I feel chained to my big monitor and want to use my laptop at places besides my desk but I can never get real work done without the monitor. I have a 13 inch MacBook and love it. The 15 inch feels bulky and doesn’t add meaningful real estate. I use tiled windows and multiple desktops. But still if I need to do anything besides single page/app work, which is rare, I feel the need for my monitor. Has anyone found any worthwhile solutions?
Comments
al_borland•4mo ago
I typically have my MacBook plugged into a 43” 4K display for work. I love having the space.
Recently, I had to work from elsewhere while taking care of someone and only had my laptop. I ended up using Stage Manager. While I had always found it kind of a joke on a larger screen, when I just had the laptop and needed to multitask more, it was actually pretty helpful. Similar to using virtual desktops, but easier to switch without having to remember what apps are bound to which desktops as much. I do have the larger MacBook Pro. Giving up some screen real estate to a bunch of thumbnails on a 13” might be a harder sell.
If you are big into tiling window managers, it might be more about linking everything to a key binding so you can easily jump around quickly. Kind of how the Primeagen has his desktop setup, if you’ve ever seen his stuff.
I have a hard time with setups that are too rigid, as a single IM can make my day take a left turn and order turns to chaos pretty quick. There isn’t a lot of space for that in systems that are too rigid.
bix6•4mo ago
Thanks for the tips I’ll give these a try!
pavel_lishin•4mo ago
> I have a 13 inch MacBook and love it. The 15 inch feels bulky and doesn’t add meaningful real estate.
I disagree; I have a 13" personal machine, and a 15" work machine, and it genuinely feels like a night and day difference if I'm out and about with either one.
bix6•4mo ago
Are you able to do meaningful side by side work on the 15?
walterbell•4mo ago
iPad in portrait mode can be second display for MacBook, via iCloud or USB cale.
bix6•4mo ago
Hmm that could be nice although then I have to carry 2 devices around
al_borland•4mo ago
Recently, I had to work from elsewhere while taking care of someone and only had my laptop. I ended up using Stage Manager. While I had always found it kind of a joke on a larger screen, when I just had the laptop and needed to multitask more, it was actually pretty helpful. Similar to using virtual desktops, but easier to switch without having to remember what apps are bound to which desktops as much. I do have the larger MacBook Pro. Giving up some screen real estate to a bunch of thumbnails on a 13” might be a harder sell.
If you are big into tiling window managers, it might be more about linking everything to a key binding so you can easily jump around quickly. Kind of how the Primeagen has his desktop setup, if you’ve ever seen his stuff.
I have a hard time with setups that are too rigid, as a single IM can make my day take a left turn and order turns to chaos pretty quick. There isn’t a lot of space for that in systems that are too rigid.
bix6•4mo ago