XScreenSaver
Ranked 2 of 4 screensavers by recommenders
People recommend it as a working Linux screen saver that can lock the screen. Critics say it does not lock properly under Wayland and that its repository is hard to follow.
People recommend it as a working Linux screen saver that can lock the screen. Critics say it does not lock properly under Wayland and that its repository is hard to follow.
11 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 7
- criticize it
- 4
- approval share
- 64%
Recommended in 5 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 7 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- 1.7 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 5 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Works well for everyday use
“xscreensaver works just fine. It only needs to keep nosy roommates out, not the NSA.”
Comment from 2 Nov 2025 in “X.org Security Advisory: multiple security issues X.Org X server and Xwayland” “XScreenSaver works (and can lock the screen).”
Comment from 3 Mar 2026 in “Welcome (back) to Macintosh” “XScreenSaver is a good piece of software”
Comment from 25 Apr 2026 in “Firefox Has Integrated Brave's Adblock Engine”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Does not lock properly on Wayland
“XScreenSaver does work properly on Wayland now, apart from locking”
Comment from 28 Aug 2026 in “Afterglow: Run classic After Dark screen savers on modern macOS” “It doesn't lock the screen properly under Wayland.”
Comment from 2 Nov 2025 in “X.org Security Advisory: multiple security issues X.Org X server and Xwayland” Project lacks transparent repository and contributions
“Instead of providing a mirrored repository, they decided to intentionally not fixing the correctly identified problem”
Comment from 20 Oct 2026 in “There is no official XScreenSaver GitHub repository” “there is ZERO visibility into peoples contributions to his project”
Comment from 20 Oct 2026 in “There is no official XScreenSaver GitHub repository”
Other screensavers people recommend
The three most recommended other screensavers, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ANSI-Saver | 13 | 3 | 81% | 1 | — | — |
| XScreenSaverThis page | 7 | 4 | 64% | 5 | — | — |
| Fishoid | 6 | 0 | 100% | 1 | — | — |
| After Dark screen saver | 5 | 1 | 83% | 5 | — | — |
What people said
9 of the 11 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“there is ZERO visibility into peoples contributions to his project”
“Instead of providing a mirrored repository, they decided to intentionally not fixing the correctly identified problem”
“XScreenSaver does work properly on Wayland now, apart from locking”
“XScreenSaver is a good piece of software”
“it draws a window over the others so you can kill it remotely”
“XScreenSaver works (and can lock the screen).”
“I'd love a fork from the one of XScreensaver”
“It doesn't lock the screen properly under Wayland.”
“xscreensaver works just fine. It only needs to keep nosy roommates out, not the NSA.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.