mind. | ericrallen wrote: | There are lots of computers with touch capabilities out there. | | From the gesture support on Apple's trackpads to touch screens | like the Surface (and plenty of other laptops with touch | screens). | | There are also stylus inputs and things like Wacom tablets that | have been around for many years now. | kedean wrote: | There's also microphones and cameras that can act as inputs, | it just turns out they don't offer much power over kb/m. | | But really, the problem being solved by OP was not enough | outputs, rather than not enough inputs. | Kerrick wrote: | I collect and use as many input devices as I can, as a bit of a | hobby. It all started when I was younger and got a CueCat. Now | I'm up to webcams, microphones, fingerprint sensors, many | keyboards, mice, trackpads, trackballs, many game pads, | MakeyMakey, a VR system, CharaChorder, MIDI keyboard, floor | dance pad, Wacom tablet, BlackMagic keyboard with jog shuttle, | and HOTaS. I've still got my eye on a macro pad, MIDI Fighter, | and a racing wheel. | jvm___ wrote: | I picture you having them all hooked up at once, one-man band | style. | Kerrick wrote: | I actually do have many of them attached at once. I have an | extra-wide desk and _two_ PCIe expansion cards that provide | 7 USB ports each, with their own USB controllers to solve | bandwidth /timing issues. | myself248 wrote: | Heyyy, CueCat club! Funny that QR codes are everywhere these | days and people actually scan them; Digital Convergence was | just ahead of their time. | | I have keyboards with mag-stripe readers, keyboards with | smart-card readers, keyboards with assignable and | relegendable keys (meant for point-of-sale usage), 6DOF 3D | "SpaceMouse" devices, a 5-axis Lexip Pu94 mouse, I've mapped | an R/C quadcopter transmitter into a wireless joystick [1], | and last year I finally bought my first USB gamepad. (To play | Stray.) | | I was recently digging into some details of the BlackMagic | keyboard and it sounds like it's super difficult to remap the | jog dial for other uses, what do you use yours for? | | 1: https://hackaday.io/page/11784-rc-transmitter-tx-as-a- | virtua... | Kerrick wrote: | I use mine for the most boring possible answer: exactly | what it was marketed for. I edit videos in DaVinci Resolve | with it. :-) | landtuna wrote: | I had a boss who was pretty excited about CueCat. It's funny | that it took another 15 years to catch on as smartphones and | QR codes! | Netcob wrote: | > I have a couple old kindle fire tablets lying around. One of | them has a battery that lasts about ten minutes. | | You might want to check if the battery is going "spicy pillow". | seanthemon wrote: | Lithium hotpocket | wkat4242 wrote: | Yeah for this reason I replace the battery of old tablets that | I use as control panels, with a DC-DC converter. | | Simply removing the battery isn't enough because most tablets | refuse to run on usb power alone. | danielvf wrote: | URL to an example of what you use? | cheeko1234 wrote: | https://www.instructables.com/Powering-a-Android-Device- | From... | | https://old.reddit.com/r/homeassistant/comments/13ovuqn/ive | _... | | You can use an LM2596 to step down the voltage. | londons_explore wrote: | You can also replace the battery with a much smaller one - | eg. a coin cell, and it'll normally run fine. | [deleted] | CYR1X wrote: | Would be better if the LVDS ribbon cable connectors for all of | these devices was more standardized, and you could just buy an | adapter to HDMI/Display Port. These actually exist but AFAIK | there isn't just one LVDS ribbon cable standard or even close to | one. | [deleted] | squarefoot wrote: | If manufacturers released enough details about their devices and | drivers, then unlocked the bootloaders, we could do a lot more | things than a 2nd monitor with old tablets. There are piles of | them taking dust in drawers, or worse in landfills because of | forced obsolescence. | seltzered_ wrote: | Worth mentioning this discussion that honed on latency specific | when using Linux (Wayland) as a host os : | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31409010 -> | https://tuxphones.com/howto-linux-as-second-wireless-display... | (2022) | gourneau wrote: | If you are on Windows and have extra laptops of devices hanging | around SpaceDesk https://www.spacedesk.net/ to a great free app | (not open source). I use it with on my Windows Dev machine (WSL2 | FTW) and use old laptops as external displays. It works well even | on WiFI. | PickledJesus wrote: | Thanks, I just got SpaceDesk working on a cheap Amazon tablet | over USB-C (after realising I had to set PTP mode on the | tablet...) Should work really nicely as a second monitor when | travelling, I have it on 60fps and high settings and the | latency is barely perceptible. | duffyjp wrote: | I was excited seeing iOS 9.3+ on their requirements