6 ms·

I'm running ubuntu 23.10 and was pleased to see that xsnow (apt install xsnow) has been updated and "just works". A nice update on xsnow from decades back, but

by sliken 3y ago

I'm running ubuntu 23.10 and was pleased to see that xsnow (apt install xsnow) has been updated and "just works". A nice update on xsnow from decades back, but there's a vintage mode for the nostalgic. The new xsnow added stars, aurora, birds, moon, stars, wind, blowing snow, moose, meteors, reindeer, snow that builds up slowly (the flakes compress) etc. Sadly snow builds up on the settings window, but with weyland it doesn't build up on normal windows.

readingnews 3y ago
Time marches on, but I wonder how many new linux users will never see so many cool old programs as they just do not know about them. Does that thing everyone keeps trying to get us all to move to (I am a hardcore ICEwm / *boxwm user) support all of the old X stuff like xsnow, xscreensaver, etc? I was sad to realize that xroach is no longer in Debian (or Gentoo, there is a bug report from 2009), however, others still exist: https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/204241/x-windows-special-programs-do-some-of-these-still-exist https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/204241/x-windows-sp... As SE says, do not forget the "santa" option to xsnow. I forgot about it. This always reminds me, anyone remember Koules? https://www.ucw.cz/~hubicka/koules/English/koules.html https://www.ucw.cz/~hubicka/koules/English/koules.html
- globular-toast 3y ago
  There is xwayland, yes.
  - funcDropShadow 3y ago
    How does xwayland help here? In order to see what xsnow is about look here [1]. From my understanding such a program is fundamentally against wayland design philosophy. I feed it will be just impossible with Wayland unless you implement it as part of the display server. [1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2Mzg2i6t0I https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2Mzg2i6t0I
    - Someone 3y ago
      > From my understanding such a program is fundamentally against wayland design philosophy Against the philosophy but, I think, not completely impossible. Wayland is “just a protocol”, so somebody could write a Wayland server that runs in a Wayland window. Then, you could draw anywhere in the outer window, including outside of the inner one(s). Make the outer window not have a title bar, etc. and run in full screen, and you’re done. Isn’t that what XWayland does, except for the fact that it runs X Windows windows inside a full screen Wayland window?
      - funcDropShadow 3y ago
        > Isn’t that what XWayland does, except for the fact that it runs X Windows windows inside a full screen Wayland window? I don't know. But if it does so, how does it integrate wayland windows with X windows? How does it stop X programs from observing the window contents of wayland programs?
- jmclnx 3y ago
  Yes, I remember koules, played that a lot. That is the saddest thing about Wayland, a lot of cool little X applications will stop working and be forgotten about. There is xfishtank, I posted this screen to remind people about it years ago. I kick that off every so often for fun. https://old.reddit.com/r/unixporn/comments/m9gk2l/ctwm_on_slackware_142/ https://old.reddit.com/r/unixporn/comments/m9gk2l/ctwm_on_sl... There are many many more of these little clients that will disappear once Linux disables X. Never mind other cool things, a couple I remember: lavaclock, bubblefishymon, catclock, xplanet.
  - hollerith 3y ago
    I think only the parts of X that talk directly to the graphics hardware are being abandoned and that many of the things you mention will continue to work.
    - jmclnx 3y ago
      Some may, but xfishtank, xplanet and xscreensaver on root window will not. You can do this to get a matrix wallpaper, this will work with many xscreensaver "utilities" /usr/libexec/xscreensaver/xmatrix --root where this is on your distro may be different.
      - csdvrx 3y ago
        On wayland, I have an animated wallpaper of a forest: https://www.reddit.com/r/unixporn/comments/11w3zzj/hyprland_wayab_hyprland_animated_background_forest/ https://www.reddit.com/r/unixporn/comments/11w3zzj/hyprland_... Why can't we bring the apps you mention to wayland as a background? For the foreground, the compositor could even use the alpha channel to draw see through snowflakes: I have foot in quaketerm mode showing what's behind. Replace foot by a smaller snowflake, make more than one of them, and it should be the same! Or am I missing something?
wkat4242 3y ago
I always loved xfishtank. I still have a strong preference for animated root windows today.
bee_rider 3y ago
What a cute program. It doesn’t work very well in i3, sadly. I’m not sure what I expected it to do in a tiling window manager, but it only produces snow on empty workspaces, I guess because otherwise the screen is fully occupied (no room for snowflakes). Also the menu seems to follow me around. Still neat, though. Maybe I’ll try out a non-tiling WM for the holidays…
- sliken 3y ago
  Under settings there is a a button in the center that says "below windows". Click it. It should put the snow in front of the windows. Notice that it will say click again to confirm.
  - bee_rider 3y ago
    Hmm, odd, I found that button but it is greyed out. Thanks for the suggestion though. If I want to see snowflakes I’ll can switch to another workspace or look out the window and wait a few days. :) Edit: When I turn on a compositor, picom, the option becomes clickable. But when I turn on picom, the flakes stop rendering for some reason. It looks like somebody came up with a patched version for i3 + picom, so I guess this is a problem that people have worked on already.
fl7305 3y ago
xsnow even works well under Windows WSL. The whole screen was full with snowflakes, birds, etc. Impressive that the X11 XShape (Nonrectangular Window Shape Extension) works so well.
hulitu 3y ago
I'm running Slackware. After updating to 15.0 i was shocked that xsnow , instead of starting, displayed a config dialogue. I removed it and installed the older 1.42 version.

