Back before I discovered Linux, I still had a bunch of computers in my room. Since I hadn't yet discovered Linux, I had a bunch of Windows computers. Therefore I saw a lot of classic screensavers all the time (and also my room was very warm).
Moreso than that, though, one need only understand the concept of a screensaver and maybe watch a few minutes of this to intuit that there is no end and never will be.
I liked the pipe one. It cleaned itself up periodically and, since there was no character on display - either via first person perspective or seeing someone build pipes - no one was desperate or trapped. However, the starfield was always my favorite. It spoke of adventure. The idea of having an occupiable spaceship was enough of an idea of home to not stress me out.
I also had one that came on the Duke Nukem 3d CD (though it didn't come on mine, I had to email and ask). It depicted Duke's enemies rather messily falling from the sky until they filled up the screen. When I learned that was a thing I was of the perfect age to appreciate it.
Nowadays I just use the power management settings. No screen saver.
The only thing that managed to replace starfield in my heart was Matrix. And even then, someone did a Matrix starfield and all was right with the world.
I want a matrix wallpaper now, dammit.
Honestly the thing I miss most about the latest Linux distributions. I understand screensavers aren’t necessary anymore, but they are fun and should still be a thing.
I miss the old windows colored bubbles, where your screen was still visible and the bubbles just moved around on top of everything.
I think it was from 7. In 10 they changed it so there was a black screen with the bubbles. Not nearly as much fun (I do zero secure things on my home computers). They also seemed to churn more, like glass balls, rather than bouncing off each other like they originally did.
I’m not on windows anymore but man I do miss that one.
As I understand it, for the burn-in you can just turn the display off. It was not always that way because old CRT monitors take a while to turn back on so it was annoying.
I have two LCD monitors and a CRT monitor in use right now. The CRT is a lot faster in turning on, though it did stop displaying the color red for a bit, though I did fix that by unplugging it and letting the capacitors drain so whatever.
I think only ChromeOS' Exo and KDE's KWin (cheating, since its just the kde screen locker) are the only wayland compositors with screensaving functionality. Which is just a picture slideshow.
Seems like no devs want to reimplement screensavers that are not just pictures.
We always called them screensavers, but at some point after screensavers were no longer really necessary, people started calling backgrounds screensavers. I don't know why I let it bother me so much.
56 Comments
protist@mander.xyz · 137 pts · 328d
Whoa...I just did the same thing, and when I came back, my computer looked like this. A billion years of evolution in the blink of an eye
Rhaedas@fedia.io · 45 pts · 328d
I have not seen that in... a long time.
JcbAzPx@lemmy.world · 19 pts · 328d
You knew when it started because the cooling fans jumped up to jet engine levels.
A_norny_mousse@feddit.org · 17 pts · 328d
Like the civilisation that grew inside a train station locker
AtariDump@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 328d
All hail J!
caseyweederman@lemmy.ca · 1 pts · 328d
Where's Bill the Cat though
scytale@piefed.zip · 82 pts · 328d
My computer started playing Doom by itself.
The_Picard_Maneuver@piefed.world · 24 pts · 328d
This is still mesmerizing.
toynbee@lemmy.world · 11 pts · 328d
I always found it stressful because there's no way out. Just endless wandering.
Pandantic@midwest.social · 2 pts · 327d
Why did you watch it that long?!
toynbee@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 327d
Back before I discovered Linux, I still had a bunch of computers in my room. Since I hadn't yet discovered Linux, I had a bunch of Windows computers. Therefore I saw a lot of classic screensavers all the time (and also my room was very warm).
Moreso than that, though, one need only understand the concept of a screensaver and maybe watch a few minutes of this to intuit that there is no end and never will be.
I liked the pipe one. It cleaned itself up periodically and, since there was no character on display - either via first person perspective or seeing someone build pipes - no one was desperate or trapped. However, the starfield was always my favorite. It spoke of adventure. The idea of having an occupiable spaceship was enough of an idea of home to not stress me out.
I also had one that came on the Duke Nukem 3d CD (though it didn't come on mine, I had to email and ask). It depicted Duke's enemies rather messily falling from the sky until they filled up the screen. When I learned that was a thing I was of the perfect age to appreciate it.
Nowadays I just use the power management settings. No screen saver.
fibojoly@sh.itjust.works · 12 pts · 328d
Wolfenstein 3D, please.
tehn00bi@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 328d
That would be cool to build something that actually plays wolf 3d.
mx_smith@lemmy.world · 10 pts · 328d
Isn’t that Wolfenstein?
WhiskyTangoFoxtrot@lemmy.world · 13 pts · 328d
Can't be with zero-thickness walls.
blockheadjt@sh.itjust.works · 4 pts · 328d
Nor the floor and ceiling textures.
RickyRigatoni@retrolemmy.com · 2 pts · 328d
Weren't we able to change the textures used in this? We could have made it doom or wolfenstein or duke 3d...
stupidcasey@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 328d
That's just because you're computer is autistic and can't relate with the other computers so it retreats into video games.
