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F.lux

justgetflux.com

46 pointssatyampujari48 comments

I, and I'm sure the rest of HN, loves F.lux...but is there a reason why this needs to be posted every month or two? There hasn't even been an update (and the promised OSX update is no where to be seen)

Honestly, for most things I would agree... but F.lux has made such a difference in my own sleep, at least, and therefore overall life quality, that I feel like it's one of the very few thing that deserves to be posted every month or two (in fact, I can't really think of anything else).

It's funny how, even after years, it's such an amazing tiny piece of software... that still almost nobody knows about, outside of mostly just the hacker community.

I mean, it's almost a crime it isn't already a native part of OSX and, especially, iOS.

Yes- I always point to f.lux as an example of little feature that every single graphical operating system could benefit from having, and yet that no OS creator includes as a feature. More than that- I want an entire OS that has dark on light windows/text/widgets/etc. during the day, and light on dark at night - this would be configurable, but by default automagically determined by your geographical location. On OSX, one can hack such a setup using an app like Nocturne, but it's clunky.

At every new Windows, OSX, iOS, Android release we get new features (some debatably useful - i.e. notification center in OSX, or integration with the new social network of the day) - but some key stuff that would make human-computer interaction noticeably better is just missing.

A few other things that I can't believe are still not standard in a 2014 OS: better copy and paste (the damn thing has been clunky for 30 years, see Ted Nelson's rant), better window management, better support for interacting across multiple nearby computers (Airdrop is a tiny step in that direction), ...

There's a side project idea right there, hnlist or something similar which lists things/questions that HN users are fond of posting. Maybe auto updates to include every mention's thread as well!

This program is so good and beneficial to the eyes that I don't mind a repost. Spread the word.

Agreed!

Every once in a while I'll get a little bored with the orange hue (perhaps I need to tweak my settings a bit) so I'll turn it off, and my god! So vibrant but the physical eye pain is tormenting.

You really don't even realize how bad things are until you've F.lux and tried to go back. Try it out if you aren't already using it!

I've had the same experience. I can't believe I stared at such a glaring screen at night for so many years.

In agreement here.

Karma whoring reposters have leaked from Reddit.

relevant: http://xkcd.com/1053/

I'm happy to assume that the reason why flux getting reposted and more importantly why it keeps getting upvoted to the front page is because new people are hearing about this great tool everyday.

Good for you for assuming the best in people.

I wonder if you've posted the derogatory statement if you were the author of F.lux. Have respect for free software, have respect for the time & effort of the coder, have respect for the people who care to share and if you can't "show" respect, at-least do not show disrespect. FYI, I (and many others)discover tons of cool work on HN everyday because they're reposted by someone who cared to share. No hard feelings. Peace.

Most important. Desktop. Utility. Ever.

I'm surprised of how few people even in our industry know about it. There hasn't been a single case where I show it to someone and he/she wasn't impressed. I'm so accustomed to using it that if for some reason it stopped working I believe my productivity would suffer at least 40%. Especially for those long winter hours it's a life saving app.

Where's the damn donate button?

Sorry to maybe sound silly but why? I've used it, it didn't feel good (my eyes kind of hurt) so I removed it. I see you're enthusiastic about it, what other benefits does it have if you don't mind me asking?

You have to adjust the settings. I'm using 5900K for day and 4600K for evening. I like it because it makes the screen more bearable especially during late evening hours.

Thank you

F.lux (or something similar) is one of those things that should come pre-configured with each operating system. I find it indispensable for coding at night (and I use Photoshop quite a bit, too.) Shame there isn't a way to do this on iOS without jailbreaking.

I tried it and the color change was ubearable. I'm happy people for whom this works have the option to install it but I do not want my OS changing my screen colors for me.

You did NOT really try it. The color change is adjustable to your preferences. You just had it set too strong if it was unbearable. You seriously didn't give it a chance and don't have a clue. I would be skeptical to accept any other recommendations from you knowing how much you're willing to judge things by very first impressions and even comment to others about your judgment as though it is valid.

Wow. You know so much about me based on one comment.

That's amusing.

It's configurable to make it less extreme. Did you try that? If you go 'to the max' on first use then it will definitely seem extreme.

I believe I did adjust some settings. May have gotten it wrong, or maybe there were no options to get results I like. I doubt I would just run it and not see if I could adjust it, but I don't recall quite what I did.

I dismissed it the first time I used it, but around a week ago I decided to give it another try and just suck it up for the first hour. By the end of the evening I had forgotten that it was enabled.

It really is easier on the eyes if you're often working in darker places (coffee shops, your bedroom, etc...)

