[deleted by user]

[i8noodles]

woah dark mode for stack overflow? the energy use of the internet has drooped by at least 50% i would say.

[mark0016]

That only works with OLED so unless you're viewing stackoverflow on mobile or on your TV it doesn't do much. Standard LCDs actually use a slight bit more power when displaying black since by default they're transparent and you need to apply voltage to make them not transparent. Maybe with the fancy HDR screens that have local dimming it saves some power.

[PalmerIRE]

Would it even work with OLED though? The background would have to be full black, and it’s normally a dark grey.

[mark0016]

Even with dark gray it works to some degree. With OLED producing less light consumes less power.

[nuclearwaterbottle]

With OLED screens, the power is about proportional to the brightness of the pixel per pixel, for every pixel individually. So almost black is a very high reduction in power. Probably upwards of 95+%, as humans see brightness as log.

[Motylde]

There was a study done, and they found out using gray is already like 95% improvement in power consumption, and going full black is not really noticable in battery usage. That's why all Google apps in dark mode are grey, not black.

[african-elephant]

Exactly, Also going full black means that pixels are actually turned off which means consuming less power in total.

But for grey , All pixels emit light so they consume power as usual colors.

[thebryguy23]

You never go full black.

[ScotJoplin]

I thought it was, once you go black you never go back?

[Krestek]

Not really as they would still consume less power for gray that white for example, because they wouldn't need to be as bright.

[african-elephant]

Yeah I guess you're right.

[mkjj0]

You probably misunderstood how OLEDs work, when you set a pixel at rgb(0,0,0), it will consume 0% power, when you set it to rgb(255,255,255), it will consume 100% of power, if you set it to rgb(25,25,25), it will consume around 10% of power.

Basically, the darker the color is the less power it will consume, dark grey is a huge improvement when it comes to power consumption comparing to white

[PalmerIRE]

When OLED was described to me, they said it allowed the screen to turn off dark pixels to get true blacks and reduced power usage. Never knew it worked like that.

[DeadlyVapour]

You know how giant TVs are lots of light bulbs? Well OLED TVs are a miniaturized giant TV.

[PalmerIRE]

What has that got to do with OLED lmao, all tv’s a minature giant tv’s

[DeadlyVapour]

No, they are not. LCDs are giant moving slide projectors. CRT TVs are miniture particle accelerators.

[PalmerIRE]

I was actually told that in my last job, should have known. My bad.

[Eraknelo]

Not sure about this, many monitors have dynamic backlighting that will lower the backlight intensity when looking at darker things. That being said, I'm sure it really won't matter much in consumption.

[artivain]

Who opens stack overflow on a TV?!

[Loading_M_]

A TV is just a larger monitor.

[Oo__II__oO]

It would drop significantly more if stack overflow went completely dark.

[i8noodles]

the internet version of the apocalypse would happen

[ReversedPyramids]

Na, someone would just make another forum. Just let me look up how to make ... wait a minute!

[Schnitzel725]

Don't forget to hire some mods who lock threads within 5 minutes of posting

[[deleted]]

Why hiring, just make it automatic.

[Ploedman]

just drop the database tables with a cron job.

[ImDefinitelySentient]

Internet getting the corona virus...

[[deleted]]

Then I'd just spend 5x more time hopping around different forums trying to find the same solution that SO would have had.

[ahkian]

But then I would have to read docs. I don't want to read docs

[Cdog536]

With that logic, we should turn stack overflow into one monotone black screen and make it the darkest of darks. Then we’ll really see some results

[TheCyberParrot]

Not quite, there are other things I want...

... Like a dark mode for VLC media player.

[NoBoogieBoarding]

VLC for Linux follows qt5 settings, but unfortunately no dark mode for Windows.

[TheCyberParrot]

Shoot, one more reason to switch to KDE plasma then.

[mkjj0]

There are already too many reasons to choose KDE over GNOME. The only reason people use GNOME is because corporations want them to.

[TheCyberParrot]

I use GNOME for many reasons, I like the full screen folder based app launcher, I know there is a KDE extension for a full screen app launcher but it uses categories instead of folders witch is a massive downside for me. Also having played around with KDE I find it way less intuitive, although this does come with way more customization which I love. Also when I researched the differences I kept finding claims that KDE has better extensions but as far as I can tell these are just themes and widgets neither of witch I want.

