Am I the only one who misses screen savers?

[vexorian]

Wouln't it have been better to shut the screen off?

[ki4jgt]

Back in the day, you could get screen burn on CRTs. Static images would literally imprint themselves upon the screen. Screensavers helped stop that happening, by keeping something moving across the image.

expanding on this, my mother's old computer screen did this. Even after we installed Ubuntu, we could see the imprint of the windows start menu b/c the place she bought it from left it on without the screensaver

[Grenage]

Wouln't it have been better to shut the screen off?

Yes, although if distracted or forgetful.. it can easily happen. As I recall, it wasn't that common for monitors do have power control; you couldn't turn them off via software.

expanding on this, my mother's old computer screen did this. Even after we installed Ubuntu, we could see the imprint of the windows start menu b/c the place she bought it from left it on without the screensaver

Yup, sometimes you could salvage the display!

[kimberlite]

Wouln't it have been better to shut the screen off?

Sounds like a logical question. But to use a customized screensaver at that time (in the nineties) was fun and a kind of status symbol to express your creativity:wink).

[cracker89]

Sounds like a logical question. But to use a customized screensaver at that time (in the nineties) was fun and a kind of status symbol to express your creativity:wink).

[BrianBlaze]

I use xscreensaver and love it at work because all my buddies at work think I am cool for having old school screen savers

[cracker89]

I use xscreensaver and love it at work because all my buddies at work think I am cool for having old school screen savers

i remember the haunted house and space satellite things rom win 98. they were top notch. *nostagia*

[houseworkshy]

There are still a few cathode ray tube monitors out there being used, for anyone who has one of those a screensaver is quite important because turning the monitor on and off isn't going to extend it's life, making it transmit pure black is a better option but a bit dull. I used to use a clock screensaver to shake me out of daydreaming when I had deadlines. There are rather a lot of interesting screensavers, some of the ones which are associated with shareing unused resources are well worth looking at. This I like http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/sah_graphics.php
I'd quite like to have something like stellarium kick in when a screensaver would have done just to help maintain context.
Currently I don't need or use one, however having something useful kick in when the computer is idle is still a good idea; interuptable scans, shared tasks and so on. Graphics to go with that might even be useful or just eyecandy, either way I hope the option to use a screensaver remains even if it isn't on the disk.
Part of focusing on innovating the new is bound to be depreciation of the old especially when size of storage medium is a factor, so it's swings and roundabouts. As a fortunate online person this is not a problem, gimp is one of the first things I install for example, though I'm aware that for many less fortunate what is on the disk is more critical. Internet cafes often charge for downloads and if the iso's and debs don't work there is no connection to easily sort things out at home online.
According to the old Ubuntu ethic screensavers would be on the disk as the people least likely to be online are most likely to be using a crt monitor.
That said the Ubuntu philosopy has changed; providing a free alternative operating system for those in the third world is no longer a key factor, now it's solidly aimed at the well to do who can afford to have recent hardware. So I suppose people using old hardware won't be able to run Ubuntu anyway, just think ram.
I miss the old Ubuntu ethic but the distribution did help to popularise the linux idea and lightweight distro's have come in to fill the gap. The new ethic is important too, innovation does matter and it is logical that one of, perhaps the, biggest development teams take on that role.
Ubuntu could easily be first to produce a working holographic display and should that happen expect flames about the decision to drop old physical screen features. A couple of decades after that those who flamed will probably be using the results of all that holographic development but leery of the brain induction UI.

[Old_Grey_Wolf]

I didn't notice that screens savers were gone. Now that you mention it, I haven't seen one it quite a while.

[CharlesA]

I remember running Seti@Home on my old Compaq. It made an awesome screensaver tbh.

For anyone who wants to run Seti@Home on their Precise box, see here:
http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/forum...postid=1242388