vinkenvvt changed the title to On Arch-Linux Xfce4, eye strain problem is gone! .
On Arch-Linux xfce, eye strain problem is gone (unsure)
I still get small eye strain in Linux, using the X Server and in some cases at the command line, too.
I believe it is a driver issue, because I don't have any problems in Windows using the same hardware.
I could only test my NVIDIA card and my Raspberry Pi, but they both produce the same effect in various Linux distributions, including Arch.
Raspberry Pi on RiscOS: no eye strain at all, but it is not a usable OS.
NVIDIA + deprecated "nv" driver: no eyestrain, but at the same time no hardware acceleration
Maybe the Intel Iris Pro GPU has "better" drivers. I would love to test it, but a new CPU means new mainboard, new RAM, and, in my case, a new case + power supply unit. That is too much for just a test that might not be successful. When I have to upgrade my PC in the future, I might have a look at Intel GPUs.
Well vinkenvvt do you have ever tried installing an other linux (mint, ubuntu)? and disabled dithering in the xorg?
does that also help you? or is this just your arch-linux-xfce64 experience?
Same question as in the apple thread 
And has anybody a working soluton for disabling dithering in windows?
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I think disabling dithering is going to be specific to the graphics card..
Looking at this link shows how to disable it for AMD, but with having intel, doesn't help me at all.
If we could compile a guide on modifying xorg for major graphics cards... Nvidia, AMD, Intel, etc... that could be a extremely useful resource. Maybe something on here? http://wiki.xyzz.work/wiki/Disable_dithering_linux
Harrison Doesn't the tool in this site work for you? http://kawamoto.no-ip.org/henteko/myapp_en.html It worked for me (although it didn't help me in any way).
helloworld hey. as I answered you in another thread. Sadly it doesn't help me.
23 days later
I think this discussion that I posted might mislead people from the true reason of eye strain of computer Graphics.
3 months later
Two days ago I installed the latest Arch Linux x64 + Xfce. Eye strain, if any, is very minimal. No headaches. Probably the best desktop distro, in terms of eye strain, I have tried so far. This is great.
Out of the box, "nouveau" driver, Nvidia Quadro NVS 295
I currently tend to believe the font antialiasing, as mentioned in other threads, is indeed causing some extra eye strain. I disabled it completely now and will continue to use Arch Linux for the next days.
I can even use Chromium (even hardware-accelerated), which definitely hurt under Windows.
Arch Linux is known to always have the latest packages. Maybe other distros will soon be more eye-friendly, too.
vinkenvvt, did you have eye strain before with other Linux distributions?
There's a convenient gui tool in Linux Mint Cinnamon to adjust Hinting and Anti-aliasing
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Slacor which is saved to gconf config.
And also applies to Gnome. Don't know about others.
Xfce has those settings, too; the grayscale setting is 'none' in subpixel options.
In current Arch, you can override (probably any) program's fonts with the file ~/.config/fontconfig/fonts.conf
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Font_configuration
A drawback is many webfonts look ugly without antialiasing, and replacing them with (preferably) bytecode-interpreted TTF fonts removes many special characters.
Maybe deactivated antialiasing looks much better on Retina displays - haven't had the chance to try that yet.
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Using standard grayscale antialiasing and Firefox under Kali Linux (GNOME) looks fine to me.
I think overriding fonts in applications might be the [ugly fonts] problem
You use antialiasing, but I was referring to "antialiasing off".
This is a screenshot, using the embedded webfont:
2 years later
vinkenvvt changed the title to On Arch-Linux xfce, eye strain problem is gone (unsure) .