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The 3 best OS X screensavers

caitlynimburgo.wordpress.com — Three really amazing screensavers for Mac OS X. Brought to you by a female geek!

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koregaonpark 1 year 293 days ago, made popular 1 year 292 days ago

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oskite, on 10/12/2007, -2/+35Dear god, LotsaWater is the most beautiful screensaver I've ever seen.
- TomP, on 10/12/2007, -4/+11Think I still like Flurry better
- billy1380, on 10/12/2007, -6/+1feels more like lotsajello... I love it!
- Tirial, on 10/12/2007, -3/+5I like fluid
- TomFrost, on 10/12/2007, -0/+13I used to use LotsaWater back in college, and I'd often leave my powerbook sitting on a desk while helping others in my digital media class. The screen saver would turn on, and you wouldn't *believe* how many people thought my computer broke. Every single day it was someone new.. "Hey Tom.. umm.. your monitor.. I didn't do it I swear!" Even the professors. Good fun :)
- TheWorm, on 10/12/2007, -11/+2Umm, I'm not sure why but I installed it and now it won't work. I can't choose it in system preferences, and it's not showing up in my system preferences screensaver window.
  
  Edit: Nevermind. I restarted system preferences and it showed up. You can bury this now.
- ThinkBox, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3comebine this with Backlight fr something really cool looking -- http://freshsqueeze.com/products/freeware/
- xt0ph3r, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2You can do the background screensaver thing via terminal, btw. On Tiger, just run:
  
  /System/Library/Frameworks/ScreenSaver.framework/Versions/A/Resources/ScreenSaverEngine.app/Contents/MacOS/ScreenSaverEngine -background
  
  Use -module to define a specific module. The path might be different on Panther, but it still works.
- bmeckel, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1"Think I still like Flurry better" Agreed! it's so much better!
D3coy, on 10/12/2007, -19/+2lol, ever heard of XGL?
- nga911, on 10/12/2007, -9/+1yes its the best next thing to "ihatebilly.com" lol
jeriqo, on 10/12/2007, -7/+1Agree with #1 and #2
Didn't know about #3
2Deluxe, on 10/12/2007, -14/+6Does the gender of the person presenting it make it any less useless?
- Character0, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5I completely agree. Why does gender matter at all when picking screen savers? She also left out Electric Sheep, which is in my opinion the best mac screen saver out there (unless of course she means the 3 best best mac-ONLY screen savers). Otherwise its an AMAZING three item list. Good work. Really thorough.
- koregaonpark, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Her gender doesn't matter. I chose to mention it because female geeks are a rare commodity these days, in my corner of the Internet anyway.
slipperman, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4LotsWater is beautiful. Performance suffers on the Mini when you turn detail and accuracy up though.. looks great with stock settings though.
patrickh, on 10/12/2007, -7/+3Those are definitely nice, but I am surprised that not one of the Really Slick savers (http://www.reallyslick.com/) was in the list.
- panique, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Because all of those put together are not nearly as cool as 1 of the ones posted here.
drumnbass, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7These are nice - but Electric Sheep still gets my vote.
Slvgx, on 10/12/2007, -3/+0I use DasBlinkenLights myself.

http://mac.softpedia.com/progDownload/DasBlinkenLights-Download-13729.html
DocDEB, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1All these savers are nice as well as eSheep but I keep comming back to a slide show pointed at my APOD collection.
- Murdats, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1Same, I used to use eSheep but switched to my pictures slideshow for 2 reason
  esheep seems to stop the screen turning off
  and I like my collection of 5000 wallpapers
kcolwell, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6This snow-saver is better: http://www.alittlebitofnothingleft.net/snowfall/

I found it here of course http://digg.com/apple/Quartz_Snowfall_Screensaver_For_The_Mac
- matt0baba, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1yup i use that one now..its awesome.... just to kill confusion the lines can be desabled also u can change the color to a more suitable blue rather than that burgandy
- wastern, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I threw a snowy background image on it myself, looks better then a plain color
- koregaonpark, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I like that one better too. The default red-striped background is cool.
antdude, on 10/12/2007, -2/+6I like screen savers that with give me blackness. I personally like System 47: http://www.mewho.com/system47/ ...
- koregaonpark, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I have that installed. I hate the URL that keeps popping up though!
scheming, on 10/12/2007, -8/+2the writer of the article writes "breaktaking" instead of "breathtaking". even as i type this, firefox knows that's wrong. plus, who only does a best 3?
Sethwm2, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4I like the Fenetres Volantes a lot I love the water one. I do not like the snow one as much. This made my day that this was one the front page. Something cool yet useful
- DagMX, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1umm...useful? how exactly? screensavers were always more of a novelty to me...id much rather the system went into standby instead
- kendals, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Sometimes, standby isn't the best option if you're downloading files, and lock the desktop, etc.
adolfojp, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5What! No flying toasters?

