Up until GNOME 3.5, GNOME Screensaver was the

GNOME A gnome is a mythological creature and diminutive spirit in Renaissance magic and alchemy, first introduced by Paracelsus in the 16th century and later adopted by more recent authors including those of modern fantasy literature. Its characte ...

project's official screen blanking and locking framework. With the release of GNOME 3.5.5, screen locking functionality became a function of GDM and

GNOME Shell GNOME Shell is the graphical shell of the GNOME desktop environment starting with version 3, which was released on April 6, 2011. It provides basic functions like launching applications, switching between windows and is also a widget engine. ...

by default.

History

GNOME Screensaver continued to be used by the GNOME Fallback mode until GNOME Fallback was deprecated with the release of GNOME 3.8. GNOME Screensaver continues to be used in the

GNOME Flashback A gnome is a mythological creature and diminutive spirit in Renaissance magic and alchemy, first introduced by Paracelsus in the 16th century and later adopted by more recent authors including those of modern fantasy literature. Its characte ...

session, a continuation of the GNOME Fallback mode. In October 2014, a member of the GNOME Flashback team requested maintainer-ship of GNOME Screensaver which would allow it to officially become part of the GNOME Flashback project. On some GNOME-based

Linux distribution A Linux distribution (often abbreviated as distro) is an operating system made from a software collection that includes the Linux kernel and, often, a package management system. Linux users usually obtain their operating system by downloading one ...

s, GNOME Screensaver was used instead of the framework that is a part of

XScreenSaver XScreenSaver is a free and open-source collection of 240+ screensavers for Unix, macOS, iOS and Android operating systems. It was created by Jamie Zawinski in 1992 and is still maintained by him, with new releases coming out several times ...

. On these systems, the screen savers themselves still came from the XScreenSaver collection, GNOME Screensaver just provided the interface. The GNOME Screensaver interface was designed for improved integration with the GNOME desktop, including themeability, language support, and human interface guidelines compliance. However, it no longer runs any screensavers and is more properly referred to as a screen blanker. Compared to the front end included with XScreenSaver, GNOME Screensaver has a simplified

interface Interface or interfacing may refer to: Academic journals * ''Interface'' (journal), by the Electrochemical Society * ''Interface, Journal of Applied Linguistics'', now merged with ''ITL International Journal of Applied Linguistics'' * '' Inte ...

but less customizability. For instance, users may not select which screensavers to select at random – either only one is selected or the program randomly selects from the whole list. In addition, the inability to configure individual screensavers and the developers' response to this issue has been criticized by some users. It also lacks a setting to control cycling through different screensavers. In GNOME 3, GNOME Screensaver was drastically simplified, supporting only screen blanking and no graphical

screen saver Screen Savers or screensaver or ''variation'', may refer to: * Screensaver, computer programs intended to preserve CRT monitors from "burn-in" ** GNOME ''Screensaver'', GNOME Project's screen blanking tool ** Google Pack ''Screensaver'', a termi ...

References

External links

Wiki.gnome.org

Git.gnome.org

Frequently Asked Questions

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gnome-Screensaver GNOME Applications Screensavers