7 ms·

f.lux is one of my favorite pieces of software. It just does what it's supposed to and I hardly even think about it. Being near the 40th parallel, it rarely act

f.lux is one of my favorite pieces of software. It just does what it's supposed to and I hardly even think about it. Being near the 40th parallel, it rarely activates from April to October. At some point in October, as it did a week ago, it naturally and unobtrusively becomes indispensable again. Something that happens quite frequently is non-technical friends see my laptop at night and ask "why it is orange?". When I temporarily deactivate f.lux, they shrink from the intrusive blue light and need no further explanation.

coderdude 13y ago
'Intrusive blue light' was enough to get me to download it. This is great. Feels so much easier on my eyes right now (6am).
iambateman 13y ago
I love f.lux! I actually use it on my work computer during the day to knock down a little bit of the light. (just 6500 -> 5900) It anecdotally helps a lot with eye fatigue, even during the day.
- bfish510 13y ago
  I never thought of this! Thanks for the tip!
- andyjohnson0 13y ago
  I just installed it and tried your suggestion of dropping to 5900K. After about an hour I reverted to normal for a moment and was shocked by how harsh the light from screen was. Thanks, my eyeballs salute you!
  - iambateman 13y ago
    Sweet! Cheers to full-time computer use for the next 40 years.
- aroch 13y ago
  The default setting for f.lux is 5900 during the day, no?
  - ricardobeat 13y ago
    6500k, matching daylight.
    - aroch 13y ago
      Oh, huh, I must have arrived 5900k for daytime use too several years ago
Cthulhu_ 13y ago
> Something that happens quite frequently is non-technical friends see my laptop at night and ask "why it is orange?" This, very much; if you just have it on for a while, you don't notice it yourself. There was a time years ago when it would transition rather quickly so you could see when it turned on, but that's a setting you can turn off so it goes reeeeally smoothly. I hardly notice it now. Maybe sometimes when I turn on a game it will flicker back to normal for a little bit. But yeah, I hardly notice it (which is good), but others do. Funny.
peterjmag 13y ago
Agreed. I've noticed a pretty significant improvement in my sleep patterns since I started using it. I used to have trouble "tearing myself away" from the computer at night, and I'd often stay up way too late just staring at my screen and not really doing much of anything—just sort of spinning my wheels. That rarely seems to happen any more. Now, where the heck is the "Donate" button?
- richardking 13y ago
  curious-- I do this sometimes (often) too, but how does f.lux help you tear yourself away?
  - shiftb 13y ago
    Without the bluish light keeping me stimulated and awake I get tired more quickly. Once I'm tired enough, I just go to sleep.
    - m_myers 13y ago
      I've noticed that I can't make it to 4 AM anymore, but I'd just attributed it to getting older. Perhaps it is f.lux's doing after all.
      - altrego99 13y ago
        f.lux is an awesome little thing I had installed for months. Then on the excitement of moving to a new place, I removed it. And I could stay awake thru the night again. So it wasn't old age after all. Now I will put it back again.
  - PeterisP 13y ago
    Bright blue light disturbs your natural sleepishness feeling (melatonin/etc), so the need to sleep is felt as, say, exhaustion which is different and comes later.
  - tnorthcutt 13y ago
thirdsun 13y ago
I have to say that I prefer the warmer color tones regardless of daytime and lighting, which is why I have f.lux always set to 5000K - unless I need accurate colors - and even warmer during the dark hours. Otherwise and without f.lux I tend to get occasional headaches and my eyes fatigue after long days spent at the computer.
- mixmastamyk 13y ago
  If you always want it set, most monitors have these same controls and will save memory. Mine even has presets so I just hit the button a few times.
  - derefr 13y ago
    There's also the OS's color-calibration/color-profile generation utility, which will usually let you set both gamma and temperature however you like them.
SeanDav 13y ago
I have tried using f.lux several times as it is a recurring theme on HN, but it just does not work for me. All it does is give everything a red tinge, but the light intensity remains the same. I feel like it is cooking my eyeballs and blurring my vision. I have working alternatives now neither of which work well with multi-screens and neither of which are sophisticated as f.lux, but they do reduce the intensity of my screens which is what I want. One is "Dimmer" which I use on my left screen and the other is the built in Nvidia tool to reduce brightness, contrast/gamma etc, which I use on my right screen. Pretty primitive but works for me.
- timdiggerm 13y ago
  That is the point; it's all about color temperature, and not about brightness. If you feel like you're cooking your eyeballs, perhaps your screen brightness is just too high.
- lectrick 13y ago
  Colorblindness perhaps?
- hrrsn 13y ago
  It took me a while to get used to it - I found I had to start out with minimal settings and slowly turn them up. I find I can sleep much faster now with it.
- intelliot 13y ago
  f.lux only changes the color temperature and that is what I use it for. Changing the display brightness is easy: just use the brightness adjustment keys on the keyboard. I set my display brightness as low as possible, while still keeping the screen easy to read.
emiljbs 13y ago
>It just does what it's supposed to It doesn't work for me on Ubuntu for some reason, anyone got a similar experience?
- obeid 13y ago
  Have you tried the xflux daemon? It's a command line version for X. http://justgetflux.com/linux.html http://justgetflux.com/linux.html
- dfc 13y ago
  Use redshift, its available in Debian so you can just apt-get it. There is a gtk interface (gtk-redshift) to help with configuration.
  - reledi 13y ago
    Note that in the latest version (1.8), the gtk-redshift launcher has been renamed to redshift-gtk.
- sinkensabe 13y ago
  Try redshift instead, you can use it from the terminal. If you want it to change according to time of day use redshift -l lon:lat. i.e longitude and latitude of current position. But you can also use redshift -O to set a specific level. I often use redshift -O 3500
intelliot 13y ago
Brilliant! When my friends have asked "why is it orange?" I've launched into an explanation of how blue light at night is unnatural and causes insomnia. Somehow, I hadn't thought of just temporarily deactivating f.lux and letting them see for themselves! Will do next time.

