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Comment by IceDane | Hacker News Reader

Windows 10 has this built-in now, and I use redshift on linux. I don't see how f.lux is going to compete against Windows 10's built-in feature tbh.

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I tried the Windows 10 built-in product, called Night Light, and switched back to f.lux because the Windows 10 solution doesn't do scheduling correctly.

I had it set to switch the colors at sunset in my location, which it detected to be at 7:56p. While using my computer late one evening, I wondered why everything was still so bright and obviously not using the appropriate yellow and orange hues. I checked on the Windows settings, it told me Night Light was "off until sunset (7:56 PM)", even though it was 8:52p. So it didn't realize that 7:56 < 8:52, and that it should have already turned on Night Light. f.lux just works, Windows 10's solution does not.

That's funny, I uninstalled f.lux out of frustration with its scheduling. I don't sleep normally and it didn't seem to have any custom settings, I use a simple widget someone cooked up with a script to manage scheduling.

This bug has been fixed in recent builds. It's kind of amazing to have such a stupid bug in the release of windows.

With W10 you must enable location service to enable "sunset to sunrise". If you keep LS disabled you can only mechanically set up & down times, which slowly drifts by seasons.

With f.lux you can insert your location manually.

Frankly: why would you want to follow sunset to sunrise? That's clever and all, but not useful. What matters is your sleep schedule; just because the sun doesn't set until after 10pm doesn't mean you monitor needs to be on it's bluest setting until then; similarly, even when the sun sets at 1630, I really don't need my monitors to start putting me to sleep yet.

And in general, if I need to wake up early, I'd rather the monitors be at their bluest immediately, and not wait until sunrise.

A fixed schedule is better than the fancy sunset times.

It matters if you are in places with windows and/or tend to take breaks from your computer - in general, you'd want the "white" on your computer to be comparable to white materials in your surroundings, or the colors will be weird. There's no point making your computer already "red" if your room is lit by sunlight.

having used these programs for many years: the color casts caused by f.lux don't typically match surrounding light, even when everything switches roughly simultaneously (which is rare, because of all kinds of artificial sources that are on/off unpredictably to f.lux). I regularly set my night schedule well in advance of sunset, and it's not a problem; you always keep screen out of direct sunlight, and so far I've also managed to avoid direct sunlight in the visual vicinity simply because the contrast is too great. And that means that even in well-lit rooms, it's fine to have a screen slowly turn red. While it takes some getting used to - the same can be said of f.lux in general.

To each their own of course - if it bothers you, don't do that ;-). But from personal experience I can assure you that not everyone minds a reddish screen before sunset (honestly, many visitors don't even notice unless there's some other screen right next to it).

What is the difference? You're still revealing where you are--although of course if you enter it manually you can enter random coordinates in the same timezone.

The difference is giving it to the F.lux team specifically vs giving it to MS and other supported programs on your PC.

I'd rather just give it to F.lux. MS will use it to sell me Bing search results.

Ah, ok, it's a global setting.

I thought it was something like when websites ask for your location temporarely.

In the case of redshift, the location is only used locally so it's not sent to anyone. The concept of having to send a company your location information just to dim your screen strikes me as insane.

I tried it out and found the gradual transition to be still too abrupt and distracting. With flux I don't notice it gradually changing over the course of the evening, and that's enough for me to stick with it.

Especially since OSes with it integrated can probably do a better job of consistently dimming the screen. It's not really the competency of a third-party app.

Although ironically macOS's "Night Shift" is far buggier than f.lux was (widespread known issue where it doesn't turn off on the morning)

It seems as pretty much every platform has it already built-in.

Apple was first (?) to stole the idea from f.lux, and since then everyone else followed suit.

I don't see a lot of people going out of their way to install f.lux. On macOS I use the native option because it allows you to disable it for projectors and similar.

I find F.lux useful because it allows easily disable the feature if you need it. Also you can automatically turn it off for full screen apps, like movies or games.

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