Paring Down the Screensavers - RFC

[Jens Knutson]

--- Steven Garrity <stevelist at silverorange.com> wrote:

> First, the "Ok" list - these screensavers all seemed pretty
> professional and I think would be an ok default set.
> 
> glmatrix
> goop
[snip long list]

A very large number of these require either OpenGL support and/or a
very fast machine.  Any box running Fedora that doesn't meet those
requirements will come practically to a *halt* when one of these comes
up.  The default set should probably consist of 5-10 very minimal,
non-3D, "professional" (read: very conservative) screensavers.  Then
there could be 2 more packages, one that included all the GL
screensavers, and one that included Everything Else.  Also, I think a
"kill" list is a terrible idea, because it would only serve to divide
people and create endless, stupid flames on this and other fedora
lists, which already suffer from a terribly poor signal to noise ratio.
 (Which reminds me: How dare you suggest dropping the Best.
Screensavers. Ever, Bouncing Cow and Barcode??  You'll burned at the
stake for thy crimes, heretic!!  EAT FLAMING DEATH!!! etc, etc...  See
what I mean?  Even I'm falling prey to it already!)

So anyhow, we would have three packages (the names are just
suggestions, they could be called anything):

xscreensaver: this would be the core, plus the 5-10 conservative
choices that are suitable for basically all machines and configurations

xscreensaver-3D: all the GL screensavers

xscreensaver-extras: everything that's not in the first two

The only other question then would be: who decides what lucky 5-10 go
in the core xscreensaver package?  I think it's easiest to take the
Benevolent Dictator model here, since trying to vote on it, or trust
the nerdy masses like ourselves to make decisions that will affect mere
mortal users, is a poor proposition, and will only lead to the kinds of
arguments I outlined above.  So who do we make our Benevolent Dictator?
 Well, if he will have the job, I would like to nominate Garrett
LeSage, as he has the good aesthetic sense and technical knowledge to
make a qualified decision on what would probably make a good default
set of screensavers.  If anyone else thinks there's another BD we could
nominate, I'm open to that, too.

Garrett, Steven?  What do you think?

 - jck


=====
"We act as though comfort and luxury were the chief
requirements of life, when all that we need to make 
us happy is something to be enthusiastic about."
 -- Albert Einstein

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