[anfilt]

Same! I hate the freaking wide screen madness. It's not just laptops though. There are not a ton of manufactures making LCDs with modern resolutions in a 4:3 aspect ratio. Also a lot them are quite expensive.

Eizo makes 1:1 desktop monitor, I managed to get one used for a good price I love it! I would get a second if they did not cost so much.

http://www.eizoglobal.com/products/flexscan/ev2730q/index.ht...

Also 5:4 is basically stuck as 1280x1024. You think for the desktop monitor market there would be more variety of aspect ratios made with higher resolutions.

[noir_lord]

2560x2048 would be awesome (they exist but they cost about 5-10 times what a 2560x1440 does.. http://www.ieiworld.co.uk/products/MMD_5201M-1323-459.html).

Two of those side by side would be perfect.

I have dual 2560x1440's at work (24") and that's nice but the extra 608 height would be great for things like Chrome devtools etc.

[narimiran]

> *2560x2048 would be awesome (...) Two of those side by side would be perfect.

You have just turned two 5:4 monitors into a 10:4 monitor - and the closest format to that exists in a form of current 21:9 monitors, with acceptable prices.

[laythea]

"Two of those side by side would be perfect."

When used in a discussion regarding the desirableness of the aspect ratio 4:3, 1:1 etc, I find this statement quite amusing :)

[anfilt]

For the price of that. I would rather buy raw panels and build something my self.

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/2560-2048-FHD-20-1-inch-LCD-...

Also medical monitors tend be very expensive for what they are, but have good contrast. Also a lot are only gray scale.

[Arnt]

I got a second Eizo. And a third.

4:3, not 1:1. They were really expensive but I've found that I don't mind: I adore the colour and the first is almost 15 years old now.

All I do is stare at large expanses of text, mostly emacs and konsole. Why would good colour make a difference to that? I've no idea. But my expensive Eizos are somehow pleasant to look at, to read from, in a way that €200-€300 screens aren't. So my advice is: Pay for that second Eizo. You may still have it in 15 years and the price per year is okay anyway.

[celofan8]

Would you get a second one to use them together? Because in that case you might as well just buy a bigger wide-screen...

[anfilt]

No for an other computer.

[nukeop]

Just open two buffers side by side and it's almost like you have two 4:3 monitors. Isn't that better?

[JohnStrangeII]

Not if you're only working on one document at a time. Being distracted by some other stuff on the side is not always a benefit and many editors are surprisingly hard to set up to center documents on the screen while blending out anything on the sides.

[nukeop]

Being distracted is never a benefit, but being able to see two or three files together and compare them is. At any rate, it's just extra space that you can leave blank if you wish. I see no upsides of 4:3.

[stormking]

Just use Emacs and follow-mode.

[oldcynic]

Let's see. No it isn't. Not even close.

A 4:3 aspect would give 1920x1440. You have 1920x1080. Where has the bottom quarter of the screen gone? It's not there.

How can that possibly be better?

I'd take 3:2 with high enough resolution as that's the equivalent of 2x 4:3 side by side in portrait. That would be a fair trade off. I'd still prefer a 4:3 laptop though!

[kuschku]

There are 8:3 monitors you could use, with 3840x1440 resolution.

[nukeop]

What if I set my resolution to 3840x2160? Do you think it's about raw pixel count? Widescreen resolutions make most people more productive.

[oldcynic]

In that case I'd prefer 3840x2880. It's still missing 25% comparatively speaking.

All the losses from browser header, footer, OS status bars, browser chrome or IDE widgets are at the top and bottom. Making that 16:9 letter box skinnier.

I'd prefer more lines to be productive - to display the whole email without scrolling, or the whole method definition or half the article on a site etc. When I want to watch a full res HD movie I'll take black bars top and bottom.

[anfilt]

It depends on what your doing. I spend a lot of timing doing hardware design. So it can include VHDL for instance or I can be looking over PCB designs and various other layouts. If go to that Eizo's page you might see why a more square monitor is nice for CAD work not just long streams of text.