120 on an 11 inch screen might be highly eyesight-dependent, especially if there is anything else on the screen at the same time. Not everyone worth hiring in the industry has optimal vision.
I just checked. I have a 17 inch laptop screen (uncommon and has to be sought for these days). To hit 120 characters on two terminals side-by-side requires 9pt font. That's definitely not something everyone can manage.
I think 120 might even be pushing the limits of conscientiousness.
I was speaking of lines of code in a full screen text editor, I'm sure there are many programs that when displayed side by side on a small screen 120 chars would be too many. But let's avoid the strawman here. So 2 terminals side by side 120 chars each, you tried to display 240 per line in actuality? Do i have it right?
Not a straw man - on a laptop away from readily available external monitors, it's quite common to want to see two things at once while doing work. We're discussing the line length policy for a single line of source code in a single file, not the number of characters that can visibly fit side by side on a screen.
There's definitely a bit more flexibility - not infinite - when you only consider the full-scale case. But one is often less productive with that as the only viable option, or else one has external monitors in which case in that usage pattern the laptop is effectively a desktop.
Possibly for weight reasons? I'm in my early to mid 30s with decent near-distance eyesight, but adding my Dell 12.5" ultrabook to other things I routinely need to carry is increasingly starting to hurt. My next laptop bag will probably be a backpack to mitigate that, but it still doesn't make weight irrelevant.
Anyway, one doesn't have to go to that extent to make the point: as per the sibling reply from d_, even on a 17 inch monitor one can have issues with 120-character lines if viewing two files side by side (or 50% browser 50% editor).
Hit the weight room, a 30 yo human should be able to carry at least 30 lbs with no problem for a few miles. My daily driver is a P51. You might also consider on of the pieces of luggage with wheels and an extendo handle.
You'll be missing out on a lot of good colleagues if you set your policies based only on what works for young healthy in-shape people with the dominant tech industry locations and lifestyles.