You may change resolution only when you play winSPww2, or you may buy a bigger monitor!
If you find it difficult to read text when @ 1280 you may change your DPI, so text would look bigger.
To do this go (I'm assuming you are using ubuntu) System/Preferences/Looks/Characters (I'm guessing it, I have an Italian language install) then Details, and you can raise your DPI value.