listing, | but after digging my useless but 100% functional iPad 2 out of | storage it won't install the app. :( | | I do use the built-in iPad as a second screen thing in MacOS | with a still supported iPad on occasion and that works quite | well. | fudged71 wrote: | Any options for an ancient iPad? | obmelvin wrote: | I've used duet display on a first gen ipad pro 9.7". can't | speak to using in older iPads, but TBH I don't recall having a | problem with it | ascagnel_ wrote: | If you're on a recent macOS + iPad, there's Universal | Control[0] (I use this as a way to have chat/mail on a second | monitor). If you don't mind some noticeable latency, you can | use it as a second display via Sidecar[1]. Finally, you can do | the same thing described in the article with any terminal | emulator app and SSHing into the remote system (I've had luck | with Prompt[2], which is available as a one-time $15 purchase). | | [0]: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT212757 | | [1]: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT210380 | | [2]: https://panic.com/prompt/ | zyxin wrote: | From the Readme, their eventual plan for the project is to be | able to serve the client through the web browser which would | mean that almost all tablets would be supported. | cracauer wrote: | Tablets should have a HDMI/Displayport in so that you can | directly use them as displays. | mcpherrinm wrote: | You can plug a USB HDMI capture dongle into tablets and do | this. | | Any webcam viewer would probably work to view it, though | there's dedicated apps intended for this like | https://orion.tube/ on iPad. I know there's options on Android | but don't have a modern android tablet to test them. | radicality wrote: | Do you know how come that app doesn't work on the IPhone 15 | Pro? | | I don't have the iPad, but just recently got the 15 Pro, and | it's able to do a bunch of things via the usbc port (wired | Ethernet, SD card reading, driving a Pro Display XDR etc), | but I wasn't able to do something like that Orion app is | showing. | | Was thinking of pretty much same use case as shown in the | app, where I could plug in an external camera and use the | phone as a high resolution / high-nit viewer display. Are | these apis only for iPadOS because the iPhones are missing | some required hardware for it? | zackmorris wrote: | I'd even go one step further: we should have had a standard | communications protocol like TCP for all devices. So a display | would show up as just another device that we could use to | read/write bytes. All devices would have a standard queryable | HTTP/HATEOAS self-documenting interface. And HDMI/DisplayPort | or USB A/B/C/.../Z would all use the same protocol as gigabit | ethernet or Thunderbolt or anything else, so the bandwidth | would determine maximum frame rate at an arbitrary resolution. | We could query a device's interface metadata and get/send an | array of bytes to a display or a printer or a storage device, | the only difference would be the header's front matter. And we | could download image and video files directly from cameras and | scanners as if they were a folder of documents on a web server, | no vendor drivers needed. | | There was never a technical reason why we couldn't have this. | Mostly Microsoft and Apple blocked this sort of generalization | at every turn. And web standards fell to design-by-committee so | there was never any hope of unifying these things. | | Is it a conspiracy theory when we live under these unfortunate | eventualities? I don't know, but I see it everywhere. Nearly | every device in existence irks the engineer in me. Smartphones | and tablets are just the ultimate expression of commodified | proprietary consumerist thinking. | marwis wrote: | > There was never a technical reason why we couldn't have | this. Mostly Microsoft and Apple blocked this sort of | generalization at every turn. | | On the contrary, Microsoft tried really hard with | UPnP/PnP-X/DPWS/Rally/Miracast*/etc but nobody was | interested. | | *BTW any Windows 10+ device can act as a Miracast sink | (screen) so you can link Windows laptops/tablets as extra | screens without any additional software. | takluyver wrote: | In fairness, there are standardised protocols for a lot of | these things already, even if they're not all part of one | giant meta-protocol. Cameras in particular have mostly | appeared as a folder full of files, with no need for special | drivers, for something like 20 years. | | There's definitely no need to invoke a conspiracy for the | lack of 'one protocol to rule them all'. It's often hard | agreeing on a standard even for a relatively limited topic - | trying to agree on one for all electronic communications for | all devices is probably impossible. | lexlash wrote: | The meta protocol exists! Sort of. Check out the USB-C | specs, which tried to answer a ton of this. It's taken | years for power delivery to reach the point where I don't | feel compelled to carry a USB-C power meter to check cables | and chargers in the wild. My Switch still requires some out | of spec signaling to charge/dock properly. | | Meanwhile, half of the stuff I get off AliExpress only | charges from A to C cables due to a missing resistor. | | I don't think the markets (yet) incentivize | implementations. Like how when my mortgage gets resold, | autopay will only transfer over if it's once a month; | anything more complex and I have to endure a new account | setup and a ton of phone trees. Same with paperless | settings. The result? I just live with the MVP. | lexlash wrote: | Extending your simile, some devices need the equivalent of | UDP in order to function within the size/power envelopes that | make them useful. Bluetooth vs the nRF24L01+. | | There are standards like this in highly interoperable | systems, but there's a cost paid. USB-C power delivery | negotiation (beyond the very basic 5V3A resistor that people | omit) is roughly as complicated as gigabit ethernet. That | compute has to come from somewhere and it turns out customers | won't even pay for that 5V3A resistor - they'll just use A to | C cables and replace it when it "won't charge" from a | compliant charger. :) Average person probably only cares that | USB-C can be flipped and that the connector feels less | brittle than microUSB. | | UPnP exists. Lots of what you describe exists. Between bugs | in implementations becoming canon and a lack of consumer | interest, no real conspiracy required. At least smartphones | and tablets are trending in a good direction - Apple's latest | supports basic off the shelf USB-C Ethernet, displays, hubs, | and so on. | mixmastamyk wrote: | Agreed in general. However, I wouldn't stop anyone but having | my monitor traffic go over the network would lead to a lot of | congestion, especially wireless. Prefer a separate cable as | the grandparent alluded. | salawat wrote: | -HTOP/Nethogs for system in question -Same for any intervening | boxes -logs for middle boxes -web browser for reference lookups | -window for manpages script noodling -window for debugging -vim | -throw in some VM's and those hosts may need to be factored in | -frigging email/chat/calendar clients if working with other | people. | | Yes, I _can_ technically do all of those with one screen, and | some screen /tmux magic. Fuck no, I do not want to. KVM can get | you some ergo for mux'ing multiple boxes to a single screen. | However, I'd much rather have multiple screens to partition my | working set across. | boredemployee wrote: | Thats a cool idea, I have a Fire tablet (and a Kindle) that I | still don't know why I bought it. | mavhc wrote: | I'd just run screen on both computers in multisession mode, and | make the PC version tiny | jchanimal wrote: | I love the suggestion to rebuild it for the browser. A tool like | that could be generally useful. Anyone know of one? | williamstein wrote: | Cocalc uses a websocket and xterm.js to implement terminals on | a remote server. Each terminal session corresponds to a file | (with extension .term), so multiple clients can open the same | session by opening the same file. If you type in one session | then all sessions will see the typing at the same time. | (Disclaimer: I wrote this. It's way too heavy for this use | case, but might be an amusing demo or proof of concept for | somebody to play with before writing something new.) | roessland wrote: | tmux + ttyd (or gotty) could be used in a similar way. But it's | not like an extra screen, it's more like mirroring a terminal | to another device. | guraf wrote: | Someone asks for a webpage and not only do you propose tmux, | you also acknowledge it doesn't even do anything like what's | asked. | | Typical Linux user. | sigio wrote: | I prefer a single display and use virtual desktops to seperate | tasks/apps which each fill most/all of the screen realestate | sakopov wrote: | On a similar note, you can use your old phone as a Streamdeck | alternative using TouchPortal [1]. It's not free, but it won't | cost you much and it works surprisingly well. | | [1] https://www.touch-portal.com/ | [deleted] | FrustratedPers wrote: | Tried doing this for years, only got more and more frustrated | with whatever wacky software I had to install to make this work. | jrm4 wrote: | Love this sort of hackery, but also -- it just kind of shows how | very goofy all the limitations we have on this are. | | If you go with the idea that a computer should be a general | purpose machine -- we have so many things that _aren 't | computers._ | | "Wireless external monitor" should be a trivially easy built-in | to all operating systems, and that it isn't is kind of | ridiculous. | hiccuphippo wrote: | My phone can easily mirror the screen to my TV but my PC can't, | not with the built-in