Screensavers and the KDE Workspaces - your opinion is needed

Recently in the Plasma mailing list, KDE developers have discussed a new screen-locking implementation that could be added to the upcoming 4.8 release of the KDE Workspaces. The first reason to do so was to solve some security constraints of the existing implementation. As an added bonus, screen locking should be also more aestetically pleasing.

There is however a trade-off: such implementation would mean that screensavers that rely on X (also called X screensavers) would not be compatible. The current plan is to have a fallback mechanism if a user has a screen saver configured, and remove the support for X scrensavers entirely by 4.9. It is the intention of the developers to ultimately provide a way to make screensavers with QtQuick (QML) and in a way that they could be shared via GHNS (e.g., places like kde-look.org).

That said, this looks like a large change because existing functionality will change or be removed. Hence, to quote KWin maintainer’s Martin Graesslin,

_We are not sure how our users would react if we remove the X screen savers and replace them by a new solution. We would like you to contribute and share your opinion. Tell us why you need screen savers and how you would think about if the currently used screen saver could no longer be used._

And how to gather your opinion? Through a poll. A poll has been opened in the KDE Community Forums by Martin himself to gather opinions on this upcoming change. Please jump in and let the developers know what you think!

• KDE
• plasma
• screensaver