After my initial switch from a single to dual monitors, I couldn't imagine ever going back to just one. Let alone a tiny laptop display. Shocked at how many single-laptop-and-not-much-else setups I saw in the examples given.
Around a month ago, I started using an 11" Macbook air as I was travelling a lot, and I must say, I'm absolutely blown away at how productive I have been for development work.
With a tabbed text editor (ST2), browser, and terminal combined with Lion full screen & OSX spaces, everything is so nice and compact and you can switch around in less time than it takes to turn your head across to the other side of a monitor. I seem to be hitting flow very easily and have been doing some great work since I started using this laptop.
Of course, being able to take my primary machine with me everywhere I go is also a real bonus. I'm getting some great work done on my side projects on my commute or on flights, and am quickly able to dial in to customer sites etc without being compromised in any way.
I'd recommend that anyone give this a go. I'm definitely going to keep trying to minimise and simplify my tools after this experience.
I gradually drifted away from the monitor, and now just sit in front of the laptop. I think I just got sick of wasting time every morning plugging 4 cables into my mac (power, monitor, usb, headphones). I also like the mbp keyboard better (a LOT better) than Apple's quiet low-profile key usb keyboard. Yeah, I could have just gone with a different keyboard, but I _really_ like the keyboard on my macbook. Not using a mouse, I move my hands less. The gestures make me more efficient (and I use BetterTouchTool, as well). I also _really_ like the trackpad on my macbook.
I think there are several benefits to using just the laptop:
1. The browser is usually hidden behind the code I'm working on, instead of staring me down. I'm distracted less, and with the keyboard I can quickly switch to the browser just as quickly as I could turn my head.
2. Whether I'm at my desk in the office, the table at home, or lounging in bed, I'm always using the same setup. I typically do most of my work ssh'd into the cloud, so I don't really care about transporting my .vimrc all over with Dropbox, but if that weren't the case, my dot files always with me.
3. I'm more comfortable since I don't have to keep turning my head back-and-forth between the two screens, and I don't have to keep swapping my hand between the keyboard and mouse.
I think my ideal setup would be to have a very high-resolution display like an Apple Cinema display.
A virtual desktop for each of the following: browsing, comms, notetaking. And the rest of my desktops (usually 9 total) partitioned per-project. When doing web dev stuff, i tend to put a browser in one desktop for that project, and dev stuff in the desktop immediately to the right of it.
When I'm in an appropriate place, (home, work, the occasional hotel room where heavy dev is going on between meetings et al), I'll arrange another computer or attached monitor/tv to do dashboarding (preferring the another computer approach). The dashboard has test pass/fail lists, tailing logs, other information as needed for the particular project. It makes it easier to ignore, but accessible when needed.
One thing the reduced screen space has done for me is help me identify opportunities for good dev practice. For example, if I find myself annoyed at the number of times I'm switching between vim and the terminal, it might be time to write a script that I can call (or even hotkey) from vim. It also helped me learn to use tabs/windows in vim and eclipse better and more productively, because I couldn't just put them next to each other anymore. Now when I do have the option for mutliple screens, one is usually blank anyway, because I find myself anoyed at switching windows, even if its a simple mouse move away.
Of course, this is just my experience, influenced by my preferences, but hopefully it can give you some insight into other modes of working :)
Which monitor do you put it on?
And don't you mind always keeping your neck turned at a slight angle?
I had 27 inch, and I would mind the angle of just looking at the side of it. I hated, that I had to turn my neck in order to see something.
Also I wouldn't have to buy the monitors at the same time. (Should they be side by side I would want the exactly same monitor.)