software, not with 3rd party apps. It's | all so tiresome. | throwaway167 wrote: | I was thinking exactly the same when reading this, but wireless | programmable led display keyboard buttons. I think these should | exist, but don't know of any easy implementations. | lexlash wrote: | RIP to FireWire target disk mode for Apple laptops and target | display mode for iMacs. | | The new docs promote AirPlay screen mirroring and networked | shares over usb-c but it's nowhere near the same. :/ | joombaga wrote: | You can still do target disk mode over usb-c. I used it when | I switched from Intel to M1. | [deleted] | [deleted] | momirlan wrote: | i use TeamViewer to log remotely into my working laptop from an | Android device | mixmastamyk wrote: | Unfortunately, I find systemctl hard to type. If you start/stop | services somewhat frequently, I recommend this alias: | alias sc='sudo systemctl' | | This has the nice property in that it mirrors the "service | control" (sc) utility in later versions of Windows NT that I grew | up on. Should work in bash/fish. | | I have these others also when doing service development, because | many of the subcommands start with 'st*' and also having to | change the second parameter each time is annoying. These work in | fish, but are easily ported: function sce | --description 'systemctl stop # end' sc stop $argv; | end function sci --description 'systemctl status # info' | sc status $argv; end function scs --description | 'systemctl start # start' sc start $argv; end | sfink wrote: | I agree, though I find journalctl to be even worse to type. | thesnide wrote: | I would really be interested for a X11 server on that tablet. | | So I can do a simple DISPLAY=tablet:0 to send the window to and | enjoy output | gatane wrote: | https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=x.org.server | Vinayakd wrote: | [flagged] | Havoc wrote: | Can also be used as a janky screen pikvm style with the right | adapters | rasz wrote: | Its one of those 'because I can' hacks. Perfectly fine old 15-19 | LCD monitors are ~$10 at goodwill type stores, and free if you | ask around relatives/friends for old gear. | nunez wrote: | I don't know how folks can use a ton of screens like this. I had | four 32" monitors at one place and it was incredibly | overwhelming. | | I've been rocking a single 27" screen for years. Even that's too | big. I prefer 24" screens but it's difficult to get a good one. | | I can hold context in multiple virtual spaces, and key bindings | make switching between them super quick. | | I guess this is in the same camp as "I don't understand people | who leave 75,000 tabs open." | brettermeier wrote: | I'm more of the 75,000 tabs faction, which is probably why I | use 3 monitors. I prefer to have all the windows I'm actively | working in open in parallel. With one monitor, the handling is | too fiddly for me and the windows are much too small. If only | one thing is in the foreground, I sometimes lose the context or | the constant jumping back and forth annoys me. | | Edit: Just looked it up, there were like 30 tabs ;) But also | more browsers, because it gets too much in only one. | bemmu wrote: | I'm doing some light gamedev, and with two 28" screens I feel | like I could use a little bit more screen real estate. | | The situation where this still feels lacking is when I'm trying | to solve a problem and have a 3D game view, source code, object | list and properties, debug output, debugger (watched variables, | call stack) on one screen. Then on another screen I'll read | documentation of whatever I'm trying to fix. | | Productivity clearly had a jump when I added the second | monitor, and I think I could get some boost still by either | having larger monitors, or perhaps one big bigger curved one | with two monitor inputs. | maccard wrote: | Also games. 3x24 inch screens felt like the best balance to | me. I had 2x27 and 1x 24 for a while, but I dropped back to | 1x27 and 1x24 and prefer it. That's what I roll these days | NikolaNovak wrote: | It depends somewhat on your job. | | When I was a techie I tried to be focused on one thing at a | time as much as possible. Still liked two screens though! | | In many other roles though, having your email and your working | document open, or having excel and PowerPoint open, or help | docs and your code, or the operational plan and the server | terminals, et cetera, are massive efficiency multipliers. | | Basically I'm at a place where one monitor feels | claustrophobic, especially if it's just the teeny laptop | monitor. 2 are enough. 