Even so it happens. I bought my pair since I couldn't get a pair any other way. Even at this years Google IO you couldn't sign up to get a pair. I think it would have been interesting to buy them with Bitcoin though but in my case I paid cold hard cash for mine.
I use Arch Linux with a tiling windows manager like Awesome/Xmonad (currently using Awesome). I like how lightweight this and prefer to not use a mouse as it cuts down efficiency so I use a combination of Vim, Vimperator, tmux, and Awesome to quickly get things done).
That makes sense. I don't think I really swivel that much as I just slightly turn my head which gives me basically two monitors of screen. So basically I have my main screen which is full view. I turn my head slightly to the left and I see half the left screen. Same goes with the right.
The other half of the screen on both the left and right sides are used for less common things like email, dashboards , etc (though most of my right side is used for that too.. its a lot of space hehe).
So in reality you may have three big screens but you are really only using two without actually swiveling your head (one + half + half).
If I want to use the far half on either of the side monitors I do tilt (which is why they mostly have static stuff).
Though for everything you need to kind of break it up in sections because your eyes are moving around a lot if you are trying to do stuff with the whole screen (ie: if you play a game its harder because you have to keep looking at the four corners to get all the info), but for programming and other stuff you might use a split screen or triple split and just be working on X file in a part of the screen.
Distance is 3 1/2 feet for the front monitor and 3 feet for the side monitors but with a bit more angle on the sides.
Also, worth noting for me I find I use the left and middle one 90% of the time and the 3rd one is mostly for dashboards and email etc. I would assume that is probably very similar any any multi monitor setup.
I am trying to relate to your comment on your 55" TV. I guess the best way I can explain it is If its like any other TV out there it has a resolution of 1920x1080 at 1080p. So if you tried to do any work at any distance it would be useless like you stated above. As a thought experiment take your TV and chop it into four sections and take your TVs resolution and put it in one of those squares. That is what 3840x2160 resolution is like. Its any easy way to remember 4K as 4 times your 1080p resolution (though it really means 4K as in 4000). Hopefully that helps explain it better. If not just let me know.
Worth noting for any of you Apple TV users out there. This last update will constantly fail unless you use WIFI. I wish I would have seen this post before but since the update came out a couple weeks go. I tried resetting my settings, restoring to factory default. Today, I decided to fix it once and for all or buy a new one. Finding out that I needed to unplug my Ethernet cord to get the update to work was a mind blower for me.
This article seems to simulate a lot interesting thoughts for me on the future of Apple. It might be interesting discussion material.
I consider my line of work a general technologist. I find I have to consume huge amounts of information so I can advise the people I work with. Though for programming or reverse engineering its amazing. I love the fact I can run Visual Studio on one screen and still have the ability to have WinDbg and IDA Pro as well as the app I am working on all running and visible as well as keep whatever dashboards open at the same time. I also like to have at least one Linux virtual machine open simply because I prefer Linux for quick tasks so I always have a terminal open and ready to go (VMs really are awesome for compartmentalizing but its a whole another topic).
Its really hard to describe the effect of this size of screen and resolution. You can consume information at a much faster and natural rate as compared to a smaller display that is high resolution (ie: a 2880x1800 retina). I think your brain has to use extra processing power to scale the fonts up or something or maybe the patterns your brain uses to build the letters and words just work better when its clearly visible without any thinking. Who knows... I just know it increases my productivity leaps and bounds.
I figure for something that I spend over a third of my life in front of I want them to make me as efficient as possible. Some people like to buy cars. I like to buy things to be more efficient and these monitors help me do this.
BTW, All of these mount nicely on a geek desk without the top (the smaller of the two versions they sell). They just fit perfectly. So I use four Geek desks.. 3 for the monitors and one in the center. If you want an amazing desk setup that is the way to do it. That way you can sit or stand when you work.
Even though they sell them as Toshiba monitors they ship you Chilin brand model ST-HB561X. Here is a PDF of the specs:
www.chilinsolutions.com/LiteratureRetrieve.aspx?ID=51570 according to the rep they are the same.
It may also be worth noting that these operate at 50 Hz (I didn't see it int he specs above). Which is fine for me for pretty much anything. I mention this because 10 years ago or so I was using an IBM T220 with a refresh rate of 24 Hz with a similar resolution and it was brutal. Though I honestly never am bothered by the 50 hz refresh and only notice it if I am trying to push some game to max settings.
I current use three 3840x2160 monitors (4K displays) (55" each) which in my opinion is a huge upgrade to my previous six 30" Apple cinema display configuration.
I got mine from IDT (http://toshibadisplays.com) for around 30k USD each a couple years ago. I think they might be considerably less now especially with the new 32" 4K displays coming out in 2013.
The resolution is split so every display is basically 1920x2160 x2. The hard part is driving these since each one is considered two monitors by the host OS. I use a Quadro Plex 7000 to power two of them and just use my third one with Synergy on a second machine.
Nvidia has a tool called Mosiac which allows you to turn the screens into one big screen. I also think the ATI Eyeinfinity cards are an option but I personally never tried those.
If you have a Mac or MacBook and want to give Arch Linux a shot: https://github.com/yantis/instant-archlinux-on-mac
Just run one line in Mac OSX and ten minutes later (depending on bandwidth) you will have a fully usable dual boot Arch Linux system.