[TriLUG] OT: Monitor aspect ratios

[Owen Berry]

I've noticed in the past that images viewed on my Linux desktop look
wider than when viewed on other PC's, running Windows or Linux. It
occurred to me to look at the aspect ratio of the monitor I am using and
compare it to my xorg.conf settings. When doing a physical measurement I
came out with a typical 4:3 ratio. However, I was running at 1280x1024,
which is 5:4. Thinking I had messed up when creating my xorg.conf I
double checked the specs on my monitor (Dell M780).

The documentation lists the following resolutions: 640x480, 800x600,
1024x768 and 1280x1024, so I hadn't messed up when determining what
resolution to run at. What is confusing is that the aspect ratios in the
above list are 4:3, 4:3, 4:3, 5:4. Does that strike anyone else as odd?
Anybody who knows more about this than me care to comment?

It's a dual boot Windows box, although Windows hardly ever sees the
light of day, but Windows provides the same resolutions as the Dell
documentation.

I tried running at 1280x960 (4:3), BTW, but the refresh rates didn't
seem good. I'm now running at 1152x864 which looks better in terms of
clarity, but I do miss the higher resolution.

Thanks,
Owen