<p>I hope this will change in college when and if i get a laptop, but....</p>
<p>now I'm using a 21inch computer monitor</p>
<p>i call it the brick because it's immovable and the back of it extends to the North Pole.</p>
<p>I simply can't stand reading wikipedia articles on this thing; more often than not, I pprint it out at the local library and read the print outs.</p>
<p>I only use this thing to watch movies and to type up stuff, but as I said, I can't stand it.</p>
<p>Are laptops with LCD screens similiar perpetrators of headaches?</p>
<p>Yes and no. A lot depends on the quality of the screen and that is over-looked or is unimportant to most buyers, who look to spend as little as they can. </p>
<p>One reason I got a Mac back when the Mac Plus came out was the 9" b & w screen was much more readable than the character based displays then used on PC’s. </p>
<p>Screen quality in netbooks, for example, usually sucks so much I can’t use one for more than short periods.</p>
<p>Yeah reading can be a bothersome on laptop screens sometimes, I love my Thinkpad with its matte screen, so much better on the eyes than glossy ones which come with alot of the overhyped shiny pieces of **** these days.</p>
<p>A ereader like the Nook or Kindle might do you some good if you want to read digital copies of texts.</p>
<p>The reason why that thing is unbearable is because of the refresh rates. If it’s not perfectly in sync with what your eyes expect, you will get headaches. This is especially the case with bright backgrounds (eg. Wikipedia).</p>
<p>Thankfully, this is a non-issue in LCD screens, where instead of the constant scrolling reflashes of a CRT, the colors just change with a consistent backlight. So yes, getting a laptop LCD will solve the problem.</p>
<p>As for your 21" CRT - try changing your setting sto be white on black. This will greatly reduce the problem.</p>
<p>I remember reading somewhere that the reason why so many people hate reading on a computer screen is a lack of depth perception that ink-on-paper offers.</p>
<p>Personally, I think this is true because as green as I’m trying to be, I still have to print things out and read it on paper, because reading it on the monitor is just so unappealing and annoying…</p>
<p>The article was a bit of a while ago, so I don’t remember exactly, but I think it was that the bumps and irregularities on the paper gave the text a bit of depth from the paper itself, while words on a computer screen are purely flat so they are a bit less attractive.</p>
<p>The issue is more that the white space is backlit so it confuses the message that the black type is the foreground.</p>
<p>BTW, I wanted to mention that if you get a laptop, a very, very good way to maximize the screen is to use multiple desktops. I’ll assume a college user isn’t familiar with doing that in Linux - and if so, why would he/she be reading this? Multiple desktops are built into Mac OS X and are called Spaces. You can easily bind a specific program to a specific Space - 1 through 6. I have my Mail always in space 2, my web browser in space 3, itunes is in space 5, etc. You switch between them with control-space # or other ways. You can drag windows from one space to another easily, etc. What this means is that I can leave itunes running in full window mode while mail is running in full window mode while WebKit is running in full window mode, while I have a bunch of other stuff open in another window and at the very worst I can hit control-1 and go to the desktop without disturbing any open programs. This simple thing, which few Mac users actually use, multiplies the utility of your workspaces. </p>
<p>Windows 7 doesn’t have multiple desktops. I haven’t played with any of the tools that add some virtual /multiple desktop functionality but again if a person is fluent enough with computers to do this then odds are they already know how to do this in Linux.</p>
<p>windows XP and vista default to 60Hz which is horrible. 72, 75, 80 or if it’s a highend unit, 120Hz don’t really give headaches.</p>
<p>right now I’m on 2x 20" LCDs and I desperately want a Sony FW900(24" CRT)
CRTs are better for gaming and graphic design, but unfortunately I can’t find any decent ones(and I won’t settle for a low end CRT as those are garbage) which offer the superior color and contrast I want.</p>
<p>I love multiple desktops. I hate my inability to get my linux wireless working on my computer’s network (it works perfectly at other schools, but ours has a different encryption…), so I’m forced into windows when not in my room (or, alternatively, I carry around an ethernet cord).</p>
<p>Actually, I just downloaded VirtuaWin, which allows you to have multiple desktops in windows, and it should help.</p>