I'm intrigued by the aspect ratio of the 15.4's, but am worried about
the overall height. I went with a 19" LCD on my Dimension because I
kept discovering that I seemed to want more and more vertical space
whenever I viewed a document.

Does anyone have any time with both and is there any common
preference to one or the other?

The notebook could be used for basically anything, including occasional
java development, at home work, word processing, email, usenet posting,
etc.




--
Having a dog that is a purebred does not qualify it for breeding. Dogs
need to have several generations of clearances for various illnesses
before being bred. If you are breeding dogs without taking care as to
the genetic quality of the dog (again, being purebred is not enough),
you are what is known as a "backyard breeder" and are part of the
problem. Most of the congenital problems of present day dogs are
traceable directly to backyard breeding. Spay or neuter your pet
responsibly, and don't just think that you're somehow the exception and
can breed a dog without taking the care described.

Thomas G. Marshall wrote:
I find myself docking my taskbar to the left of the screen in order to
reclaim lost vertical space on my 15.4" widescreen because I got the
cheapo 1280x800 screen. If you work w/emacs or something though for
java, then you can actually leave your start menu/task bar on the bottom
and maybe have 2 windows open side by side if you get a laptop w/a
higher resolution like the 1920x1200 Ultrasharp option on my Inspiron 6000.

Michael Lee coughed up:
I always have my task bar on the left or right anyway. The only way to fly,
so long as it isn't "always on top".


That's what I'm really trying to evaluate here: Just how much am I going to
miss the lost height, vs. how much I'm going to love the "increase" in
width.




--
http://www.allexperts.com is a nifty way to get an answer to just about
/anything/.

Thomas G. Marshall wrote:

Half full/half empty.

Bob

"Thomas G. Marshall" <tgm2tothe10thpower@replacetextwithnumber.hotmail. com>
wrote in news:xAcbe.4862$RD.4734@trndny02:

i have a 19" monitor (1280x1024) for my desktop, and a 15.4" (1280x800)
laptop, and I do NOT have a problem switching between computers.... these
days its hard to completely eliminate vertical scrollbars - are you really
gaining an advantage by scrolling down 7 lines instead of 13?

also, the wide screen gives easy access to several windows open at the same
time - i size them to about 1024px across, and it's easy to navigate around
them on screen. when using excel files or other horizontally-based
formats, 15.4 is obviously great (same for watching DVDs on the road). Not
to mention programs with palettes, where the extra horizontal space is very
helpful to dock the palettes AWAY from what I am working on (keeping the
palettes off the image i'm working on in photoshop, for example). if you
do coding (java development, etc), its also nice having the wide screen
because you can look at/compare/copy between files easily.

finally, carrying a 15.4" notebook under the arm is more
natural/comfortable/secure than smaller-screened ones.

to each their own; i love my widescreen notebook, i've had it over a year,
and have NO regrets.

Good Man coughed up:
THANK you. This is very useful!


--
"Gentlemen, you can't fight in here! This is the War Room!"