heads up - kscreensaver going away

[doctordruidphd]

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?pag...tem&px=MTQ5MTg

kscreensaver is evidently going to be purged for "security" reasons.
Seems to me "security" is used to justify a lot these days...
Anyway, I guess you can still load the Xscreensaver packages.

[claydoh]

This will happen for KDE 5, and with a wayland based alternative or replacement to be written............ kscreensaver won't work outside of xorg.

[doctordruidphd]

Aha.

[woodsmoke]

Wellll whatever replaces it..........

I just hope that they can somehow keep "Atlantis" the whales swimming around...........

IF......they add a button to remove that IRRITATING dolphin that swims around like a Batoutahedoublehockysticks!

I liked Kaliedoscope and sometimes used the carousel of pictures.

woodsmoke

[doctordruidphd]

Yeah, I don't think I could live without my doughnuts in the morning (lattice glx saver set to "tasty").

I have some anxiety about this switch to wayland -- I know there are technical reasons, but as a non-developer, to me it sounds like "fixing what ain't broke," and we all know where that leads (breaking what ain't fixed). And that may be a considerable amount of software.

[richb]

While not broke I would argue xorg is flawed leading to numerous problems and needs to be fixed or replaced.

[doctordruidphd]

All true, but it remains to be seen -- and it won't be known until the new products are actually rolled out to users who use a variety of different, and differently configured, systems -- whether the "fix" causes more problems than the "problems".

I remember all too well the day that someone decided to "fix" something in gnome 2.x, which killed nearly everybody's Debian desktop.

[richb]

Yes, you are correct. Remember the first roll-out of KDE 4? No one would argue now, well almost no one, that the iterative versions did not correct the faults and we ended with an elegant very usable OS. I would expect growing pains with Wayland. But I do have confidence in the Open Source ecosystem to rapidly solve the issues, unlike a corporate entity.

[doctordruidphd]

Agreed. Most of the software I actually use, I compile myself, and is GTK based. It remains to be seen how well it will work. I hope that we actually get the time to correct things, as opposed to a "one day it works and the next it doesn't" situation.

We had these same issues with pulseaudio. I remember that when WINE quit working because of it, for a long time the wine developers were saying that pulseaudio is basically a fad, they see no reason to support it, remove it from your system, etc. Eventually they came around (or got the time to fix it), so now it works, but for a long time, wine was pretty much lamed. Wine isn't mission critical to me; GIMP, darktable, rawtherapee, and other things are.

I guess this speaks to keeping older versions of the system around. Good thing disk space is cheap these days.

[Guest]

I think the best would be to fork Xscreensaver and make it work with root accounts.

[SteveRiley]

kscreensaver is evidently going to be purged for "security" reasons.
Seems to me "security" is used to justify a lot these days...

Check comments #25..#30 in the discussion thread. Martin clears up some wrong speculation about security problems. (Pay no attention to comment #34, in which I feed one of the many KDE trolls who lounge around Phoronix.)

[doctordruidphd]

There seems to be a lot of emphasis on screen locking. Since this is a home computer, and I am the only person here, I have about as much need for screen locking as a fish has a need for a bicycle. In fact, it's a downright pain in the neck, because even now (kde 4) the stupid screen locker comes up when the screen saver should be there, even when the locker it is supposedly turned off. There seems to be no way to kill it. I understand that in some environments screen locking is a critical security issue, but here it's a just an irritation. Why not make it a choice instead of a requirement?

[GreyGeek]

Screen saver and/or Screen wallpaper?

Screensave, i.e., an app which blanks the screen or puts moving images on it to prevent phosphor burn, is a relic no longer needed because LCD screens do not "burn in".
Wallpaper is another matter. I love to see my pod of dolphins when my desktop comes up in the morning. It's proof that other forms of intelligent life exist in the universe.

[oshunluvr]

I use neither a screensaver or locker on my personal computers, preferring good ol' dpms blanking instead.

Screen savers can be great entertainment if your computer is visible when not being used, like in a open office environment, but I have no use for one at home. I work in a Federal facility and we have mandated policies that require screen locking within 5 minutes of no activity.

[doctordruidphd]

Screensave, i.e., an app which blanks the screen or puts moving images on it to prevent phosphor burn, is a relic no longer needed because LCD screens do not "burn in".
Wallpaper is another matter. I love to see my pod of dolphins when my desktop comes up in the morning. It's proof that other forms of intelligent life exist in the universe.

Similarly, I want my doughnuts! (rss-glx - lattice - "tasty" setting) Without it, I might revert to actually eating them. All that treadmill work down the tubes.

Seriously, while I consider myself to be a security and privacy freak, I retain the position that in the end it should be the individual's choice what they want to give up for how much security. I don't use facebook, twitter, etc. etc., but I'll be blasted if I'll give up my doughnuts. Or, more accurately, that I'll shut up while somebody else takes it away.