What's the deal with the 1280x1024 size? Doesn't that distort the original image?
A 4:3 aspect ratio (standard monitor) gives the 1280x960 screen size... and a 16:9 ratio (widescreen) would be 1280x720.

So who decided on 1280x1024?

Chad.

It must have been a conspiracy among all the PC monitor manufacturers.

lol! =)

I think it's just one of those things that someone, back in the day, said, "Hey! This sounds like a good idea!" and everyone kinda followed along, because people have a tendency to do that. As for why, exactly, I got nothin'.
But I'll tell you I'm one of the followers, becasue that's what my resolution is set at.

I had never thought about it.
Now, I changed my resolution in 1280x960...

The real technical reason is that it is most efficient to group things (on a computer) by powers of 2 (due to the binary representation that computers use). 1024=2^10 and 1280=2^10+2^8 It is the most efficient configuration that was close enough the the desired 4:3 ratio.

WOW! "You learn a new thing everyday" they say. Today it's this, apart from my statics class.
CAEDES science&technology... this has a future......

Yea, your explanation seems much more reasonable than mine. I think when I wrote that I was (even more than I am now) sleep deprived. It looks like I tried to throw in as many local cliched sayings as possible. At least you didn't have to read "I'm not gonna lie to you", "All types of...", etc, or such lovely little gems as "pwned".

Ok, I'll refrain from using those ever again, too.