LCD monitors are catching up with CRT's at a very fast rate.
The latest crop is beginning to actually surpass CRT's in almost every respect.
All the old problems of LCD's are being overcome one by one.
There are a few LCD's out there that are actually brighter & sharper then any CRT currently available.
Dell makes a great one as does Sony, Samsung, & NEC.
A professional programmer friend of mine has used a lot of Sony CRT's throughout the years & never thought a LCD could ever come anywhere near the overall quality of image of his beloved Sony's.
The company he works for will, from time to time, plop a new LCD on his desk. He will use it for a short time & push it aside & goes back to his Sony CTR.
A couple of weeks ago they put a new Dell LCD on his desk. It is so superior to any of his Sony CRT's that he has pushed the Sony aside & is now using the Dell LCD.
He says it is brighter, has better color, better contrast, is sharper all the way across the screen, has a very wide viewing angle, & that text is much easier to view with his tired old eyes.
He likes it so much he bought one for his personal use at home & gave his Sony CRT to his son.
Sooo... the bottom line is nothing stays the same & things are changing (for the better) as far as LCD's are concerned.
The prices of LCD's are now at the same level that CRT's were just two or three years ago. My current Sony 19 inch flat screen CRT cost me $650 US in 2001. Today you can buy a much better 18 - 20 inch LCD for the same price.
In a year or two we will be hard-pressed to even find a CRT of any quality for sale.