Large screen needed for developers
I am primarily a developer and also support other normal users in my company. I find that the majority of normal users (non-developers), extending even to AppleCare support, who are dealing almost entirely with normal users, use their computers in a different way than developers.
Of course I am generalizing, and there will be many cases where the distinctions I am about to make are not applicable. Nevertheless, it has been my experience that normal users meet their needs by "single-tasking". I see that they tend to use their applications full screen at all times, so that even if they have several applications open, say Mail and Safari, their "multi-tasking" is really single tasking as they switch between the full screen view of each.
For such users, smaller screens work fine. The extreme of smallness is naturally the smartphone.
So the opinions of such users about screen size and application design are valid within the context of this "full-screen single-tasking."
I would find it very uncomfortable to work this way, as would many others with similar situations.
For example, during a typical session I might have in multiple windows on my screen the following:
- IDE - Integrated Development Environment
- Browser 1
- Browser 2
- Quickbooks
- File Manager
- Mail
- IM Client - Adium
- Terminal session 1
- Terminal Session 2
- Terminal Session 3
- MS Word
- Photoshop
- plus typically a few odds and ends
The above is an extreme example and I would normally not have so many of them open at once, but it could happen. But it is nearly always the case that I need three or four of these apps visible at once.
My point is that the way I use the system makes the larger screen size essential for work. The smaller screen and related ergonomics lend themselves to the causal or "lounging about" type of use. Or to stay connected. But they do not lend themselves to a full work session.
As a related issue, the trend in the design of Apple softwares troubles me to the extent that Apple's goal seems to be trying to make everything into the iOS model, which serves the normal user, but not the developer.
Bottom line: whether it is an iMac or MacPro with nice screen, the large screen size is mandatory for my daily needs. (iMac vs MacPro is a separate discussion).
