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Just because you have a wide display doesn't mean that all of it can or should be used. For example, lines of text not taking up the whole width is a good thing - if you have to turn your head to read across the screen, it's more straining and takes more time. It's the same reason why newspapers are printed in columns and not across the page.

Now, depending on what kind of content you deliver, that empty edge space can be filled with something else (like what Wikipedia does) or just be blank if there's nothing useful you can put there.




In general, I agree, but there are some things that should be allowed to go wider when the space is present. In particular, horizontal scrolling is evil. Sometimes it is a necessary evil, but forcing it because the wide content doesn't fit in the width that you are using for reflowable text is bad.


> It's the same reason why newspapers are printed in columns and not across the page.

In fact, arguably the point of a wide display is to create your own columns i.e. putting more windows on the screen, or more panels within a single window in an application like a code editor. What's the point of the real estate if you just put one browser window on there? I only go fullscreen to watch movies or play games, which is somewhat analogous to full-page media spreads in newspapers.


If I have to horizontally scroll forth and back line by line to read the whole text I'm a lot slower.




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