After 10 years and three computers, my 17″ Dell CRT monitor finally gave out. It just so happened that this occurred while I was working on re-installing the drivers for my video card, so I was worried that I had messed up the card somehow. After some quick testing, I confirmed it was indeed the monitor. Ten year life span…not too shabby! This gave me an excuse to finally get a flat panel monitor. I didn’t have a chance to research flat panels, since I couldn’t see much on the monitor, so I just went to Best Buy for my research. Last year, or earlier this year - I can’t remember when, I had actually bought a flat panel, the Samsung 731B, from Circuit City. It was horrible. The text wasn’t clear, everything was fuzzy when scrolling, it was dark, etc. I chalked that up to a bad monitor, but after the experience, I decided to return it and hold off on getting a flat panel for a while.

I wasn’t about to get another CRT, wanting to jump into the fancy schmancy flat panel world, so I went straight to the flat panel section. After debating between widescreen and standard, I ended up with the standard format MAG LT 917S 19″ monitor. Wow, this is nice! It looks huge compared to my 17″ CRT and I like the extra space. It’s nice and bright and the text is clear. This isn’t a big name brand monitor, but it’ll looks like it’ll work out just fine. The downside to is that there are a couple of pixel defects, one of them actually several dead pixels in a row, so I’m going to return this for a new one of this model. However, I’m going to give it some time first, and fully test it out before I take it back. Just want to make sure I can live with it, without getting headaches, eyestrain, etc.

For those who care, I’m still primarily on Ubuntu, though I did have to install Windows XP to I could get run some of my gadgets (GPS, mp3 player) and games (World of Warcraft). I can probably get those to run under Ubuntu, but I’m tired of messing with them for now, so I opted for the easy route for the time being.