Laptop shopping -or- why can't I find a decent 4:3 system anymore?

[jyasu]

Why the hell are laptop manufacturers all migrating to widescreen
displays? Am I the only one left on the planet who values vertical
screen real estate when doing actual work, and who values using a laptop for
work-related activities rather than an overglorified DVD player? It seems
all the higher end models, particularly business models,

Comments

[seika]

If more of your work took place at the office, I'd suggest acquiring a second monitor that you could plug in to your laptop and using vertical orientation... but you're too floating for that.

ETA: If you used Imagix, you'd want more horizontal space. You can't, though, unless you're actually programming in C/C++/C#/Java. (Which is a shame, because Imagix is made of awesome. Though it is also probably ridiculously spendy.) But that is one reason people might want horizontal space-- if they have programs tailored for it.

[jyasu]

I find programs that utilize wide windows are relatively difficult for me to use (unless the windows are split horizontally into unrelated views, such that I never have a reason to scan from one side to the other). Many people may find it easy to scan horizontally across a wide screen; however, I am not one of those people :(

[seika]

The one I'm referring to does have unconnected views side-by-side.

[jyasu]

At which point I am very likely to simply delete one of the views and go for a narrower window.

[seika]

Yeah, that would make the program not very useful for sure.

[jyasu]

The dual screen setup is not a bad deal. I may have to consider leaving an external monitor available for use with my next laptop, so I at least have something closer to my needs when I'm not in transit.

I have not had to be so adaptable for quite some time. 1400x1050 for six years now on laptops, which is close enough (not great, but I've learned to work around it), otherwise I'm often on 1280x1024 (and don't notice the missing pixels in either direction that much).