"the inevitable white glare induced headaches?"
That depends only on how your monitor is set, and the environment light intensity, distribution and direction.
Having a monitor set for photo editing - with brightness well set taking into account ambient light as well, instead of being at 250% as in most monitors, plus colour temperature at 6500K instead of 9000 and over which makes it too blue, white background is quite fine. Both natural light and artificial one are designed to come from one side, diffused, at the proper angle and with proper contrast around - something that unluckily not many places, especially offices, can deliver. I still find incredible how many working places are inundated with the wrong kind of light.
Especially for me because my sight depends on the size of the pupil - and with a black background it means it opens more and I see worse, incrementing eye strain, not decreasing it.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