by sliken 3y ago

readingnews 3y ago

Time marches on, but I wonder how many new linux users will never see so many cool old programs as they just do not know about them. Does that thing everyone keeps trying to get us all to move to (I am a hardcore ICEwm / *boxwm user) support all of the old X stuff like xsnow, xscreensaver, etc? I was sad to realize that xroach is no longer in Debian (or Gentoo, there is a bug report from 2009), however, others still exist: https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/204241/x-windows-special-programs-do-some-of-these-still-exist https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/204241/x-windows-sp... As SE says, do not forget the "santa" option to xsnow. I forgot about it. This always reminds me, anyone remember Koules? https://www.ucw.cz/~hubicka/koules/English/koules.html https://www.ucw.cz/~hubicka/koules/English/koules.html

globular-toast 3y ago
There is xwayland, yes.
- funcDropShadow 3y ago
  How does xwayland help here? In order to see what xsnow is about look here [1]. From my understanding such a program is fundamentally against wayland design philosophy. I feed it will be just impossible with Wayland unless you implement it as part of the display server. [1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2Mzg2i6t0I https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2Mzg2i6t0I
  - Someone 3y ago
    > From my understanding such a program is fundamentally against wayland design philosophy Against the philosophy but, I think, not completely impossible. Wayland is “just a protocol”, so somebody could write a Wayland server that runs in a Wayland window. Then, you could draw anywhere in the outer window, including outside of the inner one(s). Make the outer window not have a title bar, etc. and run in full screen, and you’re done. Isn’t that what XWayland does, except for the fact that it runs X Windows windows inside a full screen Wayland window?
    - funcDropShadow 3y ago
      > Isn’t that what XWayland does, except for the fact that it runs X Windows windows inside a full screen Wayland window? I don't know. But if it does so, how does it integrate wayland windows with X windows? How does it stop X programs from observing the window contents of wayland programs?
jmclnx 3y ago
Yes, I remember koules, played that a lot. That is the saddest thing about Wayland, a lot of cool little X applications will stop working and be forgotten about. There is xfishtank, I posted this screen to remind people about it years ago. I kick that off every so often for fun. https://old.reddit.com/r/unixporn/comments/m9gk2l/ctwm_on_slackware_142/ https://old.reddit.com/r/unixporn/comments/m9gk2l/ctwm_on_sl... There are many many more of these little clients that will disappear once Linux disables X. Never mind other cool things, a couple I remember: lavaclock, bubblefishymon, catclock, xplanet.
- hollerith 3y ago
  I think only the parts of X that talk directly to the graphics hardware are being abandoned and that many of the things you mention will continue to work.
  - jmclnx 3y ago
    Some may, but xfishtank, xplanet and xscreensaver on root window will not. You can do this to get a matrix wallpaper, this will work with many xscreensaver "utilities" /usr/libexec/xscreensaver/xmatrix --root where this is on your distro may be different.
    - csdvrx 3y ago
      On wayland, I have an animated wallpaper of a forest: https://www.reddit.com/r/unixporn/comments/11w3zzj/hyprland_wayab_hyprland_animated_background_forest/ https://www.reddit.com/r/unixporn/comments/11w3zzj/hyprland_... Why can't we bring the apps you mention to wayland as a background? For the foreground, the compositor could even use the alpha channel to draw see through snowflakes: I have foot in quaketerm mode showing what's behind. Replace foot by a smaller snowflake, make more than one of them, and it should be the same! Or am I missing something?

wkat4242 3y ago

I always loved xfishtank. I still have a strong preference for animated root windows today.

bee_rider 3y ago

What a cute program. It doesn’t work very well in i3, sadly. I’m not sure what I expected it to do in a tiling window manager, but it only produces snow on empty workspaces, I guess because otherwise the screen is fully occupied (no room for snowflakes). Also the menu seems to follow me around. Still neat, though. Maybe I’ll try out a non-tiling WM for the holidays…

sliken 3y ago
Under settings there is a a button in the center that says "below windows". Click it. It should put the snow in front of the windows. Notice that it will say click again to confirm.
- bee_rider 3y ago
  Hmm, odd, I found that button but it is greyed out. Thanks for the suggestion though. If I want to see snowflakes I’ll can switch to another workspace or look out the window and wait a few days. :) Edit: When I turn on a compositor, picom, the option becomes clickable. But when I turn on picom, the flakes stop rendering for some reason. It looks like somebody came up with a patched version for i3 + picom, so I guess this is a problem that people have worked on already.

fl7305 3y ago

xsnow even works well under Windows WSL. The whole screen was full with snowflakes, birds, etc. Impressive that the X11 XShape (Nonrectangular Window Shape Extension) works so well.

hulitu 3y ago

I'm running Slackware. After updating to 15.0 i was shocked that xsnow , instead of starting, displayed a config dialogue. I removed it and installed the older 1.42 version.