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Because it uses sunset times to change your colour temperature around dusk. Localtime is not sufficient to work out dusk with any degree of accuracy. Those of

Because it uses sunset times to change your colour temperature around dusk. Localtime is not sufficient to work out dusk with any degree of accuracy. Those of us using Redshift are not doing so for a one off colour temperature set, but because it is continually updated through the day and night. You can tell it your location manually or have it done automatically. Redshift is open source. It does not have binary blobs, patents, a business model and similar crud that f.lux does. Adjust your paranoia/expectations as needed.

coldtea 11y ago
>Because it uses sunset times to change your colour temperature around dusk. Localtime is not sufficient to work out dusk with any degree of accuracy. So, why not just ask for the location instead of bundling 200MB of crap to get it?
- rogerbinns 11y ago
  The "crap" is primarily from geoclue which supports numerous methods of getting your location. Some of them such as geoip require making network connections. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GeoClue https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GeoClue It would be absurd for Redshift to include its own networking (don't forget proxies and SSL), GPS, and other code. On Linux (Ubuntu especially), all those dependencies are installed by default and used by many other components. "crap" is the last thing to describe it. OpenBSD doesn't have them by default which is why they show up. Redshift does support specifying your location on the command line or config file. gentoo has use flags where you can explicitly include (eg +geoclue) or exclude (eg -geoclue) components. I suspect OpenBSD doesn't, so it came down to whoever authored their port deciding to use geoclue by default. It is an entirely reasonable decision. You use this software on personal machines (ie not servers), and people move around. Defaulting to something that usually works right is fine. You are of course welcome to do a competitor, and show us all how much better it could be :-)
  - plaguuuuuu 11y ago
    I don't really care either way about this, but to me, seems like a classic case of bloat, where the program is doing too many things at once. It makes more sense to have a core app that does the basic functionality and can be run from CLI, and then separate out the the various components that perform different duties and require more dependencies etc, in a modular architecture. It's just better software design and you avoid a lot of pitfalls and hassle to end-users and integrators - just like the issue described by the OP.
    - yhager 11y ago
      That's exactly how it is. It does not want to figure out the location itself, so it consults other software, which is optional.
semi-extrinsic 11y ago
This location-based setting sounds clever, but it's a crappy idea if you live further north than ~60°N. Or do you want your screen to go red at 3pm and stay that way until 10am the next day when it's winter? And then in summer it's red from 2am to 4am? I use CF.lumen on Android and Redshift on Linux and I have to regularly shift the fake locations I give them in order to have them do what I want. At least with Redshift on Linux I can script it...
- Sharlin 11y ago
  Yeah. The point should be helping me maintain the sort of circadian rhythm I want, not the one dictated by Earth's rotation.
- maxerickson 11y ago
  Do you think the idea of basing the timing on location is just bad altogether, or could the implementation be improved? Like mention to users above that latitude that they should set their bedtime, and then factor that into the timings.
- stormbrew 11y ago
  Hell, I live at 53N and I definitely don't want the circadian rhythm dictated by sunrise/sunset. Sunrise right now is 8:00AM and sunset is 4:35PM. At solstice it'll be almost 9AM and just after 4PM.
- rogerbinns 11y ago
  At least one of the authors is Danish (~55°N) so they are presumably aware of this to some degree. I am at 37°N and really do want the colour temperature inside to match that outside. In any event it is open source, so you can change the code as you deem fit :)
- cpach 11y ago
  ”Or do you want your screen to go red at 3pm and stay that way until 10am the next day when it's winter? And then in summer it's red from 2am to 4am?” Yep, that’s great!
- 11y ago

coldtea 11y ago

>Because it uses sunset times to change your colour temperature around dusk. Localtime is not sufficient to work out dusk with any degree of accuracy. So, why not just ask for the location instead of bundling 200MB of crap to get it?

rogerbinns 11y ago
The "crap" is primarily from geoclue which supports numerous methods of getting your location. Some of them such as geoip require making network connections. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GeoClue https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GeoClue It would be absurd for Redshift to include its own networking (don't forget proxies and SSL), GPS, and other code. On Linux (Ubuntu especially), all those dependencies are installed by default and used by many other components. "crap" is the last thing to describe it. OpenBSD doesn't have them by default which is why they show up. Redshift does support specifying your location on the command line or config file. gentoo has use flags where you can explicitly include (eg +geoclue) or exclude (eg -geoclue) components. I suspect OpenBSD doesn't, so it came down to whoever authored their port deciding to use geoclue by default. It is an entirely reasonable decision. You use this software on personal machines (ie not servers), and people move around. Defaulting to something that usually works right is fine. You are of course welcome to do a competitor, and show us all how much better it could be :-)
- plaguuuuuu 11y ago
  I don't really care either way about this, but to me, seems like a classic case of bloat, where the program is doing too many things at once. It makes more sense to have a core app that does the basic functionality and can be run from CLI, and then separate out the the various components that perform different duties and require more dependencies etc, in a modular architecture. It's just better software design and you avoid a lot of pitfalls and hassle to end-users and integrators - just like the issue described by the OP.
  - yhager 11y ago
    That's exactly how it is. It does not want to figure out the location itself, so it consults other software, which is optional.

semi-extrinsic 11y ago

This location-based setting sounds clever, but it's a crappy idea if you live further north than ~60°N. Or do you want your screen to go red at 3pm and stay that way until 10am the next day when it's winter? And then in summer it's red from 2am to 4am? I use CF.lumen on Android and Redshift on Linux and I have to regularly shift the fake locations I give them in order to have them do what I want. At least with Redshift on Linux I can script it...

Sharlin 11y ago
Yeah. The point should be helping me maintain the sort of circadian rhythm I want, not the one dictated by Earth's rotation.
maxerickson 11y ago
Do you think the idea of basing the timing on location is just bad altogether, or could the implementation be improved? Like mention to users above that latitude that they should set their bedtime, and then factor that into the timings.
stormbrew 11y ago
Hell, I live at 53N and I definitely don't want the circadian rhythm dictated by sunrise/sunset. Sunrise right now is 8:00AM and sunset is 4:35PM. At solstice it'll be almost 9AM and just after 4PM.
rogerbinns 11y ago
At least one of the authors is Danish (~55°N) so they are presumably aware of this to some degree. I am at 37°N and really do want the colour temperature inside to match that outside. In any event it is open source, so you can change the code as you deem fit :)
cpach 11y ago
”Or do you want your screen to go red at 3pm and stay that way until 10am the next day when it's winter? And then in summer it's red from 2am to 4am?” Yep, that’s great!
11y ago