Eyestrain when switching from Windows to Linux
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So I've had some time today to test if dithering was the issue for me, and it doesn't seem like it. I'm still getting eyestrain. So I'm just going to assume my eyes need to adjust to the new font rendering.
When you get a new prescription of eyeglasses is the only way I can describe this eyestrain phenomenon. Everything is more clear, but your eyes strain for the first few days.
One thing I did was download Redshift to adjust the color temperature to something really warm like 4500K. It does seem to take the edge off the "intensity" of the strain. Each day I'm going to increase it by 100K until I'm back at my calibrated 6500K, and hopefully by then everything will be Ok. And if not, then there must be something definitely going on differently in Linux then Windows.
EDIT: Hour and half later using Redshift, and it's been a drastic improvement in my eyestrain.
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vaz I don't feel spaced out. My neck and face and back of head get tight and tingly in as short as a few minutes, and that progresses into a headache with hours. It's like something is making me tense around face and head. Contrast that with staring at super old stuff for 12 hours with no problems at all...not even a twinge.
It's a mystery, isn't it? I don't have the symptoms you're getting but it's still a direct result of using new tech.
I've got two machines at my desk, an Acer 2010 tower and Intel 2018 NUC - HDMI cable going into monitor. 2010 machine is fine all day, no ill effects. 2018 NUC, within 20 minutes (same cable, same monitor) I get symptoms (heavy eyes, dilated pupils, brain fog), It felt like my eyes were forced open and wasn't blinking as much. When I used it extensively (over 8 hours a day for two weeks) and then switched back to my 2010 machine, I immediately felt the physical and mental relief. I forced myself to use the NUC for that long to rule out placebo and to see how bad it could make me feel, also if I could get myself through it by using it all the time.
My experience is nope. You might get more accustomed to the symptoms, but it's still affecting you in some way.
diop My eyes are dry a lot anyway and can be very dry with or without screen use...but paying attention to that hasn't mattered. I can still be on old screen all way with super dry eyes and no symptoms. I wish I could just have a modern laptop/OS combo of some sort that could be reproduced so I could get a couple.
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Wallboy So I've had some time today to test if dithering was the issue for me, and it doesn't seem like it. I'm still getting eyestrain. So I'm just going to assume my eyes need to adjust to the new font rendering.
Hang on...are you saying you definitively shut off dithering on linux? If you are going by just flipping those config switches that doesn't prove its on or off.
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diop I read on the Intel forums that the Windows drivers will enable dithering on 8bit and above displays. Your old display is probably a 6bit and maybe Ubuntu recognises this and disables dithering.
I'd like to address this again...what driver was ok for you and A. How do I get that and set it (don't even have Windows 10 nor know how to use it honestly as I moved off in the XP days, and B. Are you saying if I put Windows 10 and that old driver on say a 2015 Asus laptop etc with Intel 5500 that it will NOT dither because it has a 6bit panel?
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vaz I'd like to address this again...what driver was ok for you and A. How do I get that and set it (don't even have Windows 10 nor know how to use it honestly as I moved off in the XP days, and B. Are you saying if I put Windows 10 and that old driver on say a 2015 Asus laptop etc with Intel 5500 that it will NOT dither because it has a 6bit panel?
That Intel forum info (dithering on 8bpc+) is when using the latest drivers.
The trouble is, AFAIK, is Windows 10 will not run older XP/7 drivers. I think 8.1 drivers work on W10 but I may be mistaken. OTOH, any hardware made in say 2015 is only going to have 2015 drivers and above.
If the monitor is genuinely detected as 6-bit, I am led to believe that no dithering will be enabled by the Intel driver.
My daily driver and usable machine right now is a 2010 W7 desktop (using a Feb 2010 driver) 
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diop Oh I thought you said you used Windows 10 on recent hardware and it was fine.
I still don't believe what they claim about no dithering on 6-bit because MOST laptop panels...even on new devices...are 6+2. Only higher end stuff is 8bit. And I have tried 250 dollar WalMart Pentium Windows 10 laptops with Intel 610 etc and they strain same as any. Those have visibly low quality panels, TN, and cannot be 8bit....or I am wrong, they don't enable dithering on low quality <8bit panels (which in itself confuses me as those would need dithering MORE to look good than a higher bit panel), and that simply means dithering isn't an issue and we are back to square one.
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You're right, I have no idea how to check. All I do know like I said is it didn't make a difference to my eyestrain one way or another flipping it to off. I have no idea how to go about actually checking. Need like a high speed camera or something?
Well disabling it in the Nvidia X Server Settings didn't make any difference to my eyestrain. With it showing set as "Disabled" in both the GUI and command line, I was still getting eyestrain. However I can't confirm if it's actually off.
It's like everything in Linux is so intense on my eyes. Even though my i1 Display Pro says everything is nicely calibrated, and in fact both Windows and Linux DO look the same in their calibrations, it's just something weird going on that is causing eyestrain in Linux. I did read dithering is supposed to "fake" 10-bit on 8-bit displays, which might explain the weird "intensity" of color I'm seeing.
Using Redshift for the time being to drop the color temp to 4500K helped a HUGE amount.
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Wallboy Well disabling it in the Nvidia X Server Settings didn't make any difference to my eyestrain. With it showing set as "Disabled" in both the GUI and command line, I was still getting eyestrain. However I can't confirm if it's actually off.
It's unknown if the dithering options actually work (empirical testing is difficult, not impossible. I probably could do it if I had some certain hardware I don't have 
)
What GPU are you using?
I just went back to the Nouveau driver and disabled dithering through xrandr, and made a .xprofile in my HOME folder to run the commands to disable it on Login for both my displays:
xrandr --output HDMI-1 --set "dithering mode" "off"
xrandr --output DVI-I-1 --set "dithering mode" "off"
and I logged out and logged back and I THINK dithering might be disabled now using this opensource driver. I'm not getting any strain so far. I can focus on things without my head pounding.
Not going to say I found a solution for Nvidia just yet. I'm not prone to placebo type effects, but we'll see after a few hours...
It's just too bad this driver runs like crap compared to the proprietary.
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Nouveau driver + disabling dithering in it has FIXED the problem for me without question. Everything now feels "still" and calm. No more of that nearly imperceptible shimmering or intensity to the color.
Something must definitely be broken with the proprietary Nvidia drivers. When I open nvidia-settings and change to disable dithering, as soon as I close nvidia-settings it saves the .nvidia-settings-rc with dithering re-enabled again. So I'm pretty damn sure something is borked. I'm gonna go digging in the nvidia-settings source code to see if I can figure it out.
Can't believe I spent so long fussing with the font settings when they weren't the problem at all. I should have known when I was still getting eyestrain watching Twitch/Youtube videos.
So PLEASE, whoever is in a similar situation as mine with Linux + Nvidia. Try the Nouveau driver and disable dithering through that. And use the commands in my above post in a .xprofile file for persistence across reboots. Replace HDMI-1, etc with your correct connected display which you can see when you run the command: xrandr --props. You can than check with the same command afterwards to see if it's disabled.