“Most laptops can support external monitor resolutions that go
well beyond the 1280 x 800 common on most 14 and 15 inch notebooks.
Even the hot little Asus 1000HE Netbook (eeePC) can push a 1440 x
900 picture out to the external RGB port.“Only using external monitors once in a while, though, presents
problems. People inevitably wait until the last minute to hook up
the equipment only to find out that something doesn’t work as
expected or worse, the screens are messed up with no obvious way
back.“People have blamed proprietary vendors, like Nvidia, for the
aggravation. Open Source developers are working to address those
topics.“I take a pragmatic approach and try to work with what I have.
Yes, I use the Nvidia drivers with Xubuntu. Yes, I’ve had to reload
the drivers occasionally when I upgrade my system. Such is the
world, but I can tell you that my graphics are absolutely
phenomenal.”