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Software engineer. I use three monitors. I primarily use macOS, if anyone’s curious.
Main monitor is a 42" 4K LG C3 OLED, two side monitors are 34" 4K LG IPS displays in vertical orientation.
For work, I keep my IDE and browser on my main monitor and I use it for most other applications that I might use, but usually just my IDE and browser.
Left monitor is used primarily to display my Jira board and tickets, which takes up the bottom 2/3 of the screen. I use Firefox’s video pop out feature to place YouTube or other videos in the top 1/3 so I can watch them while I work, if I want.
Right monitor is used primarily for Slack and Spotify. Slack takes up the bottom half. Spotify takes up the top half, and I often listen when I’m not watching videos.
Could I do all of this with spaces? Of course. Absolutely. I’ve had a one monitor setup, two monitor setup, and now a three monitor setup. Honestly, I really just like that I don’t have to switch spaces all the time. I can reference my Jira tickets while I work and chat with people all at the same time without having to switch spaces around any time I want to see certain details about something in a ticket or something someone said.
I also play games (separate PC) and stream, so the three monitors is useful for that, as well. I have the game up on my main monitor, and I use the side monitors to show my Twitch chat/bot, OBS, Discord, etc.
Yeah, like I said, I could absolutely use spaces and I have used spaces heavily in the past. Having three monitors is certainly a nice-to-have and personally I believe having everything up at once is superior to using spaces.
I sit a good 3.5 feet from my displays, so it’s pretty easy for me to look at my side displays without turning my head. Keep in mind my side displays are vertical. I probably would have to turn my head if they were in a horizontal orientation.
Anyway, it’s all about what you prefer, can afford, etc. For me, this is my ideal setup.