Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Another Benefit To Wayland: Its Screensaver

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • Another Benefit To Wayland: Its Screensaver

    Phoronix: Another Benefit To Wayland: Its Screensaver

    When Mark Shuttleworth announced last year that Ubuntu will eventually deploy Wayland instead of an X.Org Server with their new Unity Desktop, there were many mixed reactions. There were many Phoronix enthusiasts excited since this means replacing ancient X11 code with a brand new code-base designed around modern graphics technologies that takes advantage of KMS, OpenGL, etc. Others, however, were less excited since Wayland is still a work-in-progress. While Wayland has come a long way in recent months, it's still not as full-featured as an X.Org Server, but the features coming are beginning to trump the current capabilities of the X stack...

    Phoronix, Linux Hardware Reviews, Linux hardware benchmarks, Linux server benchmarks, Linux benchmarking, Desktop Linux, Linux performance, Open Source graphics, Linux How To, Ubuntu benchmarks, Ubuntu hardware, Phoronix Test Suite

  • #2
    Not really exciting. The only screensaver that should exist is "cut the screen power". Everybody should only think to save power.
    Now, if you don't talk about screensaver but only about screen locking...

    Comment


    • #3
      Originally posted by Mickabouille View Post
      Not really exciting. The only screensaver that should exist is "cut the screen power". Everybody should only think to save power.
      Now, if you don't talk about screensaver but only about screen locking...
      Yeah, and only use the command line cause it uses less resources and transition anyone to emacs from Visual Studio 2010.
      A screensaver is not just about saving power, it's also about beauty and whatnot, and the trade-off should stay as a choice to the end user, not to people obsessed with saving power or pushing only for beauty.

      Comment


      • #4
        As usual for Wayland - all this is speculation. There's a difference between saying something will be designed a certain way, and practical considerations changing it later down the track.

        Comment


        • #5
          Originally posted by cl333r View Post
          Yeah, and only use the command line cause it uses less resources and transition anyone to emacs from Visual Studio 2010.
          GUI are useful. Screensavers aren't.

          Comment


          • #6
            KDE has widgets on screensavers, allowing you to put useful information, even things like letting people leave notes or turn off your music, while in screensaver mode. I wonder how, or if, wayland can handle this. If it is in control of the screen, would that means it prevents mouse interaction?

            And what about unlocking? They say it will prevent windows from going above the screensaver. But how will unlocking dialogs work? Will they have to be handled by wayland rather than a dialog? Will the window manager be able to provide the proper theming?

            Comment


            • #7
              screensavers aren't even about saving the screen anymore, its really just something to look at or hide what you've been working on when your computer is idle. i just simply let the screen shut off - every process counts.

              Comment


              • #8
                My computer's purpose is to help me do whatever I want/must, not entertaining other people.

                That said screensavers are ten times more stupid than MS Clippy (yeah I just said that) because they have absolutely zero purpose. And if you want entertainment than Clippy's animation are more entertaining than stinking midget feet (Gnome screensaver) supposedly walking all over the inside of your screen.

                No thanks...

                Comment


                • #9
                  What if someone uses this to display faked login window to your internet bank account or so? Completely locking screen is not a good security feature, unless you also implement Windows Ctrl+Alt+Del override-world key.

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Ctrl-Alt-Del is required for _any_ security on the local console. It has nothing to do with screensavers. Any app can just pop open a full screen window and trap the standard close window and switch window key bindings.

                    Ctrl-Alt-Del does nothing for the average idiot who just does whatever the pixels on the screen tell them to do, but it's pretty useful for those of us who understand computers and frequently work in public labs (like, say, at universities).

                    That said, another feature I desperately want in lock dialogs, password dialogs, and so on is a "custom hash image." Generate a colored geometric image unique to each user. Make it stored somewhere that only secure/root processes can access. Display it on all dialogs. And important, don't let non-privileged processes read those pixels (including screenshot tools, user-space compositors, etc.) Yes, that basically goes back to requiring the compositor to run as root, or at least to run with some particular SELinux context. But then it's immediately obvious if a password dialog is "real" or not, and even normal users have a chance of _noticing_ that something is amiss. If you put a "YOUR COMPUTER IS HACKED IF THIS IMAGE EVER CHANGES" warning on the standard dialog, it might just be enough to help 2% of computer users.

                    In any event though, not implementing the Ctrl-Alt-Del type safety just because most users don't use/understand it is really stupid, because that means that it's impossible for smarter users to ever protect themselves from trojan password dialogs.

                    Comment

                    Working...
                    X