The issue is the agreements that cities have with cable companies to be the exclusive provider. Nobody can afford to become a new competitor because of these agreements and what it would cost to lease space on poles that are in a public right of way. It's a very corrupt system.
A rural electric Co-Op near me has been burying fiber all around the south edges of the OKC metro. They are burying all cable because while expensive to do, it saves them long term from having to lease on poles that they don't own.

If cities would open up to allow anyone to come in, and require pole owners to provide equal access since those poles are on public land, it'd be a very different story.

Portable Desktop/Dual Monitor Solutions?
 

Hi All:

For the past five months, I have been working at home using my 2015 Dell XPS 13 (9343) as my workstation logging in to my Windows 7 remote desktop at work via Citrix Workspace VPN using a Chrome browser. Early on, I bought a Dell U2415 24" monitor that I connect via the mini-DisplayPort output (the 9343 only has USB-A ports). My desk is our kitchen counter, so every day, I set up the monitor and laptop in the morning and break them down at the end of work. Now that it's looking more and more likely that I will be working from home for the foreseeable future (and likely on a semi-regular basis once our offices reopen), I'm looking for a better solution that would allow me to have dual monitors as a must, with a better keyboard as a nice-to-have.

My initial thought was to get a docking station, but I think my laptop is too old. So, I guess other options would be a USB Hub and buying another monitor or getting an 24" All-in-One and then connecting the second monitor via DisplayPort, HDMI, or USB-C. Any suggestions on what might work best for me? Again, this is something I have to set up and break down each day so am not looking for a solution that involves a lot of cables and hardware.

Thanks!

Why not just connect the 2nd monitor to your XPS' hdmi port? Can it display dual monitors to mini-display port and HDMI port? You can plug in your TV to test. But I don't know about this kitchen counter thing. My home setup is less than a 4' x 4' area with a small desk and chair. If you could carve out a 4'x4' area for yourself, I would do that instead.

The only video out on my laptop is mini DisplayPort.

+1 and I live in a small two bedroom apartment; she is using our second bedroom/home office while I am using our kitchen. We really don't have space for a semi-permanent desk.

Thanks!

So, when we (SO and I) both went full lockdown in late february, I bought one of these so she could have a roaming work desk, standing desk and move it around. In the LR, Bonus room, guest BR, whereever she wanted. https://www.michaels.com/sit-stand-a.../10583800.html

At the time, it was only 99$, and it's often same if you put a price tracker on it.

I then attached for her a dual monitor arm I bought from Amazon. I THINK this is the one I bought
The two 27" monitors float on the gas arms, and can be adjusted as you like. I had previously bought this one for MY desk and it worked very well.
The Arm attaches to the back of the desk easily and SECURELY. this desk is VERY stable, has either foot pegs or locking wheels. It is very easy to raise and lower one person, two handed (although we DO ineviteably do it together when she wants to shift from stand to sit or vice versa) Nice thing is it is very easy for her to move to a room with more light, different background (for zoom calls), etc.

The table does fold up nicely and stores easily, but I have to take the monitor clamp off to be able to put it away, so for most of the time it just gets wheeled into the GR or bonus room to be out of the living areas to reduce clutter.

On the desk, SO puts a small laptop strand where the laptop is elevated and to the side, with a secondary keyboard and mouse the whole setup works very nicely, standing or sitting.

You could also use your laptop as a second monitor on a stand like NexStand or Rooster or get a laptop attachment for a monitor arm. I bought the NexStand from this seller on eBay. It folds up fairly compactly and also supports taller heights than some more stationary stands.

Keyboard-wise, I bought a Logitech MX Keys last year. A lot of people like it but alas, I find it a little mushier and takes more effort to register key press than Apple Magic Keyboard and old wired Apple USB keyboard (two of my other keyboard options at home). So I'd advise just getting the same model you have used at work if you were ok with it, wired or not. It's also nice to have a spare mouse and keyboard in case of liquid accidents.

The U2415 should have a DisplayPort out that allows you to daisy chain a second monitor from it, not sure if it'll work with your laptop so you may need to hunt through the Dell Support docs

Thanks for that; it looks like the mini DisplayPort on my laptop is 1.2 and the GPU can support up to three displays so that may be an option. May I assume that I can stretch a browser window across two daisy-chained monitors of the same size and resolution? I think that is what I will need to do for my Citrix VPN. The goal is to have Word in one monitor and Excel in the other, for example.

I suppose another simple option is to buy an ultra-wide/curved monitor or a dual monitor bundle with a stand; +1 would likely be happy using the 24" monitor with her desktop.

Ultrawide would be a good simple solution for screen real estate without worrying about multiple output connections.

I got this a few months ago and now it is on sale :mad:
https://www.dell.com/en-ca/shop/dell...B&gclsrc=aw.ds

I love ultrawide for work.

I have this: https://www.dell.com/en-ca/shop/dell...or-accessories

"mine is bigger than yours"? ;):p

LOL! That wasn't really my intent. I was just trying to say that these large ultrawide monitors are perfect for work and avoid the hassle of a multi-monitor setup.

I'm kinda drooling at the 38" Dell Ultrawide; will hold out a few days to see if there's any back-to-school sales in August that may have some other tech deals for me to consider. Looks like I can get some exercise lifting the monitor every day to set it up and break it down.

At this point, it's practically August so you mind as well wait. It's hard to say when a sale will come. I got lucky because it was on sale when I made up my mind to buy it. The curved part felt different and it does make it more immersive, but I think that's more of a preference kind of thing. I don't have any regret dismantling my previous triple LCD setup. I think a large ultrawide is the better option. I've had this LCD for a while now. I also prefer this model because it have more vertical pixels. I think 1600px is about as tall as it gets for ultrawide. Even the bigger 49" ultrawide have less vertical pixels. You won't regret getting this LCD for work!

I’d rather have two monitors than an ultra-wide. More pixels overall, plus the ability to snap four windows instead of just two.