Ade Malsasa Akbar contact
Senior author, Open Source enthusiast.
Friday, May 14, 2021 at 11:17

Don't have great displays? Here you can see Ubuntu displayed in high resolutions by 1400's and better as well as get a way to test them even without buying a monitor device. I tried to collect how it looks starting with normal desktop, menu, and Activities overview, to system tray, calendar tray, Settings, LibreOffice Writer and Ubuntu Software. You will find here multiple aspect ratios by 4:3, 16:9, and 16:10. Lastly, because Ubuntu is based on GNOME desktop environment, this article applies to GNOME as well no matter what other GNU/Linux distro you are using. Now let's have a look!

Subscribe to UbuntuBuzz Telegram Channel to get article updates.

1000's

1024x768 (4:3) 

1000's


This is the standard resolution of the old VGA monitors and the lowest one in this comparison. Larger than this is considered High. In this resolution, Ubuntu looks narrow / crowded while at the same time items would look somewhat bigger to the eyes of old people, new users, and kids.


1300's

1368x768 (16:9)

1300's

This is the HD resolution (however, in our experiment it got addition by 2 pixels horizontally). This is the standard of all laptops since 2010's especially the non-premium ones. In this resolution, Ubuntu looks wider than the 1000's.


1400's

1440x900 (16:10)

1400's


This is the WXGA+ resolution. All HD displays today support this. This resolution is similar to 1300's one so there's not much differences except some wider space vertically in everything. Please notice LibreOffice's Tab Bar cannot be displayed fully with an aid button displayed to view the hidden parts; Files (Nautilus) address bar positioning is in between two narrow spaces; but Settings; About section can be displayed fully with no scrollbar.

 

1600's

1600x900 (16:9)

1600's

This is the HD+ resolution. In this resolution, Ubuntu looks much wider with more empty spaces in between items on screen. Starting here, LibreOffice's Tab Bar displayed fully without hidden parts. Starting here too, Nautilus (Files) address bar looks centered.


1900's

1920x1080 (16:9)

1900's

This is the Full HD resolution also known as 1080p. In this resolution, Ubuntu looks fit in everything. No hidden items with wide workspace with much empty space. The difference to 1600's is that the Applications Menu looks much wider as all items are arranged in the middle leaving large blank areas left and right. Please notice Software displays full description of an app but not as deep as its license section.


2000's

2048x1152 (16:9)

2000's

This is the QWXGA resolution. In this resolution, similar to all other high resolutions Ubuntu looks fit and starting here Software displays full information of one app including its Details (licensing) section and even Ratings (stars) section.

 

2300's

2368x1770 (4:3)

2300's

This is the last highest resolution in this comparison. This is an uncommon resolution. It is similar to the 1000's one by ratio (square) but with much more pixels horizontally and vertically like 2000's.
 

Miscellaneous

I make use of virtualization to display Ubuntu in multiple resolutions. To achieve that, I use AQEMU and select VMWare Video Card option rather than Standard as Graphics choice on the VM page. With this, anyone without good monitor device can have Ubuntu on high resolution.

 

References

Display Resolution (Wikipedia)

Graphics Display Resolution (Wikipedia)



This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.