So much of screen real estate is wasted in 16:9. I have vertical taskbars on my monitors because I would benefit more from the space available in Y-axis than on X-axis most of the time.
Sometimes the big landscape screen gets used as just that, sometimes as effectively two portrait screens³⁴. The tall one is very nice for reading documents/mail/HN/… and such, though a little thin occasionally⁵ so 16:10 would be nicer. The main Windows taskbar lives on the tall screen⁶. Not an optimal setup when sat down⁷ I find, but as I stand most of the time and it works really well for me like that, limitations when seated isn't a big issue.
[1] I gave up asking and just brought my own in, along with the standing desk I'd been asking about for years
[2] almost the same dot pitch as the other screen, so no need to faf with scaling to get things to look sufficiently similar on them
[3] when doing that I effectively have three tall thin screens - one at 1080x1920 two at 1280x1440 (about 13:16).
[4] in fact the Samsung one supports pretending to be two monitors that way using two inputs, one for each side, though I use the OS-/app-level positioning instead so I can nudge one side wider in some contexts
[5] some web designs assume you have more than 1080 pixels in width if you have more than 1024, in fact some just assume 1280+ full-stop (less a little in case some uses with 1280 have their taskbars on the side). For instance Google's right bar gets ~⅓ cut off for instance when searching for things that make it appear, and a number of online stores lose current basket information (that they put on a column at on the right) unless I scroll or move to the other screen
[6] top here, bottom at home, the difference due to how the monitor stand heights work out and the limits of my work space at home meaning the two screens line up differently in the two locations
[7] it is hard to find a comfortable position where I'm not craning my neck a little or forcing myself to set _too_ straight up
Not sure I agree with that.
The whole reason of switching to 16:9 is because TVs did and it’s cheaper for the manufacturers, AND they can advertise the same (or larger) diagonal for less square inches.
See also:
[1]: https://www.minitool.com/news/how-to-move-windows-11-taskbar...
Thank goodness I have an XPS13 with a 16:10 LCD. Now the fixed horizontal bar makes it feel like a 16:9 again. I tried auto-hiding the task bar but that just made other things behave weirdly.
I have a 39" 4k that I divide like you've described, two full width terminals on either side in pillar box framing my work area.
The 4:3 display is also why I initially considered a Framework laptop, but after exploring their performance and limitations, I'd rather just buy the panel and cyberdeck it for a fifth of the cost.
Dock and menubar are waste of space for 99% of the time that you're using your computer.