Am I the only one who misses screen savers?

[kow777]

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.

I still feel that Ubuntu is a lightweight alternative to Windows, at least compared to Windows 7. I didn't realize how ram heavy 7 was until I switched back to Ubuntu.

[Grenage]

I still feel that Ubuntu is a lightweight alternative to Windows, at least compared to Windows 7. I didn't realize how ram heavy 7 was until I switched back to Ubuntu.

Maybe for you; my Windows 7 and Ubuntu installs use about the same, and Windows is nippier.

[CharlesA]

That is my experience as well, but my main box is running Win7. My older desktop box is running Fedora now, but it was running Ubuntu 12.04 previously.

[wyliecoyoteuk]

Problem with shutting the screen off is that some idiot will come along and switch the PC off at the plug, because they don't think it's on, and trash the OS.
(Yes, our company has one of these "switch it off at the wall" people. Unfortunately, he's the MD)

I remember a story about a branch visit from the IT director, who wandered through the IT dept, and saw that the servers were running 3D screensavers. (this was in the days when 3D screensavers actually used an appreciable portion of memory and CPU, and Windows servers often actually had displays).
He pointed out how much they were costing the company. Ouch.

[ki4jgt]

Problem with shutting the screen off is that some idiot will come along and switch the PC off at the plug, because they don't think it's on, and trash the OS.
(Yes, our company has one of these "switch it off at the wall" people. Unfortunately, he's the MD)

I remember a story about a branch visit from the IT director, who wandered through the IT dept, and saw that the servers were running 3D screensavers. (this was in the days when 3D screensavers actually used an appreciable portion of memory and CPU, and Windows servers often actually had displays).
He pointed out how much they were costing the company. Ouch.

I have a family member like that. No looking for a light, they simply assume that b/c a screen is off, the stack must be as well . Has resulted in MANY a loss document. . .

[vexorian]

I would then suspend the computer, unless the guy also unplugs computers.

[wyliecoyoteuk]

No, but he does switch them off at the socket.

[DarkAmbient]

I can't say I miss them, screensavers in Ubuntu was always buggy for me. Kicking in while I was watching something in fullscreen, be it flash in a browser or locally via totem, sometimes I was unable to go back to the desktop from the screensaver too. So thanks to bad experiences I haven't used any screensavers for the past 2-3 years now. But perhaps they have started to behave better since(?).

[Marzata]

By default there are around 200 screen savers in Xubuntu 12.04 LTS, http://goo.gl/OgGVP.

[danelwillis]

There is only one screen saver in KUbuntu and thats blank. lol. Miss the screen savers. Might get some now just to tell idiots that screen off doesn't mean computer off. Plus they looked cool.