Which do you prefer? 4:3? 16:9? 16:10? 5:3? I don't believe a lot of people think about this nowadays but why did we switch over to a wide screen format? I kind of understand the argument that it's better to watch movies on a 16:9 monitor, maybe even better for playing games, but honestly for everything else I find that I prefer a nice 4:3 screen. My current desktop is actually set up with two different monitors, one 16:9 and one 4:3 and I usually find myself doing everything in the 4:3 while I only use my 16:9 for watching videos or playing games.
Also as far as laptops go I feel they should at least still be making 4:3 laptops, the last good one I know of is the now 7 year old IBM T60 series. It's not a big problem for desktop computers since anyone can go find an old monitor or even use one of each aspect ratio, but anyone who wants to work on a laptop will be stuck using either a screen that makes it too large to be portable or one so small that you have to scroll every few seconds while reading a document at a comfortable font size.
What do you guys think about this?

More screen real estate for programs and displaying content in general.
I think there was also something about the fact that our eyes can see more wider content easier that it made sense to do so.

i'm a n00b

I think, for computer use, the best aspect ratio is 5:4. I used to not care that much, the difference between 4:3, 16:10 (Haha, does anybody even remember those days?) and 16:9 meant nothing to me, but when I got my first 5:4 monitor... Man. It was perfect. Like, the right amount of space in all directions. I'd still use it to this day if the display board hadn't fried. When it died I was going to get another 5:4 monitor but even the 1240 x 1024 TFT screens were more expensive than 1080 IPS screens! It's crazy but I guess there's just no more demeand for them except in very specific (read: money isn't an obstacle) situations. Oh well, 1080 is nice for games and movies, so whatever...