3 is nice. I wouldn't know what to do | with 4 32" ones either!! | Rudism wrote: | I agree. My opinion is that once you've trained yourself to use | virtual desktops efficiently, multiple monitors becomes more of | a hassle than a benefit. | | I think multiple monitors is the solution for people who would | rather solve the problem by spending their money instead of the | effort it takes to configure and become accustomed to switching | between virtual desktops. Given that it is a strict biological | limitation that the human brain can only focus attention on one | thing at a time, I don't believe there is any valid argument | for why moving your eyeballs between physical monitors is any | better than hitting a key combo to switch between virtual | desktops on a single monitor once those key combos have become | muscle memory. Additionally, the number of physical monitors | you have is limited by how much money you have to burn and how | much physical space you have to place them, whereas virtual | desktops are theoretically unlimited. | sfink wrote: | They're not all for the same purpose. | | There are some things that don't need to be actively looked | at most of the time, but need to be visible so that you know | when something happens that you _do_ need to pay attention. | You could do it by polling--put it on a virtual desktop and | switch to it every so often--but that adds latency and can be | even _more_ distracting than having it visible in the corner | of your eye. Think of things like Element or Slack or a | dashboard that tracks bugs /issues/alerts. | | Then there are reference displays that you look at on demand. | Most of the time switching virtual desktops is good enough | for this, but not if you're following along with a sequence | while actively working. | | Then there are things that are just big. Perhaps you're | displaying an autogenerated graph, or you're using an | information-dense tool (maybe with multiple relevant layers). | | Not to mention wanting to consult things while on a video | call, which constrains the screen to use based on camera | positioning. | | I very actively use virtual desktops, yet I have two external | monitors in addition to my laptop screen. Most of the time, I | really only make use of one of the external monitors, but | situations arise that require both. They arise frequently | enough that I notice the lack (eg when I'm fighting with my | configuration and only one is working, or I've loaned one | monitor to someone else). And when I'm mobile and down to | just the laptop screen, I definitely notice and even adjust | what I'm working on to avoid losing productivity. | hotnfresh wrote: | I rarely feel a need for even two monitors unless I'm doing GUI | development. Much of the time I just work off my laptop | directly, not plugged in to anything (probably should knock it | off for ergonomics reasons, though....) | danieldk wrote: | Same, one 5k 27" screen and I'm completely happy. I might | consider 6k screen, but definitely not multiple screens. | nunez wrote: | If it's the Studio Display that you got, I got that same | monitor a month ago and I absolutely love it. | c-hendricks wrote: | I'm similar. The idea of dedicating desk space, two extra | cables, the compute to power the displays, and electricity, to | show something like email seems incredibly wasteful to me. Not | to mention, do people that do this not feel cramped when they | don't have their full setup? | | I've also never been a "maximize the window" type of person. | Buying an ultra-wide was a huge help tho I will admit. | croisillon wrote: | almost everybody at my job has 2 screens, i'm sorry but i only | have one brain | maccard wrote: | I've got a keyboard and mouse, but spend most of my day using | just the keyboard. That doesn't mean a mouse isn't useful | brainlessdev wrote: | Totally off-topic, but while reading this I was thinking "that | is exactly what I would say". Then I saw your username... it | looks like we share not only a taste for monitors but also a | surname! | [deleted] | [deleted] | ryukoposting wrote: | I'm a 1.5 screens at work (laptop + 24" external monitor) and 1 | screen at home person. Life has enough distractions. | threeio wrote: | Doesn't always work this way but: | | Smaller Monitor: Comms (email, calendar, slack, etc) -- often | times I have this vertical (top email/cal and slack below) and | it doubles for viewing dashboards for stats during | troubleshooting. | | Bigger monitor: Focus work (terminal, development env, etc) - | normally split in 3 columns | | Laptop Screen: Browsing (research, WebUI interfaces, | entertainment, etc) | switchbak wrote: | I think a lot of this depends on how you arrange your windows. | | I've used a bunch of monitors in the past, but found that my | neck started to hurt after looking to the side too much. And | having the bezels right in the middle of your view makes the | most valuable real estate effectively unusable (unless you have | 3!). 