for a long time, 1366x720 was the best you could do on laptop resolution at 15 inches and below, and that even many 17 inchers were only 1600x900. I had to spend a pretty penny on a midrange gaming laptop to get full HD res at the beginning of this year to replace that Dell, and of course, NOW the laptop makers are following the success of the tablets and smartphones with full HD and higher res. Grr.
I know that you said you don't think higher res helps, ed, but I gotta say, going between my HD res laptops and my wife's 1366 is night and day. More real estate to work with, less UI clutter...the toolbars and scrollbars don't feel like they take up half the page. :)
I've been using the "taskbar on the side" method for a while, even back on the Dell. Had the same epiphany as you. But I also bought a 16:9 monitor (2048x1152) that was originally hooked up to an old Mac tower, but now serves as a second monitor for my laptop. Dual monitors is a lovely, lovely thing. Going full screen with Firefox, enabling the tabs to stack above the URL box, frees up the essential real estate beneath, and I have the Port Monkey sub windows open on the second screen, along with the rest of my desktop and sticky notes.
Apple's stuff is still 16:10, right? I wish the other manufacturers would bring that back.