Are Dual Monitors Useful?

[Capn_Fish]

I've heard that using two monitors (or a laptop's screen and a monitor) is actually quite useful, and am thinking about trying it (which would mean figuring out how to set it up under Xorg, how to disable it when the extra monitor is disconnected, etc.).

So, what do people think (preferably those people who use or have used such a setup, but other opinions are welcome as well)?

[undrwater]

It can be useful.  Main screen contains the work that you're doing, second screen contains the result of the work...you have a quick visual of any changes without having to flip between or tile windows.

Also, if your work takes up a lot of real estate, spreading the desktop between 2 (or more) monitors can help there as well.

Apparently some games are twin screen aware as well, which could be fun.

[canguy247]

I have used dual monitors for years and love it.  I have my browser full screen on the main, and gkrellm, email, music player and misc stuff like a calculator on the secondary.  I also enjoy watching videos on the secondary while I surf on the main.  I have a hard time dropping down to one (when using other computers) when doing anything serious.  It is also very useful when editing video/audio and many other things which you don't think about until you have it.  I have thought of going to 3 heads for a while now...I just don't want to lose the desk space.

Canguy

[speculatrix]

Work provides a Toshiba Tecra M9 with nvidia graphics. Internal is 1440x900, and I use it in a dock with external Dell 24" 1920x1200.
If I boot without the external monitor I don't need to tweak the xorg.conf, it simply doesn't even atttempt to use it and everything works normally.

I find it really helps to be able to have three activities running and visible - i.e. a mix of email, editor, web browser and terminal sessions, and still leaves room for an IM chat window or two! The real productivity gains comes when you can have a page of source code up and the resulting web page and the generated HTML at the same time!