4 32's would be way too much for me, no doubt. | | Having a single widescreen monitor has been better for me. Most | of the time I'm not maximizing its use, but when I want to | combine a bunch of views at once, it's quite valuable. Like | when I'm running a performance test while keeping tabs on a | bunch of monitoring. | | I think you're right that virtual workspaces are great, | especially if you dedicate them for discrete purposes. | jmbwell wrote: | I have my primary display in the center, directly in front of | me. Whatever needs my primary focus for my current task goes | there... Outlook for email, vscode for code, Terminal for | admin, web browser when web browsering, etc. | | To my left is for monitoring things, previewing things, and | reference. Browser for checking changes to code, logs for | monitoring changes to system, documentation for thing I'm | working on, etc. | | The result avoids the bezel in my direct field of view, | avoids strain and RSIs from awkward posture, and, | incidentally, kinda degrades gracefully when I'm at home with | only one display or traveling with only my laptop's display. | | But the second display to my left allows my peripheral vision | to monitor things for changes without diverting my focus, and | helps me keep documentation or source material for comparison | handy without having to switch away from the thing I'm | working on. | Dries007 wrote: | What resolution & DPI is I think far more important than how | many displays. | | I have 4. 1x 1440@27", 1x 1440@24" and 2x1080@24". If I had | known 1440@24" would die out, I would have bought 3 of those | instead. | | For me the ideal would be a 16:10 24" screen with the same | density as the 1440 16:9 models. It's the perfect size & | resolution for desktop use in programming / engineering. I'd | buy 3 of those, but they don't exist from reputable brands. | | I don't want a single ultrawide because I like the (narrow) | physical borders. It lets me organize stuff just how I like it. | It also makes working with different sources easier. My desktop | is plugged into everything, but I can put a laptop or embedded | board onto one of the side monitors if I need to. | | How I've set up mine: | | - Middle 1440: Main work, usually fullscreen IDE with 2 columns | of files open. | | - Left 1440: Documentation, usually 2 windows side by side. | | - Top left 1080: Media, usually in the background. Needed chat | programs (different customers use different tools) side by | side. | | - Right 1080: JIRA, task lists, notes, research, running tests, | running instances of programs being developed, ... | | This avoids me having to use virtual workspaces to layer | context. It's like a great big tool wall in a workshop: | The idea is simple: First Order Retrievability. That is, you | should never have to move one tool to get to another. That in | turn affords the fastest, most efficient way of working. | ~Adam Savage | skydhash wrote: | LG has 4k 24 inch monitors. The DPI is amazing (not so much | for color fidelity). | maccard wrote: | >to layer context | | Such a good way of capturing it. | tetraca wrote: | You categorize your screens. One screen for dev work, one for | communication, and one for documentation/browsing. That way you | can alt+tab between your primary work tasks with a tiny eye | movement. | dheera wrote: | I used 2 screens for a while but I went back to 1. I would do | 3 or 1 but not 2. 2 was bad for my neck. And I can't fit 3 | screens on my desk. | RealStickman_ wrote: | I've had a single monitor for a long time, but I've recently | come around to dual monitors. It just makes working with | additional information on the second screen so much easier. | Indo spend more time shuffling windows around now though | bdcravens wrote: | Most of the time I'm using 3: 2 big screens (often browser on | one, IDE or similar on the other) and my laptop (usually | terminal, or Slack, or a similar auxiliary app). It feels no | more complicated to me than swiping between phone apps, and | definitely simpler than someone with a carefully curated WM | setup. | | My screen size has gone up over the years, but that's more a | matter of aging eyes than information density. :-) | whiddershins wrote: | For film composers (niche, I know) each screen can represent a | distinct task all of which are happening simultaneously. | | So: | | - video reference | | - synthesizers | | - daw/waveform playback | | - score | | I wonder what other professions might find value in a similar | setup. | dylan604 wrote: | i'm in the same vein but more film/video post production in | general. most of the time, in addition to how ever many | monitors attached to the computer, there is at least one | reference video monitor (that can be properly calibrated) | that only receives a video signal from whatever software is | being used. with only 2 computer screens, one screen has my | timeline and preview windows. the other monitor will have all | of the bins and effects controls and other various windows. | if i'm in a real edit bay with dedicated scopes i'll prefer | those, but if i'm slumming