Besides the "easy on the eyes" feel of a dark background, I also love (in Textmate) using a tinge of transparency (opacity at 96%). It's really handy when you'

Besides the "easy on the eyes" feel of a dark background, I also love (in Textmate) using a tinge of transparency (opacity at 96%). It's really handy when you're trying to reference things in other windows and aren't sure if you formatted it exactly right. I think with a white background that would really look bad and easily distract.