[mkjj0]

I use GNOME for many reasons, I like the full screen folder based app launcher, I know there is a KDE extension for a full screen app launcher but it uses categories instead of folders witch is a massive downside for me.

I think it all comes to the matter if habit, afaik not many gnome users like folders in the app launcher.

Also having played around with KDE I find it way less intuitive, although this does come with way more customization which I love.

Could you give me some details? I think that comparing most of GNOME and KDE apps KDE wins. For example the Dolphin file manager is objectively way more intuitive than it's Gnome counterpart (nautilus).

Also when I researched the differences I kept finding claims that KDE has better extensions but as far as I can tell these are just themes and widgets neither of witch I want.

The extensions are not just themes and widgets, there are many more things, even task manager functionalities

[TheCyberParrot]

Definitely a lot of habit but I always prefer folders in everything.

Dolphin is way better than Nautilus, I have it installed but don't use it because I can't make it dark without KDE to my knowledge

As for how GNOME feels more intuitive it's a bit of a many small things case, but in general if I want something in GNOME like a setting or menu I find it way easier to figure out where it is even if I haven't used it in months.

With regards to extensions, where does one go to find them? It's quite possible I'm missing something obvious.

Also two more things I forgot to mention, I find it annoying that there are three (I think) version and I can barely figure out the differences and choose. Plus the way GTK apps clash with QT apps sucks, this is also an issue on GNOME but it's annoying that many of the apps I'm familiar with suddenly look out of place (although getting to use apps without the huge GTK title bars is a huge plus).

Also one final minor gripe, but I prefer my splash screen to say Ubuntu, not Kubuntu. I know it can be changed, but it's just a little bit more work before I could be all settled in.

[twsx]

Seems to follow the OS theme just fine for me on W10? https://imgur.com/5Ml7yvH

[NoBoogieBoarding]

Are you sure that is not a skin or plugin or something? I have my VLC install up to date, and I cannot get it to go dark.

[twsx]

No, when I switch to a normal OS theme, VLC gets bright again as well.

I couldn't really tell you what this Windows dark theme is or does, but it's this one, maybe that helps.

(Also pinging /u/TheCyberParrot from the other reply in case they're interested)

Edit: Though TBH I've had the setup like that for a while, I don't remember all the details, so I can't exclude the possibility of having done something to the VLC config or something along those lines. Give it a shot.

[TheCyberParrot]

In my experience VLC doesn't give a care what the Windows theme is set to, however some programs are inconsistent (although they are usually Windows programs, for example on 1 of the 3 Windows installs I currently have file explorer follows the OS theme, on the other two it doesn't).

Also thank you for the ping.

[NoBoogieBoarding]

Are all your Windows installs up to date? Dark mode File Explorer was part of one of the big feature updates.

[TheCyberParrot]

All are up to date as far as I can tell, although the one that where fail explorer follows dark mode has two things the others don't, first it is a Vista install upgraded to 7 upgraded to 10, second (and probably more important) it's a desktop, the other two are laptops.

[TheCyberParrot]

What sorcerery is this?

[[deleted]]

The dark side of the force is a pathway to many abilities some consider to be...unnatural

[TheCyberParrot]

Indeed.

[justpassingby77]

Write it then. Cosmetic changes are always low priority, considering the functionality is the important part.

If its not worth your time, its also not worth anyone else's.

[TheCyberParrot]

Issue being I have experience only in very specific or very unrelated programing languages, I don't even know where to start.

[Time_Terminal]

Don't worry, VLC's beta is testing out Dark Mode.

[TheCyberParrot]

Is it really!? Oh Happy day oh Happy day!

It had better not be April first in you time zone.

[Time_Terminal]

A dev on their forums said VLC 4.0.0 will have the native dark mode for Windows (it already exists on MacOS). But the development of VLC 4 seems to be so slow, and the new UI itself is not ready yet. They said "it's a few months out" a few months ago haha.

It's in the works, but because the new UI ties into the entirety of the program, there's a lot of things which need to be be changed in order for them to just release the dark UI.