it at home i'll have to make room | for them on one of the monitors too (usually tabbed behind | the source monitor). | yieldcrv wrote: | I think thats good because you can manipulate the second | screen without juggling the mouse pointer | | I think those are the best use cases, input is a much greater | bottleneck with additional screens if its limited to keyboard | and mouse modifying those windows | RugnirViking wrote: | ive always said that going from one screen to two is a big jump | in productivity. Comparing things between two windows is a very | common task in almost all workloads. However I think three is | already too many, and brings something between barely any | benefit and a net negative. More than that seems superfluous, | even for cctv or stock brokers. Attention can't be split that | easily. Personally for most of my working life ive had three, | as in two 24" and a laptop, but I usually either just have | spotify fullscreen on the laptop all day or turn it off if I | can. | | As for putting two windows side-by-side on a single screen? I | don't know, it always felt clunky to me. A lot of things are | designed to be landscape 16:9. | [deleted] | maccard wrote: | My preference is 3x 24 inch screens. In theory, I'd like one of | them to be a tablet or a touch screen device that sits | underneath the other two. | | It basically boils down to one screen for "the | app/website/whatever" one for code, and one for a reference. I | _can_ hold contexts, but I also have tools to do that for me. | Beijinger wrote: | When I had to work on my desktop but had to watch some | educational videos on the side I just used | https://remotedesktop.google.com/ Since the videos were web based | it worked quite well. | citiguy wrote: | I've used Duet for this in the past. Works great by allowing me | to extend my laptop screen with my ipad screen. | https://www.duetdisplay.com/ | cramjabsyn wrote: | Macos has the built in with sidecar. Just attach an ipad and | select it as the external display | gomox wrote: | Sidecar is very glitchy for anything but casual use. | dheera wrote: | A long time ago I used to use Synergy and someone had written a | Synergy client or Cyanogenmod variant of Android. I don't know | where all that is now after Synergy imploded and Cyanogenmod | imploded. | angra_mainyu wrote: | I've done this with RDP + Android tablet on Linux. Performance | depends heavily on your tablet's hardware, enormously so. | folmar wrote: | RDP is client-heavy, some flavor of VNC should do fine even on | the most underpowered hardware (provided you are not watching | videos). | seizethegdgap wrote: | For Windows, the paid program SuperDisplay will also allow you to | use an Android device as a second screen, works wireless or over | USB. My Galaxy Tab S7+ is great as a second monitor. | | https://superdisplay.app/ | lkois wrote: | Or the free Spacedesk, does the same. | lvncelot wrote: | A good SuperDisplay alternative is something I really miss on | Linux. Even over wifi, the latency is imperceptible to me, and | being able to use the pen input (with pressure and tilt) is the | cherry on top. | butz wrote: | Got to mention that you can use your tablet on Linux GNOME DE not | only for terminal: https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2022/06/use-ipad- | as-second-monit... . Still waiting for even better solution, like | streaming games to such second tablet "monitor". | bogdart wrote: | It doesn't work on X11, and the cursor is not showing. But if | don't need it, works pretty well. | elkos wrote: | does this work in KDE too or is there a similar solution? | butz wrote: | Here's what I found for KDE, but did not test it myself: | https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=454645#c5 | bogdart wrote: | It works for me, but quite unstable. | A4ET8a8uTh0 wrote: | Nice. I just dusted off wife's kindle in an attempt to repurpose | it into a weird 'i m in a meeting' sign and I may end up looking | at your project more closely now. Much obliged! | | <3 | bdcravens wrote: | I never keep tablets around long - I usually sell them (and all | electronics) once they're no longer useful. | | eBay is my Marie Kondo :-) | bazmattaz wrote: | Same. I'm a big believer of one man's trash is another man's | treasure. | | I hate having gathering dust in my drawer if I can sell it for | $50 on eBay and make someone happy in the process | omneity wrote: | This is cool. Maybe for copying you could spawn a text editor in | your main screen with the content of the terminal in it? | thanatos519 wrote: | Good idea. I did this with bash and awk and xev and xdotool | instead of a custom program. | | You can always use screen's cut-and-paste for stuff within | screen, and screen's copy buffer and xclipboard for the rest. ___________________________________________________________________ (page generated 2023-10-06 23:00 UTC)