http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/152038/prevent-redr...
I heard anecdotes that it was passable on Mavericks, but prior to that there were all manner of basic usage problems.
It makes me think that there must be some kind of "apple way" resistance to multiple monitors ? Is it considered a "wrong" use-case ? Do people at apple not use multiple screens in their own work ? (how could they, with the issues that have plagued it since snow leopard...)
What's the deal ?
OSX (and I think even earlier MacOS) have supported multiple monitors for quite a long time, historically better than most other OSs. Many of us use multiple monitors on OSX with no problems. One neat thing OSX/MacOS have always done with multiple monitors is allow you drag windows from one to the other as if they were one big workspace -- even having a window partially on one monitor and partially on another, with it working fine.
What has happened recently is that the combination of the OSX UI, multiple monitors, and new features to support a 'full screen' mode (which seems to some people like a sort of convergence with iOS) -- have been problematic. Apple has had trouble deciding what _should_ happen with multiple monitors in this situation, and has had trouble making it work reliably.
Until the most recent OSX release, you could only do 'full screen' mode on your 'main' monitor, the other monitors would all go dark. Which was pretty annoying for those who wanted to use this newish feature. But other than that, multiple monitors had no real problems.
In the most recent OSX, they've tried to do some things to take care of this, so you can use 'full screen' mode on all your monitors (one 'full screen' workspace on each monitor). (Sadly, these things also get rid of the ability to have a window half on one monitor and half on another).
The solution they tried appears to have some technical problems. Which yes, is frustrating for people with multiple monitors, who want to use the 'full screen' feature, with the new improvements (which you can turn off if you want, to back to only being able to use one monitor in full screen mode).
I think many people do have a sense that Apple QA isn't quite as good as it used to be. And they do seem to be having trouble getting the new-ish 'full screen mode' (which people seem to like) to work reasonably with multiple monitors. But I don't think it accurately represents the history to suggest that OSX has historically poorly supported multiple monitors. I am not familiar with what you are referring to when you say "prior to [Mavericks] there were all manner of basic usage problems," that has not been my experience and I have not previously heard of such experience.
Such as? And how?
"even having a window partially on one monitor and partially on another, with it working fine."
Huh? In Safari, on 10.10 - dragging a window from my iMac to half on my TB display results in the window being partially visible on the iMac, and not at all visible on the TB. When you drag further to the TB display (so your mouse, but not the entire window is on the TB), then it snaps to the TB display. Both inconsistent and not at all what you describe. I don't have any windows so far I can get to sit across monitor boundaries.
Which I read later is related to 10.10?
So handling of multiple monitors is broken from one extreme (full screen pre Mavericks) to the other "Well, full screen works now, but your screens are effectively fenced off (Yosemite). Not sure how this is "better than most" support for multiple monitors.
"(which you can turn off if you want, to back to only being able to use one monitor in full screen mode)."
That's a horrible hack that with everyone's insistent claim on Apple's attention to detail and quality should never have made it passed QA.
Mac OS and OS X always had good multi-monitor support. In 10.7+ Apple tried to push a "one app in fullscreen as in iOS" approach as new paradigm, negatively affecting the multi-monitor experience. It backfired and they adjusted in 10.9+.
The monitors built into Apple products are typically much better than consumer $150-$200 monitors and most externals look horrible side-by-side with Macs (dim, mismatched color, wildly lower pixel density, etc). It wasn't until I bought a $400 24" IPS UltraSharp that using an external monitor next to my laptop was actually preferable.
[0] http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/152038/prevent-redr...
[1] http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/152038/prevent-redr...
I used to use a Matrox DualHead2Go DP Edition so I could use my two 19" monitors in addition to my main laptop screen. Earlier this year I bought a LandingZone docking bar which let me run one monitor via miniDV and the other via HDMI. This solution has worked pretty well so far, so I hope the flickering either magically fixes itself or that I'm able to find some cause and resolution. :)
I need my three monitors. I've never liked the whole idea of virtual desktops, etc. and I like being able to see mail, calendar, shell, and browser just by glancing instead of requiring any sort of gesture or keystroke.