[Leomuck]

Interesting take. I regularly switch between just the laptop and my 3 monitor setup. Sometimes I feel like I could use a 4th one because there is just so much stuff to look at when developing. When I get to my laptop I sometimes feel like I can't be really productive on it. Having to tab all the time is not in itself an issue, but I keep getting lost when I have multiple instances of an app open - e.g. IDE. Say you have 3 projects open, I feel like I keep tabbing to the wrong one all the time.

But overall, I do like the idea that you don't actually have to see everything at once. Also takes focus away I guess. I would love to see a study on this which tries to actually measure this.

[_thisdot]

I feel that tabbing to the wrong instance of an app is a problem that can be solved on the software level. It’s a nightmare on the default macOS app switcher. I use an app called Contexts as a solution and it works reasonably well. There seems to be some free and open source solutions as well.

[riidom]

Single-screen user here. I like virtual desktops in addition to alt-tabbing.

[justonceokay]

I’m an adamant single-screen alt-tabber. I hardly ever even have two windows open side-by-side.

I’ve always felt that I can alt-tab 2-3 times per second and that it’s faster to not move my eyes. Why look at docs next to code when I can only read one at a time anyway? It’s also embedded in my muscle memory to switch to specific apps by Apple-space typing 2-3 characters. So Firefox is “Apple-space-fi”. It’s so fast I feel slowed by having apps side-by-side.

Anything that requires me dragging windows to their special place is a non-starter. To me that feels like playing with my food. I wonder if this is just because I type very quickly?

I’m aware I’m in the minority.

[yzydserd]

Same here. Single screen, single app, at least 95% of the time. For decades.

I’d like to try a squarish monitor, but it seems to be a barren wasteland of choice: mateview, dualup, or flexscan. Meh.