Yeah, I used it for a year but could never get a configuration that agreed with me.

Open source/linux version: http://jonls.dk/redshift/

(apt-get install redshift)

Works flawlessly, and the configuration file is a single file, which makes it easy to keep synced between computers.

If you care about your freedom, use this, definitely.

This is cool.Thanks for sharing.

I love the confidence of F.lux's domain name. "JustGetFlux.com" -- it's like: "why is this even a question?" Judging from most of these comments, I'd say we're all in agreement.

I definitely make a habit of telling everyone I know, especially when I happen to be looking at their screen at night.

My major pain with f.lux is the inability to manually specify when it should start shifting colours. I work in a brightly lit office until way after the sunset (esp. in winter), and it makes no sense for my screen to start colour shifting at 5PM.

My current 'solution' is simply manually starting f.lux when I get home, and killing it when I go to the office. Tedious!

Lie!

Tell F.lux it you live on the equator in the settings. If it's triggering too early, move your fake location west.

That's one way to do it in winter, if exactly 12 hour days suffice, and don't move too much. Manually adjusting the longitude every time I fly to the US would be a pain though.

What I'd really like is to tell it 'turn yourself off at sunrise, turn yourself on at sunset or 2100, whichever's later'.

I have some questions / issues before I blindly use this software:

1) It's not open source, or is it? I don't see anything about getting the source. In today's world, utilities like this are open source, or have an open source alternative. This is something that runs in the background of my computer all day, every day, so I would like to know what's going on.

2) How does this affect graphic design? Does it make it impossible to get colors just right?

3) Why does this matter? My lights are on in my office. It's ALWAYS the same brightness in my office, all the time. Daytime. Nighttime. I don't really understand what my monitor is adjusting to. Is it JUST that my eyes are probably more sensitive when I'm tired? If so, that makes sense I suppose, but how does it know that I'm tired just based on the time that I'm using my computer?

Anyway, I'm not trying to be negative, these are just the questions I have and the reasons why I haven't jumped on the bandwagon yet.

2) Everybody says not to use it for graphic design... but I haven't found any problems. I think my brain judges colors relative to whatever the "white point" is, and there is always enough white/gray in my OS interface to judge photos or artwork alongside. Remember, color perception is fundamentally relative. When I look at my work the next day, it looks just like I remembered it. But other people have found the opposite, though -- it may be a personal thing.

3) It's not about brightness, it's about color temperature. If you have fluorescent lights in your office that are on at 10pm, you're right, it's not going to help. It really only makes sense to use F.lux under non-super-bright warm-ish nighttime lighting, or in a dark room.

It's not open source. The Linux client for xflux, the proprietary executable that f.lux runs on, is open source. Redshift is an open source Linux alternative.

Do you really take time to read and comprehend the source of every program before you decide to install it so you know what is doing? How important is that criteria for you?

To your second question, it has a setting to be disabled while you do color-sensitive work.

You can easily disable it temporarily when you need color accuracy.

I'm conflicted... my eyes give me a ton of issues and this is tempting, but I also do a lot of front end work and visual design. I don't want everything I design at night to turn out blue because my screen was orange when I made it. I think for now I'll stick with my computer glasses, they've helped a ton.

Does anyone have a solution for using F.lux + Shades?

http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/shades

If I run them simultaneously my monitor flashes yellow-and-normal.

Don't install this, it's a trap. Spent 30min to reset the lightness/contrast/gamma of my 2 desktop screens using these painful OSD buttons.

I used to use it but had to disable it because I find myself regularly working at 2 or 3am and being tired would be a terrible idea...

I find that the reduced color temperature doesn't make me tired so much as it seems to interfere less with my ability to get to sleep. Although judging from previous times this has been posted, there are a few people like you and react a bit more dramatically to the color shift.

For anyone who's never used it, it's certainly worth trying. This is particularly true if you have mild insomnia that's likely caused or exasperated by staring at a screen before bed. It's not a panacea, but used with other habit changes, it can certainly help!

Is there a good reason for working at such an hour?

I once doubted the usefulness of this application. Now it's one of my must-have apps. My eyes will sore without it for a while.

Just out of interest, what is your temperature setting for night? I'm at 3600K, decreasing it every few weeks.

I was hoping this was the new version being released on OSX, but alas, it wasn't.

Oh well. Soon I hope!

Nobody should EVER use any computer without this. And, Apple is evil… because their proprietary walled-garden iOS censors out F.lux (among other things).

For those using GNU/Linux, use Redshift instead: http://jonls.dk/redshift/

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