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I use F.lux because they are the little guy, and first to this market by a long shot. Getting Sherlocked [1] by the big players after years of original work on

I use F.lux because they are the little guy, and first to this market by a long shot. Getting Sherlocked [1] by the big players after years of original work on a project is terrible. Lots of small businesses (or projects for that matter) is much preferable to a handful of large ones blatantly cloning ideas they did not originate. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sherlock_(software) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sherlock_(software)

dannyw 9y ago
Should OS makers not improve their OS based on what’s out there in the market, and purposefully harm the user experience then? Night Shift is a simple concept and there’s not a huge amount of different ways to do it. It’s something I consider analogous to copy and paste, a trashcan, or a clock in your dock.
- toomuchtodo 9y ago
  The chance of flux going away is much less than Apple suddenly deciding "We don't want to offer this feature anymore."
  - pwinnski 9y ago
    History suggests this is not correct. Long-time Mac users have a term for this: Sherlocking[0] It seems far more likely that a company without an obvious business plan might run out of money trying to sell software that seems to be an unnecessary duplication of features built in to the OS than for Apple to eliminate a feature they've only recently introduced and promoted. I'm hoping neither happen, and I wish the f.lux team the best, but I definitely think you have the odds the wrong way around. [0] https://carpeaqua.com/2013/10/18/stop-sherlocking-yourself/ https://carpeaqua.com/2013/10/18/stop-sherlocking-yourself/
  - skinnymuch 9y ago
    Flux is on version 4 and has been around for a very long time. Dare I say a decade now? Apple probably barely cares about the feature. You think they're going to iterate on it close to as much as Flux? History certainly does not show that.
- gottebp 9y ago
  Every idea looks simple and obvious in hindsight. When a small business has an idea it is their whole world. They think about it day and night and have to constantly improve upon it or die. A small idea can sustain a small business. A small idea to a large corporation though is a blip on the radar, and so has little incentive to continue being improved. This is now a tiny feature in a big company, mainly added for a keynote announcement and for marketing purposes, with little value to their bottom line down the road. Prediction: Going forward I expect NightShift to improve at about the same rate as Finder. F.lux was out for years before the big players finally realized what a good idea it was. It was copied without the slightest attribution or thank you. It may be legal, however not very ethical and rather dishonorable if you ask me. This path leads to a future where only big players exist. Invention by individuals is disincentivized if it will just get copied at the first sign of success.
- skinnymuch 9y ago
  Apple has taken ideas quite a bit. There's a term for it in the Mac world and in the iOS world they are infamous for "taking" tweaks done in the jailbreaking community. Rarely if ever is there any compensation or recognition given. That's not right. Apple also many times doesn't not iterate as much as the independent developer would. But they do effectively kill off the small guy's work nonetheless. That doesn't sit right with me. Regarding ideas. People say that about so many things especially with features the big guys take. With hindsight it is done even more.

dannyw 9y ago

Should OS makers not improve their OS based on what’s out there in the market, and purposefully harm the user experience then? Night Shift is a simple concept and there’s not a huge amount of different ways to do it. It’s something I consider analogous to copy and paste, a trashcan, or a clock in your dock.

toomuchtodo 9y ago
The chance of flux going away is much less than Apple suddenly deciding "We don't want to offer this feature anymore."
- pwinnski 9y ago
  History suggests this is not correct. Long-time Mac users have a term for this: Sherlocking[0] It seems far more likely that a company without an obvious business plan might run out of money trying to sell software that seems to be an unnecessary duplication of features built in to the OS than for Apple to eliminate a feature they've only recently introduced and promoted. I'm hoping neither happen, and I wish the f.lux team the best, but I definitely think you have the odds the wrong way around. [0] https://carpeaqua.com/2013/10/18/stop-sherlocking-yourself/ https://carpeaqua.com/2013/10/18/stop-sherlocking-yourself/
- skinnymuch 9y ago
  Flux is on version 4 and has been around for a very long time. Dare I say a decade now? Apple probably barely cares about the feature. You think they're going to iterate on it close to as much as Flux? History certainly does not show that.
gottebp 9y ago
Every idea looks simple and obvious in hindsight. When a small business has an idea it is their whole world. They think about it day and night and have to constantly improve upon it or die. A small idea can sustain a small business. A small idea to a large corporation though is a blip on the radar, and so has little incentive to continue being improved. This is now a tiny feature in a big company, mainly added for a keynote announcement and for marketing purposes, with little value to their bottom line down the road. Prediction: Going forward I expect NightShift to improve at about the same rate as Finder. F.lux was out for years before the big players finally realized what a good idea it was. It was copied without the slightest attribution or thank you. It may be legal, however not very ethical and rather dishonorable if you ask me. This path leads to a future where only big players exist. Invention by individuals is disincentivized if it will just get copied at the first sign of success.
skinnymuch 9y ago
Apple has taken ideas quite a bit. There's a term for it in the Mac world and in the iOS world they are infamous for "taking" tweaks done in the jailbreaking community. Rarely if ever is there any compensation or recognition given. That's not right. Apple also many times doesn't not iterate as much as the independent developer would. But they do effectively kill off the small guy's work nonetheless. That doesn't sit right with me. Regarding ideas. People say that about so many things especially with features the big guys take. With hindsight it is done even more.