Your dream vintage Apple Mac(intosh) setup

[0248294]

While I personally have no need for multiple screens (I have tried it out in the past, but almost always ended up just using one of the screens exclusively), I can definitely see why some people doing some serious multitasking can use it. I'm just doing 85% of my stuff in the browser, the 15% are dedicated programs that I just run over or next to the browser, or games that run fullscreen anyways. The only time I do technically use two monitors that comes in mind is when I'm capturing DV footage on a Mac while working on my PC, I can keep tabs on the tape yet continue doing other stuff, then it's quite handy, even though in my case it's not just two screens, it's two different computers! If I did more serious work with multitasking, then yeah, I might be inclined to use more screens on a daily basis

 

[1042686]

I use multiple screens because ~ In typical American fashion, what's better than one? Two.

That and it looks KILL-ER on instagram & layout. Maaaaaad fanboy hipster points

Anywho, back to the ops question - I've never had a vintage~y Mac laptop (well, one that worked fully) so I'm excited to try a PowerBook that should ship to me this week. Who knows, it could change everything.

Or not lol.

 

[eyoungren]

Perfect example for multiple monitors this morning.

Right display shows Firefox tracking my wife's flight on flightaware.com. Left display has all my heavily used folders and my main display has the newspaper document I'm building for this week.

To see the progress of my wife's flight all I had to do was glance to my right while still working.

 

[entropi]

What a trick question! I mean, I could totally run my beloved mac classic again - but I would like it to be fanless, have a roomy SSD and a flat LCD screen (but it could still be 9" 1-bit, I only used it for writing and midi).

 

[AphoticD]

Just for good measure I'd like to add that for two years I was the sole design department member of an international importer and manufacturer and saw my role expand to include sales and customer services. I'd have to design and publish two product catalogues each month, design product artwork, photograph products, maintain a website and a stock management system and sundry other tasks too numerous to recall. Photoshop, Indesign, Acrobat, Outlook, Firefox, Explorer, Command Prompt, FTP, Dynamics Nav, Excel, Word were open all day long...all on a 17" monitor at 1280 x 960....point being, very serious work can be done at any screen size - when you don't have any other option

I resigned when it became clear performing minor miracles wasn't appreciated - 3 people were employed to replace me

I can believe that. Skilled operators like yourself aren't as easy to come by as mindless sheeple who can only see what's directly in front of them.

I agree that any screen size can suffice. Your mind will quickly adapt to working in a single, small screen environment. The best example is going from a daily multi display setup to a laptop screen for work away from the home/office.

I once shared an office with a successful architect. He had plenty of opportunity to expand but chose to run his business from a single 14" display (possibly at 1024x768). I asked him why he didn't just get a bigger display (or multiple) and he said he liked the "honed in" aspect of using a small screen, he worked in AutoCAD in a constant zoomed in mode and would just hammer out architectural designs all day long. He'd keep a mental image of the job and when needed, pull an overview off a big A1 plotter.

I would say that a large proportion of my best graphic design and web development work has been done using my MacBook Unibody '08.

It's the same idea, that the display(s) become an extension of the brain. You keep a constant mental image and use the virtual tools to make it happen.

In saying that, (nearly) everyone loves to have more screen real estate. I can recall a classic Mac app which would create a virtual higher resolution than what the display could do and then allow the user to scroll around to access more if the desktop. This would be awesome with current multi-touch trackpads and magic mice, but back then there was little scroll-wheel support on Mac.

 

[Dronecatcher]

I agree that any screen size can suffice. Your mind will quickly adapt to working in a single, small screen environment. The best example is going from a daily multi display setup to a laptop screen for work away from the home/office.

It's true - I think the problem lies with the attitude of "I can't do ABC because I don't have XYZ" - you work with what you have.
I love tinkering away on my iBook 12" screen for hours then moving onto the 23" Cinema though - it makes you appreciate the difference.

 

[pixelatedscraps]

I'm adding to this, with several caveats into this hypothetical reality:

1) I don't need to synchronise and access all my work files at home via Dropbox & Google Drive as I currently do (yes!).

2) My girlfriend has no say over what computers power our tiny home study or the laptops we use to browse at home.

In this case, my dream setup(s) would be:

OFFICE
Current Mac Pro 2010
2x 30" Apple Cinema Display (fine, Bunnspecial, I concede, I'd love to have two of these!)
Wired Magic Keyboard with numeric pad
Apple Magic Mouse (2010)

OFFICE RECEPTION
Power Mac G4 Cube
20" Studio Display
Apple Pro Keyboard & Mouse (white)

HOME STUDY
Power Mac G4 DP 1.42Ghz
23" Studio Display HD
Apple Pro Keyboard & Mouse (white)

LAPTOP
PowerBook G4 5,9 17" 1.67Ghz (Aluminium)

DISTRACTION
Macintosh Color Classic II

 

[eyoungren]

It's true - I think the problem lies with the attitude of "I can't do ABC because I don't have XYZ" - you work with what you have.
I love tinkering away on my iBook 12" screen for hours then moving onto the 23" Cinema though - it makes you appreciate the difference.

I did the one monitor set up for five years in full time graphic design jobs at two newspapers and for a little while at my current job.

But when I realized I could add a second monitor things just took off.

It's possible to use just one monitor, but I choose not to because I don't want to and don't have to. At minimum now I'd only take dual monitors.

 

[bunnspecial]

I mentioned this earlier, but here's my current dual 2.7 set-up at work scanning some negatives that I've been putting off for a few months.

BTW, after being able to spread out on multiple monitors, I find working on one to frequently be limiting. I can get by on my MBP(1680x1050 screen) using mission control, and I find it(or Spaces) to be extremely helpful in any single screen situation. I even find using a lower resolution single screen to be difficult.

I'm not saying it's IMPOSSIBLE to work, but I'd have a hard time limiting myself to a single screen if I had the space and resources to do otherwise.

Plus, like I said, Mac users in my field(Chemistry) have been doing it since the late 80s/early 90s.

 

[WalnutSpice]

Surely mines gotta be a Quad G5 with a matching 23' Cinema Display, Apple Wireless mouse with the white Apple keyboard.