Gork@sopuli.xyz · 40 pts · 328d
This was back before the Internet was not a big truck, but a series of tubes.
Obi@sopuli.xyz · 47 pts · 328d
I thought it was a box:
toynbee@lemmy.world · 13 pts · 328d
edit: Better image source.
HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 328d
dude did you get permission to photograph The Internet?
niktemadur@lemmy.world · 33 pts · 328d
That's why I use flying toasters instead.
klemptor@startrek.website · 18 pts · 328d
I'm team Starfield
don@lemmy.ca · 8 pts · 328d
Once I could run the matrix screensaver, I never looked back.
RickyRigatoni@retrolemmy.com · 4 pts · 328d
Pretty sure that screensaver pack was full of viruses but I was in 5th grade who cares.
fibojoly@sh.itjust.works · 4 pts · 328d
The only thing that managed to replace starfield in my heart was Matrix. And even then, someone did a Matrix starfield and all was right with the world. I want a matrix wallpaper now, dammit.
Kongar@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 25 pts · 328d
Honestly the thing I miss most about the latest Linux distributions. I understand screensavers aren’t necessary anymore, but they are fun and should still be a thing.
ButteryMonkey@piefed.social · 8 pts · 328d
I miss the old windows colored bubbles, where your screen was still visible and the bubbles just moved around on top of everything.
I think it was from 7. In 10 they changed it so there was a black screen with the bubbles. Not nearly as much fun (I do zero secure things on my home computers). They also seemed to churn more, like glass balls, rather than bouncing off each other like they originally did.
I’m not on windows anymore but man I do miss that one.
Wizard_Pope@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 328d
Pretty sure it was 7. Loved those bubbles.
Kolanaki@pawb.social · 4 pts · 328d
They are very much still kinda necessary. They prevent burn-in, which is still a possible issue on certain types of displays (like OLEDs).
Then again, even back in the hay day of screensavers you could have simply turned the monitor off and left the PC on. 🤷♂️
coriza@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 328d
As I understand it, for the burn-in you can just turn the display off. It was not always that way because old CRT monitors take a while to turn back on so it was annoying.
brisk@aussie.zone · 1 pts · 328d
My modern LCD takes eons longer to turn on than any of the CRTs I've used.
vaultdweller013@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 328d
I have two LCD monitors and a CRT monitor in use right now. The CRT is a lot faster in turning on, though it did stop displaying the color red for a bit, though I did fix that by unplugging it and letting the capacitors drain so whatever.
Knock_Knock_Lemmy_In@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 327d
Meh. Who needs red.
OmegaSunkey@ani.social · 4 pts · 328d
I think only ChromeOS' Exo and KDE's KWin (cheating, since its just the kde screen locker) are the only wayland compositors with screensaving functionality. Which is just a picture slideshow.
Seems like no devs want to reimplement screensavers that are not just pictures.
prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 2 pts · 328d
Eh. I'm fine with the screen just shutting off.
InvalidName2@lemmy.zip · 23 pts · 328d
For the newer people in the crowd: A screen protector is part of the immune system for electronic displays.
MutilationWave@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 14 pts · 328d
We always called them screensavers, but at some point after screensavers were no longer really necessary, people started calling backgrounds screensavers. I don't know why I let it bother me so much.
jaybone@lemmy.zip · 3 pts · 328d
Then there was a tv show called The Screensavers. That was fun.
A_norny_mousse@feddit.org · 5 pts · 328d
before flatscreens, mostly
RickyRigatoni@retrolemmy.com · 2 pts · 328d
Even old flatscreens had terrible burnin. Especially plasma, but nobody was using those for computering.
ms_lane@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 327d
Which 'flatscreens' though...
Flat CRTs or LCD/Plasma?
licheas@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 327d
not to be pedantic or "well ashktually" you....
but, eh.... screen protectors in the 90's were something else.
(Yeah....)
Kolanaki@pawb.social · 21 pts · 328d
It's just a graphical representation of The Internet (a series of tubes).
Wav_function@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 328d
IT'S NOT A BIG TRUCK
tehn00bi@lemmy.world · 18 pts · 328d
I miss screen savers sometimes.
ms_lane@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 327d
They're still there if you want them.
ArchmageAzor@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 327d
Yeah but my screen never gets to turn off by itself
Lladra@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 328d
It's a 30 year old screen saver.
SugarCatDestroyer@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 328d
rozlav@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 4 pts · 328d
Any chance getting a link to install this on xfce or kde ?
Imgonnatrythis@sh.itjust.works · 8 pts · 328d
Probably takes a lot of GPU to run this. You probably need windows 12 or later.
SkunkWorkz@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 328d
Yeah it runs on Unreal Engine 5, with Nanite, Lumen and shitty TAA.
hayvan@feddit.nl · 4 pts · 328d
Should be part of xscreensaver.
A_norny_mousse@feddit.org · 3 pts · 328d
Pretty sure the arrogant Mr Zawinski ported it ages ago.
A_norny_mousse@feddit.org · 4 pts · 328d
Time to take your pills and go to bed, Mr.