I remember when we had lan parties back in the day and one of my friends who was an intern in a it firm could take one of their super nice monitors home. It was just as deep as a normal monitor and 19 inches i think, but it was somehow special or better because the screen itself wasn't curved, it was straight. That thing was so heavy it almost broke my desk that i offered him. It was a two man operation to move that thing. i mean more of a two boy operation, it was still heavy as fuck.
Sounds like a Sony Trinitron to me. I had a 17" one for about a decade and it was equally magnificent and heavy. The largest one was 24" 16:10 widescreen.
I wanted one so badly, but while these were finally somewhat affordable in 2010 (and still vastly superior to any flat-screen monitor), the shipping costs would have been ruinous.
I worked in tech since about 2000. I was super evangelical about lcd's. Wanted to get rid of our crts asap. Unfortunately the ones we kept the longest were huge ones that had geat specs.
I was doing an intern term as IT support for a school in 2006 and I had to change all the screens they use, as they upgraded gear while the students had a holiday.
I had to lug these 21" or were they even 23" CRT's.
MASSIVE.
Still hurts my back to think about it. Dozens and dozens off those things ufffff. I too gave a few to some friends who wanted them as they got donated somewhere so
Luckily the replacements were TFT's. Even though they weighed like 5x what similar flat screens weigh nowaday.
LANs were an entirely different business when monitors took so much space
My wife had a flat screen TV that was like 40" across when I met her. When we moved in together it took 3 people almost an hour to get that thing down the stairs. It must have weighed 400 pounds. We used nylon webbing straps on our forearms to loop under the TV and provide some support, and it left deep, red marks on our arms for over a week. Those fucking things must have been filled with lead.
Oh I had a really great corner desk for many years. I loved it so much. Similar to the one in the pic but no shelves at all, just all desk and a really sturdy steel frame.
The thing I liked most about it was that your arms were really well supported while typing and it never jiggled the monitor when you typed like my current cheapo IKEA desk. The bloody ginormous monitors of the time were a factor too as OP says.
I miss my corner desk so much. It's not just leg room, it's left and right storage. Take up a bulky corner. Looks better in a room. I'm surprised at the lack of corner computer desks in modern furniture.
lol .... I've got the exact same desk and I converted it to a longer desk to place two systems on it ... the corner design is a pain because they place a post at the corner so any leg room you had down there is lost because the of corner post. Then you also lose space with the keyboard tray because only a small area is clear in the center and you lose space at the angled corners where your hand keeps hitting the left keyboard side and the right hand is squeezed in by the desk and mouse. Then you also lose space in the corner desk area with a large monitor because you can't recess a 26" flat screen, you have to bring it out. I had to move and redesign the upper shelves to place two 26" monitors in the corner and one off the side.
Neat idea but it doesn't really save you any space or increase comfort.
They don't work well with widescreen monitors, let alone ultrawide or multi monitor setups. They give this illusion of space but ultimately they're just too cramped.
They really were. I had a 21" Dell Trinitron "flatscreen" monitor as my last CRT. It took a LOT of jiggling to get that beast into my car. Corner desk was so good for just eating up the depth.
Great monitor though in fairness. Very kind on the eyes compared to other ones I'd previously used. You kinda forget how harsh monitors used to be on your eyes in those days.
both of our desks in the office are 'corner' ones.. no hutch over either, though, so the back corner space is usable. one has fairly large laser printer in the corner and the deeper 'leg' of the desk does still have a crt monitor (19in trinitron) on it (the other side has three 5:4 lcd), the other desk holds a sff slim tower and a rack for file folders in its corner. they each also have one or two midtower pc on the floor under the corner and out of the way.
I still have a corner desk at home. We got it when we purchased our first home. It is a solid office furniture style that weighs a ton. Flat screens where becoming the norm and we got it for like 15% of the list price.
What's nice about it today.
The router, modem, backup hard drives, security system, are all tucked behind the double monitors we have now. That back corner offers a lot of desk space for stuff that needs to be tucked away and not bothered.
Leg room- there's tons of it under the desk.
Fits well in the bedroom we have setup as an office. We have a window to the back yard in that room. The corner desks allows us to lean back to look outside while keeping the monitors out of the sun.
Writing surfaces on either side. I am ambidextrous and can write with either hand. However the desk works for both right or left handed people.
Probably at least one big reason is that most non techy people switched to laptops which can be used anywhere, so no reason to have a huge computer desk taking space anymore when the dining table or sofa is good enough.
CRTs were one reason, but the other was because you had to have storage for all your manuals and CDs and Floppy disks and other stuff you were constantly putting in your computer and taking out.
I had a little corner cabinet that closed up when it wasn't in use. You would open the doors and slide the keyboard tray out when you wanted to use the computer.
I remember talking to coworkers at their desks, leaning over their CRTs and feeling the heat coming off them. Not the worst thing in the winter, but I hate to think how much more AC we burned through in the summer.
I love them but I don't bother with custom jobs like this. I just put a desk in a corner and have another desk or table of the same height but up against it. I like putting some shelves in the corner behind the monitor for storage