lcd monitors and linux

[Bruce Marshall]

On Thursday 27 March 2003 17:49 pm, Collins Richey wrote:
> On Thu, 27 Mar 2003 17:29:15 -0500 (EST)
>
> Net Llama! <netllama at linux-sxs.org> wrote:
> > On Thu, 27 Mar 2003, el lodger wrote:
> > > I'm thinking about getting a lcd monitor. Are these supported
> > > by the 2.4.x kernel? If so, any recommendations or gotchas?
> > > What specs are important and what should I be looking for aside
> > > from the actual picture? For example, would the contrast ratio
> > > 500:1 be better than 350:1?
> >
> > the kernel doesn't provide monitor support, X provides that support.
> > But yes, they're supported in XFree86-4.x.  I don't know anything
> > about constrast ratios.  I'd think that the maximum resolution would
> > be key.
>
> X is only concerned with the vertical/horizontal specs and the
> resolution - LCD or standard monitor.
>
> The higher the contrast ratio the better.  As far as I remember, the
> LCD jobs are designed to be operated only at the stated maximum
> resolution. Any lower resolution will result in poor display quality. 
> I recommend ViewSonic for everything, but I have no actual experience
> with the LCD monitors. After agonizing for months, I decided to get a
> 19" ViewSonic A90f+ monitor ($279) rather than the equivalent size LCD
> unit ($600++). It's a big improvement over my old 17" monitor.  The
> diplay is sharper at 1280x1024 than may old monitor was at 1024x768. 
> Of course, I needed to increase font sizes for the browser and
> sylpheed.
>
> YMMV.
>
> Of course, if you have limited desk space, that could tilt the
> equation.

Gee Collins, we agree on something!!  I too recommend Viewsonic and I'm 
using a Viewsonic VE800 (18inch) LCD monitor as I type this.  Connecting 
it to SuSE 8.0 was no problem... it self configured itself and you are 
right, it wants to run at its max resolution of 1280x1024.  

The look and feel of it 'might' be a bit better than a tube monitor but 
not enough for me to really be worth the difference in price.

(and here I am with a gentoo CD I'm going to play with and you're off 
playing with Slackware...  (my first linux distro) )  What comes around, 
goes around I guess.   :-)


-- 
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
+ Bruce S. Marshall  bmarsh at bmarsh.com  Bellaire, MI         03/27/03 
18:06  +
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
"I think that God in creating man somewhat overestimated his ability." -
  Oscar Wilde