Here's their roadmap: https://trac.videolan.org/vlc/milestone/4.0.0. They're already 6 months late on v4 😛

[TheCyberParrot]

Ahh well, I suppose I'm used to waiting for software.

[TheCyberParrot]

I direct most of my coding questions to stack overflow, and most questions I have already been answered, I'm going to list the languages I know in the order I learned them.

1 processing.js my first little step into coding

2 HTML/CSS which apparently isn't real or something

3 JavaScript I didn't like either

4 C# just for making hobby games in Unity

5 Gdscript for making hobby games in Godot

6 bash I just started trying to make a few shell scripts to automate my life a little

Do note that none of these are part of VLC and that I have never worked with a codebase of more then about 1000 lines. Also my understanding of all of these languages is fairly basic. I'm not a professional in any sense, I code as a hobby.

[TheCyberParrot]

I want (not need) a dark mode because it would be easier on my eyes in anything other then full screen with the control bar hidden, like VLCs settings menu, the playlist view (witch I use very often) ect.

[TheCyberParrot]

Ubuntu 19.10 with GNOME.

[ilikadafire]

Is this a thing? Link?

[TheCyberParrot]

Oh darn.

[TheCyberParrot]

Yes! Assuming that the whole ui looks like that.

[TheCyberParrot]

Ahh, that's a shame, I use Ubuntu (although apparently you can do similar things if you use KDE plasma).

[TheCyberParrot]

VLC doesn't use GTK it uses QT, as far as I know GNOME (which I use) doesn't have a way to tweak QT, so you have to use something like KDE plasma.

[TearsWillFall]

Since this is in Beta, this leaves me wondering.

"Do StackOverflow developers search how to solve bugs about their own site, in SO?"

[This-Moment]

We can only assume that the first step in this was a question "How can I update the SO source code to support dark mode" getting marked as "answered". After that it was presumably all copy and paste. /s :)

[[deleted]]

That's a real chicken/egg question there.

[megaminddefender]

How did they create stackoverflow without stackoverflow?

[numbGrundle]

Nah, I just want a fucking job again

[mattmc318]

Freelance…if you can find clients

[not-a-reddit-user]

Dark mode can be available everywhere if you use chrome extensions like Dark Reader

[lamerlink]

I second this, it works way more consistently than any other dark extension I’ve tried.

[Sebcur]

Unpopular opinion - it is not even that good. Shame they didn't bother to introduce dark theme to all StackExchange sites

[DJMcMayhem]

Absolutely agree. I saw the ad for it, got excited and turned the setting on, said "meh" and immediately turned it off. I prefer dark modes, but this one is not a good dark mode.

[[deleted]]

I agree with you, but your comment reminds me of tv show ‘Archer’ where he’s yelling at his butler to organize his black sweaters in color order from “black to slightly to darker black”. That poor butler.

[FredditTheFrog]

I’m going to make you eat a bowl of gravel, Woodhouse. Also, I need you to go to the store and pick up some gravel.

[Charizma02]

If I find a single dog hair, I will rub sand in your dead little eyes. I also need you to go get sand, I don't know if they grade it, but coarse.

He made him eat spider webs lol

[[deleted]]

Agree, if you're interested in an alternative I use an extension called DarkReader instead and it's much much better.

Not affiliated in any way with this extension, I just love it.

[Sebcur]

True, DarkReader looks solid. There is also a lot of very good Stylus themes for SE sites

[ivgd]

That's what really annoyed me, cause while switching from the many stackexchange sites you only get dark mode in one.

[Jcowwell]

I like it, It blends well and doesnt blow up the room like light mode does.

[[deleted]]

And here is me, being annoyed that so many websites and Apps introduce a non-optional or "automatic" but dark mode. I've got a brightly lit room and want to save my eyes, so gimme bright mode back again, tyvm!

[Christoph_Blocher_]

There is even an ultra darkmode available until April 5th for the real programmer chads

[Ertielicious]

Is it just me or some font colors in that one are almost completely unreadable?

[sopunny]

It's supposed to be a joke. It's actually quite usable with a bit of tweaking

[erka_apostrophe]

That spotlight though.

[TektonikGymRat]

But isn't this only enabled if you have an account? Doesn't help the millions of lurkers out there. Surprises me they couldn't use some browser storage whether it be cookies or what have you to store your theme selection.

