You know the time when LCD, LED screens were not common and CRT monitors were mostly used for video output? it was a time when screensavers were very popular and you must have tried it on your Windows PC. But these days you don’t see them much the reason being that 15 years back they were necessary to avoid “burn in” problem in CRT monitors. They are not at all necessary now.
I didn’t know it when I was young; I used it as it looked cool to have something running when your system was idle. I don’t know why people have stopped using it. Anyways, few days back I felt a need to have a screensaver for my Ubuntu Desktop and that was when I came around Xscreensaver.
XScreenSaver is the standard screen saver collection for Linux system running the X11 Window System containing more than 200 screen savers. It is developed by Jamie Zawinski in 1992 and continues to maintain it.
To install the screensaver, simply type this in your terminal:
[cc lang=”bash”]sudo apt-get install xscreensaver xscreensaver-gl-extra xscreensaver-data-extra[/cc]
After installing this, you will need to remove the default gnome-screensaver as it will conflict with xscreensaver. To remove it simply type:-
[cc lang=”bash”]sudo apt-get remove gnome-screensaver[/cc]
To start from the terminal type this:-
[cc lang=”bash”]xscreensaver-demo[/cc]
Or you can do it from the GUI by using the super key and typing screensaver and running the program.
There are large number of screensaver to select from and each of them comes with a lot of customizing options.
My favorite is this one:-
Happy Tweaking!!
Tell in comments if you faced any glitches and give your valuable suggestions.
