Re: What Window Manager/Desktop Environment do you use, and why?

On Sat, 14 Jun 2025 23:35:41 -0000 (UTC)
Lawrence D'Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> wrote:

There are such things as large high-def LCD monitors, you know. And
they aren’t even expensive.

Yes, but the more you "scale up" high-resolution displays to account
for pixel density, the more physical eye-travel becomes an issue, which
is another annoying property of widescreen displays. If I look at one
of the 21" displays for my PC at $EMPLOYER head-on from a comfortable
viewing distance, the left & right edges are already at the borders of
my peripheral vision (the whole point of widescreen as a cinematic
aspect ratio, but *not* a useful property for a work display!) If I
scoot back so that the whole display is "center field," it's too small.
And if I got them to buy me a larger display...the edges would be back
in my peripheral vision again! (And if my eyes were worse, I'd have to
sit closer, and the problem would be further compounded.)

There's no really *good* solution for adapting widescreen displays to
productivity work. *nix is more flexible than Windows, at least (MS's
display scaling has never, ever worked properly,) but even a lot of X
software makes assumptions about DPI and doesn't adjust well when those
assumptions are violated. The whole thing is just *dumb,* a compromise
pushed on users for the convenience of manufacturers.