coderdude 13y ago

'Intrusive blue light' was enough to get me to download it. This is great. Feels so much easier on my eyes right now (6am).

iambateman 13y ago

I love f.lux! I actually use it on my work computer during the day to knock down a little bit of the light. (just 6500 -> 5900) It anecdotally helps a lot with eye fatigue, even during the day.

bfish510 13y ago
I never thought of this! Thanks for the tip!
andyjohnson0 13y ago
I just installed it and tried your suggestion of dropping to 5900K. After about an hour I reverted to normal for a moment and was shocked by how harsh the light from screen was. Thanks, my eyeballs salute you!
- iambateman 13y ago
  Sweet! Cheers to full-time computer use for the next 40 years.
aroch 13y ago
The default setting for f.lux is 5900 during the day, no?
- ricardobeat 13y ago
  6500k, matching daylight.
  - aroch 13y ago
    Oh, huh, I must have arrived 5900k for daytime use too several years ago

Cthulhu_ 13y ago

> Something that happens quite frequently is non-technical friends see my laptop at night and ask "why it is orange?" This, very much; if you just have it on for a while, you don't notice it yourself. There was a time years ago when it would transition rather quickly so you could see when it turned on, but that's a setting you can turn off so it goes reeeeally smoothly. I hardly notice it now. Maybe sometimes when I turn on a game it will flicker back to normal for a little bit. But yeah, I hardly notice it (which is good), but others do. Funny.

peterjmag 13y ago

Agreed. I've noticed a pretty significant improvement in my sleep patterns since I started using it. I used to have trouble "tearing myself away" from the computer at night, and I'd often stay up way too late just staring at my screen and not really doing much of anything—just sort of spinning my wheels. That rarely seems to happen any more. Now, where the heck is the "Donate" button?

richardking 13y ago
curious-- I do this sometimes (often) too, but how does f.lux help you tear yourself away?
- shiftb 13y ago
  Without the bluish light keeping me stimulated and awake I get tired more quickly. Once I'm tired enough, I just go to sleep.
  - m_myers 13y ago
    I've noticed that I can't make it to 4 AM anymore, but I'd just attributed it to getting older. Perhaps it is f.lux's doing after all.
    - altrego99 13y ago
      f.lux is an awesome little thing I had installed for months. Then on the excitement of moving to a new place, I removed it. And I could stay awake thru the night again. So it wasn't old age after all. Now I will put it back again.
- PeterisP 13y ago
  Bright blue light disturbs your natural sleepishness feeling (melatonin/etc), so the need to sleep is felt as, say, exhaustion which is different and comes later.
- tnorthcutt 13y ago

thirdsun 13y ago

I have to say that I prefer the warmer color tones regardless of daytime and lighting, which is why I have f.lux always set to 5000K - unless I need accurate colors - and even warmer during the dark hours. Otherwise and without f.lux I tend to get occasional headaches and my eyes fatigue after long days spent at the computer.

mixmastamyk 13y ago
If you always want it set, most monitors have these same controls and will save memory. Mine even has presets so I just hit the button a few times.
- derefr 13y ago
  There's also the OS's color-calibration/color-profile generation utility, which will usually let you set both gamma and temperature however you like them.

SeanDav 13y ago

I have tried using f.lux several times as it is a recurring theme on HN, but it just does not work for me. All it does is give everything a red tinge, but the light intensity remains the same. I feel like it is cooking my eyeballs and blurring my vision. I have working alternatives now neither of which work well with multi-screens and neither of which are sophisticated as f.lux, but they do reduce the intensity of my screens which is what I want. One is "Dimmer" which I use on my left screen and the other is the built in Nvidia tool to reduce brightness, contrast/gamma etc, which I use on my right screen. Pretty primitive but works for me.

timdiggerm 13y ago
That is the point; it's all about color temperature, and not about brightness. If you feel like you're cooking your eyeballs, perhaps your screen brightness is just too high.
lectrick 13y ago
Colorblindness perhaps?
hrrsn 13y ago
It took me a while to get used to it - I found I had to start out with minimal settings and slowly turn them up. I find I can sleep much faster now with it.
intelliot 13y ago
f.lux only changes the color temperature and that is what I use it for. Changing the display brightness is easy: just use the brightness adjustment keys on the keyboard. I set my display brightness as low as possible, while still keeping the screen easy to read.

emiljbs 13y ago

>It just does what it's supposed to It doesn't work for me on Ubuntu for some reason, anyone got a similar experience?

obeid 13y ago
Have you tried the xflux daemon? It's a command line version for X. http://justgetflux.com/linux.html http://justgetflux.com/linux.html
dfc 13y ago
Use redshift, its available in Debian so you can just apt-get it. There is a gtk interface (gtk-redshift) to help with configuration.
- reledi 13y ago
  Note that in the latest version (1.8), the gtk-redshift launcher has been renamed to redshift-gtk.
sinkensabe 13y ago
Try redshift instead, you can use it from the terminal. If you want it to change according to time of day use redshift -l lon:lat. i.e longitude and latitude of current position. But you can also use redshift -O to set a specific level. I often use redshift -O 3500

intelliot 13y ago

Brilliant! When my friends have asked "why is it orange?" I've launched into an explanation of how blue light at night is unnatural and causes insomnia. Somehow, I hadn't thought of just temporarily deactivating f.lux and letting them see for themselves! Will do next time.