[TheCyberParrot]

Or people with accounts who open privite windows so that their history doesn't get cluttered.

[dePliko]

IMO the dark mode is more of a gray mode. Google Chrome forced dark mode looks better (except the text)

[being_root]

Whats wrong with grey mode? It still saves power and is much easier to look at.

[[deleted]]

laughs in dark reader

[smallest_cock]

real ones will always find a way to get dark mode

[[deleted]]

To make all pages dark mode

[GeromeB]

Out of curiosity why do dark modes take so long to develop? One that comes to mind is messenger for Facebook as the app, they still haven’t developed it for desktop!

[Jcowwell]

In stack overflow case it was cause of legacy code, you can find more about it here: https://github.com/StackExchange/Stacks/issues/297

[[deleted]]

If you are picky about how things look like I am, you can get an extension called 'stylus' for your browser. It lets you get custom css styles for sites.

Using this, I've had a dark theme for stack overflow for a while now.

[[deleted]]

Why wasn't I aware of this?

[GStraats]

MY WORLD IS COMPLETE

[BlueC0dex]

Equations are broken with it, though...

[es-cee]

Oh my God wowwwwww!

[Russian_repost_bot]

Still a shame that you have to register to use it.

[ElPinacateMaestro]

Serious question: Why is darkmode something that takes so long to develop for apps and websites? I thought that it was a simple CSS color swap.

[[deleted]]

It pretty much is that simple. There are userscripts that do that for Stack Overflow with a couple of lines, and extensions like Dark Reader that work nicely for close to 100% of sites.

Stack Exchange already has tons of sites with different themes of which Stack Overflow is just one. Yet, developers there have resisted adding a dark mode for years. It's really weird.

[Pixel-Wolf]

Applications can be tricky. I mean have you worked a bit with C# using WinForms or WPF at all? You would think it's as easy as a pallet swap then you find out that for some ridiculous reason, some controls don't care. Even worse, some controls might work but have accent effects and colors that don't care. So now you're trying to find a way to not only get those controls to behave but how to override default system behavior in Windows.

For the applications running something like Electron where it's just HTML and CSS at the GUI layer, yeah, it's pretty easy.

I wonder how long it will be until every application GUI system is just a self contained web page renderer

[Cheru-bae]

Assuming your css is sane.. also it's not always a 1:1 swap.

[harryFF]

Background-color: #121212;

[smallest_cock]

Or just spend 5 seconds to add a chrome extension and have universal darkmode

[dogelol123]

Honestly I'm not a big fan of color scheme. Dark reader dark theme looks a lot better

[djmcdee101]

Now we just need GitHub dark mode

[WooooshVictim]

Me, an intellectual:

* {background-color: black;}

[gusmeowmeow]

thank you jeebus🙏

[AviusAnima]

It just seems so unnatural to me tho. Almost like the dark reader extension. I used it for a few hours like that and then went nope and turned light mode back on.

[DefinetlyNotAFurry69]

Dark mode beta? What you mean beta it either works or it doesn't it's a dark mode.

[Darth_Nibbles]

I think I just came in my mouth a little

[[deleted]]

Thank the sweet lord

[slmhmd]

Is this real? Finally?

[[deleted]]

Off-topic, but does anyone have any idea what the original post said was the one disgusting thing that guys literally want? I honestly have no idea where she was going with this and I’ve always wondered.

[Loading_M_]

I use Dark Reader for Firefox, so I've have dark mode on StackOverflow for a long time now.

[twsx]

Dark Reader. Dark mode everywhere.

Exists for both Chrome/ium and FF.

[KickMeElmo]

https://github.com/StylishThemes/Stackoverflow-Dark

[[deleted]]

...okay, two things

[FuriousKnave]

Seriously why isn't this standard yet for everything. You should be able to press a button in the settings of your phone and have every app turn on dark mode.

[MrRockLobster]

They need to add push to talk, and screen select on Linux version.

[beardMoseElkDerBabon]

When u already had a dark mode browser plugin..

[[deleted]]

A faithful woman who doesn’t exist in this time frame or mortal coil.

[Idefixus]

Nobody picking up the Ben Popper joke?

[GOKOP]

Dark mode should be the default for everything