Linux Multiple Monitor Setup

[Meem1029]

I just got a second monitor and am working on setting it up. I am currently running Ubuntu 11.10 with gnome fallback mode and have it set up so that my screen is just extended onto the second monitor. This works, but is not the ideal situation for how I want it.

What I want to do is have a different workspace displayed on each monitor (my laptop screen and the external one) and be able to switch between these workspaces. I'm not attached to either gnome or ubuntu in order to get this working, although I'd prefer not KDE (but if it works, I'd learn to like it or figure out how to do it in something else). I imagine this would work very nicely using a tiling window manager such as xmonad. Does anyone have any tips on how I would set this up?

[EvanED]

Both Awesome and Xmonad (and probably others) work splendidly with multiple screens, giving you one desktop per screen. (Awesome calls them "tags" because its versions are a little more powerful than standard virtual desktops.)

Xmonad uses a shared pool of virtual desktops, i.e. you can show any desktop on either monitor. Awesome uses a separate pool for each screen, so the left monitor's desktop 2 is different from the right monitor's desktop 2. Each of these approaches has its own advantages and disadvantages.

I think both work pretty much out of the box (or at least, as "out of the box" as tiling window managers come). I can give you my configuration for either one if you want.

(I'm sure other tiling WMs can be used as well, but those are the two I have experience with.)

[Meem1029]

Oh, sweet! I've used xmonad for a bit and didn't realize that it did it that well. I'm glad other people had similar thoughts as to what would make sense for multiple monitors. Now I need to go get xmonad installed and working, which shouldn't take too much work.

[scarecrovv]

Just chiming in with another positive experience for xmonad on multiple monitors. I've been using it for a while now, and it rocks. If you need help, feel free to ask.

[Copper Bezel]

Yeah, Compiz (the Ubuntu Unity compositor) is fairly terrible as a multiple monitor experience. I'm very happy with Gnome Shell's handling of the external monitors, but it's made to be more "easy to follow" than "powerful." (Extra monitors become their own independent workspaces, but they can't be switched. Good for laptops with an external screen attached, so that the extra display becomes a special "content area", but bad for dual-monitor desktops where there's less a sense of a "primary" and "secondary" monitor.)

[colinrmitchell]

I figured that I would just chime in to agree that Xmonad works really well on multiple monitors. It is also really easy to use.