You can configure them as separate screens (zaphod mode). Xinerama and combined desktops came later. I use this on a device where .0 is a control panel on a touchscreen, and .1 is an HDMI output to screens and projectors, for an event A/V control system.
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The "problem" with zaphod mode is that while the screens can share keyboard and mouse, windows can't span screens or move between them, and this isn't great for a modern desktop paradigm. But it works great when the several screens have strictly different purposes.
Also, before multihead video cards and before hacks to unify multiple single head video cards, this was the only reasonable way to use multiple GPUs to get multiple outputs. Could have totally different features too (e.g. opengl support).