For the rest of us in the Windows world. Flurry for Windows.
http://www.maddogsw.com/flurry/
- Holocaust, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3OMG, thank you so much! I was just going make a comment if anybody knows where I can find a Windows version.
  :D :D :D :D
Cine, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Fenêtres Volantes is honestly what I miss the most when using my PC at work. :( Wish it was as easy to find good-looking Windows screensavers.
ShyGuy91284, on 10/12/2007, -5/+3I'll bet most people are noticing this story for being by a female geek, not what it's about.
- dbr_onix, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8Not only is it "not what it's about", it's not even remotely significant.. It's about 2 IQ points form "0MG RITEN BY A G*RL!!1"
  *Sighs*
  
  Anyway, http://electricsheep.org/ is a nice screensaver, although I seem to remeber it using quite a bit of CPU up on Windows (Currently I just use the Power-Monitor-Off setting, or psyically turn the monitor of, inplace of a screensaver)
  - Ben
- ubermorph, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3True story.
  
  -Written by a male geek. Digg me down!
benlmusic, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7It's all about soundstream

http://pcheese.net/software/soundstream/
Daveecee, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4No love for Mr. Sparkle? :(

http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/19308
- panique, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Ok here's some :-*
orioni, on 10/12/2007, -6/+3That water screen saver is very nice indeed. Too bad it only works for OSX.

If you're using Windows and want something similar, try this free download: Animated Water Screen (0.4MB)
http://www.longgame.com/download.htm

It's not a full version, but it still works nice. I've been using it for years myself. (Note: not for slow computers.)
estrogeek, on 10/12/2007, -7/+3those are kinda... meh..

i prefer hotel gadget: http://www.zugakousaku.com/index.php?m=project&id=hotel&l=en

(although, it only runs on ≤ panther)
- Daveecee, on 10/12/2007, -10/+2"DOWNLOAD
  Require MAC OS X 10.4"
  
  Panther, huh? So... Are you blind, or just stupid?
- estrogeek, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9i've been using it for over 2 years , the last person i suggested it to couldn't use it because it was didn't work for 10.4. - obviously they've updated it in the last 6 months... merry ***** christmas, douchebag!
- Tatsumaki, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Maybe it works with 10.4, but it's PowerPC only. The screensaver doesn't work on my Intel Mac, and using Finder's Get Info on it says it's PowerPC, not Universal.
motherwell, on 10/12/2007, -3/+5This list is bogus without 3D Desktop Aquarium:

http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/icons_screensavers/3ddesktopaquariumscreensaver.html
- twitsami, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1how can an opinion piece be "bogus"? besides, the screen saver you link to isn't even that good, there are several better aquarium screen savers out there.
sky1walker, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2is it possible to have two screen savers in a desktop? i mean, i want to activate lotsa snow (by moving cursor) in top right hot corner and fenetres volantes in top left corner.i don want to activate both.if i feel like watching the snow I'll activate the top right corner. and if i feel like watching the windows fly, I'll activate FV.is it possible?
pairanoyd, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Hands down, Lotsawater is the absolute very best. FN Awesome!
But damn, it makes my machine COOK...
Cold? Turn your Mac into a space heater with this screen saver!
coldfusion1970, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Also check out IdleWeb.

http://www.edot-studios.com/webgroups2/index.php?menu_item=39

It allows you to have any web page as your screensaver. I use it with the digg swarm page so i can see what stories are hot.
yuckymucky, on 10/12/2007, -2/+6What about just Xscreensaver... a bunch of cool ones that all run great. http://www.jwz.org/xscreensaver/

I love Engine and Molecule.
- FluffyArmada, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2Why are you digging him down?! Xscreensaver kicks ass! It's the standard on most Linux distros, and it works great. Some of them are really cool too.
zephc, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2@koregaonpark: What are you doing reading a 15 year-old girls blog?
johnwc723, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3well if its from a female geek... because sex matters so much in digg posts?
- foxhoundadmin, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2yup: http://digg.com/tech_news/Alex_Albrecht_takes_it_in_the_ass :P
foxhoundadmin, on 10/12/2007, -6/+1screensavers=resource hog. :\

the screen savers=BAD ASS (canceled) TV SHOW!!! :D

just set your monitor to turn off after 15 minutes.
coldfusion1970, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Wow, heres another cool OSX screensaver.

http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/icons_screensavers/3ddesktopjigsawpuzzlescreensaver.html

It turns the display into a giant jigsaw puzzle.
pauldonnelly, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0Has anyone done something like Fenêtres Volantes for Beryl? That would be cool.
FluffyArmada, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I really like The Serene Screen Marine Aquarium, it's pretty lame how you have to pay for it, but it's totally worth it. :)
akashra, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1What, no ElectricSheep?
heaintheavy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1C'mon, where's the love for GL Tron? I always find myself rooting for the yellow lightcycle...

http://www.gltron.org
thebraineater, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1wasn't there a top 20 (or so) osx screensavers article a while back that had all of these and more? ...why do these top (x) lists always make the front page
theWrkncacnter, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1RSS visualizer is the l33t. BBC world news w00t!
maverick808, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1While all these screen savers are good, the majority consume too much CPU. On my MacBook Pro I find the only cool screen saver that doesn't cause the fans to ramp up is Flurry. If I set it to any of the Lotsa ones or the flying windows one then when I come back after 5 minutes the fans are at full blast. This is a bit annoying when it's just a screensaver that's running.
- fyre2012, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I find that when i closed my macbook pro, the screensaver would still kick in and kill my battery... am I on drugs, or shouldn't everything go into hibernate, etc, when i close the laptop?
NeoRicen, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Loving the snow one, it's my new 'saver.
jaybirch1, on 06/13/2008, -0/+0how about http://www.screenspro.com
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The 3 best OS X screensavers

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