I can’t under-emphasize how much of a difference this makes for me.

I do most of my work on a 15-inch Macbook Pro laptop and when I started to work with some of the more complicated programming assignments for class, I noticed that I was using the “spaces” feature of Leopard to switch between programming and debugging tools.  I also had a window open for a browser in case I needed to look up some reference information.

Now I can do all of those on the same screen.

It’s hard to emphasize how much of a difference it makes in the way you interact with your computer.

In my case, I’m expecting to do a lot of programming this semester.  Couple that with the distance ed courses I’m taking in Ruby/Rails and Formal Methods and I’m going to be spending a lot of time in front of the machine.  It made sense to optimize the experience as much as possible.

Ultimately, it was my birthday that provided the final justification for the purchase.

Go out and take a look at a few and then start saving.  Amazon has a number of them at various price points.

Apple 30-inch Cinema Display