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For me, it's not a matter of number of screens, but total real-estate, aka resolution.
I have a 40" 4K TV (3820x2160) and a pair of 24" monitors (1920x1200) on my desk.
The 4K display by itself provides you with a ridiculous amount of space, but I'm not going to give up the two other displays I already had.
There's no going back.
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I am always amazed how people can manage more than one screen. I had 2 for a while at office and never really made any good use of it. I am probably way too much used to Alt + tab and Ctrl + tab.
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Just being able to have Chrome or a PDF open full screen on one monitor, while coding fullscreen on the other makes it soooooo worth while!
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
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I am using 2 (24" - 1920 x 1200) Screens. And it really makes the difference.
I have tried using 3 screens, but that's too much. (Apart from the functional part - You often look stupid when trying to find windows on it  )
So IMHO 2 is the right setup. Anything less or more will affect the productivity.
... and 6 - he must be really using his revolving chair instead of alt+tab. 
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I use two, and I could make use of a third. I don't think I would like the whole row-on-top thing.
Software Zen: delete this;
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The other advantage of having multiple screens is that when your cat decides to sit in front of one and stare at you (probably plotting revenge for the flea killing liquid I just applied to the back of his neck) you can continue to use the other one...
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
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Does that protect from an angry girl (intending to avenge), too?
The sh*t I complain about
It's like there ain't a cloud in the sky and it's raining out - Eminem
~! Firewall !~
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Unlikely, but perhaps worth a try.
I'd suggest that a bunch of flowers and some chocolates might work better though. Failing that body armour.
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
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I think would find it hard to efficiently use 6. However, I currently use 3, and I do find that I run out of space at times, I don't like having to minimize my windows while working. I would have my IDE on one, my browser one another, and my reference pdf on the third. Depends on what I'm working on I would also use my ssh client, I like to give the old putty a window of its own.
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I use 3 Dell u3011 30" monitors. I would hate to use less. I have one for my current IDE, one for a browser for testing and looking up anything I need on Google or StackExchange, and one for a console or database, depending on the task.
I can't imagine what I would use six for, but I'm not going to argue with someone who likes it - and the geek in me says "I'd love to try it."
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I been using 3 20 inch monitors for 8+.
I used 2 at 1 job wasn't the same, plus they skimped on the size.
I would need 2 minimum.
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I think it really depends on personal preferences. I switched to 2x24 about 3-4 years ago and didn't look back. In this past year I updated to 3x32 - main work area (VS/SQL), communication (email/Skype), and task list/miscellaneous. The two side monitors are in portrait mode. I still ALT+TAB, but I don't have to do that as much. A quick glance to side monitors lets me see what I want without needing to play through the multiple ALT+TAB sequences. It's easy to argue I have WAY too many windows open (I likely do), but it's my working style and it works well for me. Given how cheap monitors are now it's not hard to justify the cost vs. productivity savings. Heck, it used to be $2k for a 19" CRT, so getting 3x32" LED for less than that is awesome. Plus I get a nice tan 
Six monitors wouldn't work for me - can't imagine craning my neck upward constantly (I can only imagine the top monitors being useful for monitoring status vs. working desktop space). Six monitors seems overkill to me, but if it actually works for him (vs. him just trying to make his workstation look kick-ass) then who are we to judge?
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I use 4 at home:
Monitor 1 - Code
Monitor 2 - Web Browser (for code)
Monitor 3 - Web Browser (for research)
Monitor 4 - Other (Music, Youtube vids, RDP sessions, log viewing (tail -f), etc)
At work I only have 3 and I can say that i do miss my 4th monitor...
I guess it is one of those things: once you have it you don't want to be without it.
Eric
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Way back before we had personal computers I sat at 6 desks at once. One for my typewriter, one for my adding machine, one for my desk calendar, one for my stapler, one for my pencil cup and one for my phone.
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I've found that two has the biggest impact in regards to improved productivity. It hurts when I have to take the laptop out of the docking station and use it's "small" 17" screen all by itself. Three monitors is nice, but doesn't have the impact of two. Any more than three and I find the additional view space to be distracting.
I can see how having additional screens for monitoring systems might be helpful, but I'd want them to be hooked into another machine rather than a part of my rig.
Scott E. Corbett
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I moved to two screens about 15 years ago. Back then they were both 19-inch CRTs. After working like that for even a couple of weeks, I swore I would never go back to one screen. With flat panels life just got even better, and I now run four screens. Two are 1920*1200 and two are 1600*1200.
My typical layout is:
1. web browser open to the output of the application I'm developing (with other sites on tabs)
2. VStudio
3. View of SSMS, or Oracle tool, or MySQL workbench, or some other data source
4. Virtual console to the server I'm using
My biggest complaint is that every screen you buy these days is only 1080 tall, unless you get some ridiculous piece of hardware. I'm going to keep my collection of monitors until they can no longer be repaired.
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I use 3 on my development box, well really 2.5 since the 3rd ends up much more lightly loaded than the other two. I had 4 at one point - 3 external + the laptops build in screen - but found the 4th ended up getting next to nothing on it and went back to having my laptop closed and the dock under one monitor to reclaim a bit of desk space.
OTOH I could use 4 easily for a systems analysis type task I'm doing on a separate system. 1.5 for an explosion of small windows style UI data source, 0.5 for a word file with notes in text, 1 for a spreadsheet with notes/planning in tabular form, and 1 for the application I'm ultimately sending data to.
Did you ever see history portrayed as an old man with a wise brow and pulseless heart, waging all things in the balance of reason?
Is not rather the genius of history like an eternal, imploring maiden, full of fire, with a burning heart and flaming soul, humanly warm and humanly beautiful?
--Zachris Topelius
Training a telescope on one’s own belly button will only reveal lint. You like that? You go right on staring at it. I prefer looking at galaxies.
-- Sarah Hoyt
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If you are running applications with logging output or monitoring live systems or watching programs operate, having 4+ monitors can be totally reasonable.
For example, right now I have CP open and my IDE on my two monitors. That means I can't see the build logs from Slack, or the live stats from Production, or my e-mail, or my CLI.
If part of your job involves keeping an eye on Production (probably the case at a small company / startup), then it's totally reasonable to have a monitor or two just watching the live data. Trying to debug an issue can often involve a web browser + an IDE + a DB window (CLI) and that's an easy excuse for at least a pair of monitors.
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Currently I have 3 screens.
1) The text of the IDE on a portrait monitor, or Unity Logs while the game is running.
2) Unity engine live editor plus the IDE tools (properties, solution explorer)
3) Unity engine gameplay.
I'm considering getting a fourth so that I can have the IDE and Logs on different monitors, since I often have to move the logs elsewhere in order to see them while stepping through the debugger.
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At work I switched my 2 smaller screens to a single 3440x1440 screen. At home I have 2 2560x1440 monitors on the wings and a single 3440x1440 in the center. If I added 2 more screens, I'd have to start going Lain on them and have them on arms above the other monitors pointing down towards me. That sounds crazy to me. I'm not saying I wouldn't do it, but it sounds crazy. I never said I was sane.
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Why? Do you fear it's dead and still ok at the same time?
The language is JavaScript. that of Mordor, which I will not utter here
This is Javascript. If you put big wheels and a racing stripe on a golf cart, it's still a f***ing golf cart.
"I don't know, extraterrestrial?"
"You mean like from space?"
"No, from Canada."
If software development were a circus, we would all be the clowns.
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I'm still waiting for my quantum co-processor and also neural co-processor. Or alternatively it can be akin to graphics card. With it's specialized instruction set. It would offload some specialized tasks from CPU. Heaven. 
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