That post about screensavers
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| Author | Content |
|---|---|
| Sander_Marechal Jul 27, 2006 4:59 PM EDT |
A while back I read an incredible post here on LXer about the fact that 50%-75% of the first hour in the life of a new Linux user is spent adjusting the screensavers. Sadly I can't find it. I had hoped to take it and slap the Ubuntu devs around with it. Breezy had a pretty good screensaver interface. You could select multiple screensavers, adjust settings on all of them, etcetera. The one that's in Dapper has *no* functionality left. All you can do is pick 1 screensaver or set it to random. You can't adjust any settings on any of the screen savers. It's bugging me to no end (especially since i cannot set it to random. There's one screensaver in the list that crashes X under GLX) Can anyone remember that comment and where it was posted? |
| jimf Jul 27, 2006 5:06 PM EDT |
Lol, did you do a site search on screensavers? Honestly, I really wonder about people who are running elaborate screensavers. exercise your CPU while you are away? |
| dcparris Jul 27, 2006 5:14 PM EDT |
Well Jim, if you don't keep your CPU fit and trim, it starts getting lazy, overweight, diabetic and all that. Oh sorry, I must be thinking of that legacy OS. |
| jimf Jul 27, 2006 5:16 PM EDT |
Yes Don, I used to design screensavers for 'that legacy OS'. Guess that got it out of my system. |
| dcparris Jul 27, 2006 5:59 PM EDT |
Lol! Poor Fella. It's funny, I actually paid for one of those cheezy screensaver programs back in my legacy OS days. You know, the kind you can get for $9.99. I think I actually used the screensaver for a week or something like that. Didn't even get my money's worth out of it. Otoh, I can honestly say I enjoy going through the GNU/Linux screensavers - I am actually momentarily mesmerized by some of them. The funny thing is, I think they take up less memory and all that than the ones for Winders, and are frequently just as, if not more creative. |
| jimf Jul 27, 2006 6:06 PM EDT |
Well, you need to thank the guys making Linux screensavers... much more technically difficult than making the Winders ones. I wish I had some way to port those to Linux. |
| grouch Jul 27, 2006 7:03 PM EDT |
Bah! Screensavers only entertain the monitor. Change your background while you work. #!/bin/bash # with luck, this will change the root window background # at set times, using images found in the pwd # declare -a img count=0 count=$(($count)) for f_name in $(find . -name *.jpg) do img[count]=${f_name} count=$((count + 1)) # echo " ${count} ${f_name} ${img[count]} " done while [ true ] do # echo "top of while loop" cnt=0 cnt=$(($cnt)) while [ ${cnt} -lt ${count} ] do c_image=${img[cnt]} # echo ${c_image} qiv -t -y ${c_image} sleep 1m cnt=$((cnt + 1)) done done |
| tuxchick2 Jul 27, 2006 7:05 PM EDT |
Don't blame Ubuntu, blame Gnome. Their ultimate goal is a blank interface containing a single "Cancel" button. Screensavers are very important. KDE includes a nice front-end to XScreensaver, plus it does slideshows on the background images of your desktops. And- this is sooo cool- every desktop can have a different image. Providing your system supports all that graphical goodness. :) I wonder if there aren't digital picture frames on the market somewhere, and if not, why the heck not? Load it with your fave photos, hang it up, and enjoy the show. |
| techiem2 Jul 27, 2006 7:11 PM EDT |
tuxchick2: >I wonder if there aren't digital picture frames on the market somewhere, and if not, why the heck not? Load it with your fave photos, hang it up, and enjoy the show. There are. I haven't used one myself, but you see them for sale now and then. Not sure how many of them do slideshows. |
| jimf Jul 27, 2006 7:18 PM EDT |
> Don't blame Ubuntu, blame Gnome. Their ultimate goal is a blank interface containing a single "Cancel" button. OMG, I love it :D... You will be quoted... |
| grouch Jul 27, 2006 7:42 PM EDT |
tuxchick2: >"I wonder if there aren't digital picture frames on the market somewhere, and if not, why the heck not? Load it with your fave photos, hang it up, and enjoy the show." There are such digital picture frames, but Mr. Gates owns the patent. No joke. |
| Sander_Marechal Jul 27, 2006 10:12 PM EDT |
Quoting:Lol, did you do a site search on screensavers? Honestly, I really wonder about people who are running elaborate screensavers. exercise your CPU while you are away? Ofcourse I searched, but I didn't find it. BTW put some user in front of a newly installed PC and see what he does. I'll bet you that one of the first things he does is change the background and fiddle with the screensaver. Quoting:I wonder if there aren't digital picture frames on the market somewhere, and if not, why the heck not? Load it with your fave photos, hang it up, and enjoy the show. See http://www.thinkgeek.com/electronics/cameras/ and especially http://www.thinkgeek.com/electronics/cameras/7edc/ which has wifi to interface with flickr Quoting:Don't blame Ubuntu, blame Gnome. I'll look into who's fault it ultimately is. That said, there are separate GTK screensaver managers. Ubuntu could install one of those. Hence my need to go after their devs. |
| jimf Jul 27, 2006 11:53 PM EDT |
> Ofcourse I searched, but I didn't find it. BTW put some user in front of a newly installed PC and see what he does. I'll bet you that one of the first things he does is change the background and fiddle with the screensaver. Just pulling your leg sander ;-) |
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