Screensaver to be or not to be (was: Re: Security Audit Request for Screenlocker Branch)

[Martin Gräßlin]

On Wednesday 12 October 2011 08:26:20 Torgny Nyblom wrote:
> On Tuesday 11 October 2011 20.54.42 Thomas Lübking wrote:
> > Am Tue, 11 Oct 2011 18:02:32 +0200
> > 
> > schrieb Torgny Nyblom <nyblom at kde.org>:
> > > Screensaver is bling only
> > 
> > No, "screensaver hacks are bling only", a "screensaver" is a
> > software relic.
> 
> (Semantics)
> 
> > The key aspect is "when and why is there eye-candy".
> > You can still run all scsreensavers to look at them, they're just
> > ordinary single window applications.
> > You can even run them fullscreen. No problem.
> > 
> > BUT: running them automatically because you're away and the system is
> > idle is simply not a justifiable (anymore),
> 
> Why? I like this feature.
We have to design software which suits the majority of our users. On a mailing 
list like kde-core-devel I had hoped to not get answers like "I like this 
feature". You are also a developer and I am sure that you have considered in 
the past to remove a feature which other people liked, but you had to remove 
it for various reasons.

But as said as long as you are on X you can always just run xscreensavers to 
get your animations. You can also start VLC in fullscreen mode or write a 
small wrapper for the new to be written QML based animations in the screen 
locker.
> 
> > and that was the concept of a
> > "screensaver" which was just 10 years ago, but is no way today
> 
> Agreed.
> 
> > - and on
> > battery driven systems actually must be tagged stupid, sorry.
> 
> But on non battery powered devices?
even there we should have our defaults to protect the environment by turning 
off the screen and keeping the CPU in the lowest level. As well we should not 
give the users the wrong feeling that they need a screen "saver" to save their 
screen. Whatever we will call the new animations in the screen locker it will 
not be a "saver".

Cheers
Martin
> 
> /Regards
> Torgny
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