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Show HN: Play Pokémon to unlock your Wayland session

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Re: Show HN: Play Pokémon to unlock your Wayland session

#21

Post by mappu »

KetoManx64 wrote: post #16
derefr wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For use with vintage computers that use CRTs? If not, what kind of oddball display / use-case do you have, where it would be better to play a screensaver than to follow the usual modern flow of display dim -> display black -> display sleep -> computer lock -> [maybe] computer sleep?

One of the great strengths of Linux, and one of the things that draws new people in, is the custizability and making the system your own to whatever degree you want. That a "modern" display manager doesn't let you have a screensaver and people try to cover up for it with "you're just trying to use your system wrong. Be normal and use your system like we say is normal" is embarassing.

What modern display manager doesn't let you? In KDE the screensaver is merged into the screen locker settings, you can pick any "wallpaper plugin" which includes slideshows, video, or animation if you plug in e.g. https://store.kde.org/p/2143912 or https://store.kde.org/p/2194089

Re: Show HN: Play Pokémon to unlock your Wayland session

#22

Post by unclad5968 »

KetoManx64 wrote: post #16
derefr wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For use with vintage computers that use CRTs? If not, what kind of oddball display / use-case do you have, where it would be better to play a screensaver than to follow the usual modern flow of display dim -> display black -> display sleep -> computer lock -> [maybe] computer sleep?

One of the great strengths of Linux, and one of the things that draws new people in, is the custizability and making the system your own to whatever degree you want. That a "modern" display manager doesn't let you have a screensaver and people try to cover up for it with "you're just trying to use your system wrong. Be normal and use your system like we say is normal" is embarassing.

I think that's a little dramatic. Screen savers originally served a purpose, and it's not unreasonable to be unaware that some people see them are customization.

If you think it's embarrassing, you're welcome to contribute a working implementation or pay someone else to do it. Otherwise, I don't see how it's embarrassing.

Re: Show HN: Play Pokémon to unlock your Wayland session

#23

Post by Y_Y »

jchw wrote: post #6
d3Xt3r wrote: post #2

Ah, goody. Looks like I found the only other Wayland user on HN. ;) You should also post here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44837981

On the KDE side, Wayland has been going pretty well. Wayland sessions make up 82% of all sessions with telemetry enabled. https://blogs.kde.org/2025/03/15/this-week-in-plasma-file-tr... For me the real conundrum was SwayWM vs KDE Wayland rather than any X.org session; I really felt like SwayWM was a good upgrade from i3wm and gave me a better desktop session with much less hacks. Hope to see wlroots push forward and…

Cool kids don't allow telemetry. I think that any software whose userbase isn't totally oblivious will have severe selection effects if you use data obtained by spying.

Re: Show HN: Play Pokémon to unlock your Wayland session

#26

Post by yjftsjthsd-h »

derefr wrote: post #11
skerit wrote: post #4

Incredible that we're getting something like this before a plain good old screensaver

For use with vintage computers that use CRTs? If not, what kind of oddball display / use-case do you have, where it would be better to play a screensaver than to follow the usual modern flow of display dim -> display black -> display sleep -> computer lock -> [maybe] computer sleep?

> what kind of oddball display / use-case do you have,

It's fun.

Re: Show HN: Play Pokémon to unlock your Wayland session

#27

Post by yjftsjthsd-h »

OsrsNeedsf2P wrote: post #13
jchw wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On the KDE side, Wayland has been going pretty well. Wayland sessions make up 82% of all sessions with telemetry enabled. https://blogs.kde.org/2025/03/15/this-week-in-plasma-file-tr... For me the real conundrum was SwayWM vs KDE Wayland rather than any X.org session; I really felt like SwayWM was a good upgrade from i3wm and gave me a better desktop session with much less hacks. Hope to see wlroots push forward and…

I run Wayland but I'm not happy about it. Most autoclickers still don't work, and autotypers need sudo and group magic to get working.

https://github.com/atx/wtype seems to work for me with no special permissions. (On Sway; I won't comment on other compositors.)

Re: Show HN: Play Pokémon to unlock your Wayland session

#28

Post by derefr »

KetoManx64 wrote: post #16
derefr wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For use with vintage computers that use CRTs? If not, what kind of oddball display / use-case do you have, where it would be better to play a screensaver than to follow the usual modern flow of display dim -> display black -> display sleep -> computer lock -> [maybe] computer sleep?

One of the great strengths of Linux, and one of the things that draws new people in, is the custizability and making the system your own to whatever degree you want. That a "modern" display manager doesn't let you have a screensaver and people try to cover up for it with "you're just trying to use your system wrong. Be normal and use your system like we say is normal" is embarassing.

Some hardcore Greenpeace types might argue that this is a special case where such a person is literally using their system "wrong" — as in unethically. In the sense that they are deliberately wasting [i.e. "turning into waste heat"] a nontrivial amount of power, by keeping however-many monitors they use always powered on, never allowing any of them to enter sleep.

It's a sort of attitude that isn't really that problematic when one person does it; but becomes problematic if it becomes a popular thing to do.

Anyone here who lived through the 1990s might remember that the ENERGY STAR certification initiative — that today measures all sorts of things — began specifically to grade computer monitors on their ability to be put into a low-power sleep state by software control.

Everyone back then loved the computer personalization aspect of screensavers — I had After Dark installed myself! — and what resulted was an energy-waste tragedy-of-the-commons of a large-enough scale that the EPA had to get involved.

Re: Show HN: Play Pokémon to unlock your Wayland session

#29

Post by yjftsjthsd-h »

OsrsNeedsf2P wrote: post #12

Heavy customization is important to me on the Linux desktop. This project has given me a lot more faith in Wayland than 5 years of hearing debates about it.

FWIW, as a ... Wayland skeptic/pessimist¹, screen locking does seem to be one place where things actually work and seem more sensible than under X.

¹ It always seems to be just around the next corner. Sixteen years on, it would be nice if we could have feature parity.

Re: Show HN: Play Pokémon to unlock your Wayland session

#30

Post by jchw »

Y_Y wrote: post #23
jchw wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On the KDE side, Wayland has been going pretty well. Wayland sessions make up 82% of all sessions with telemetry enabled. https://blogs.kde.org/2025/03/15/this-week-in-plasma-file-tr... For me the real conundrum was SwayWM vs KDE Wayland rather than any X.org session; I really felt like SwayWM was a good upgrade from i3wm and gave me a better desktop session with much less hacks. Hope to see wlroots push forward and…

Cool kids don't allow telemetry. I think that any software whose userbase isn't totally oblivious will have severe selection effects if you use data obtained by spying.

If the cool kids are so cool, they should learn to distinguish transparent opt-in telemetry from invasive opt-out telemetry. Unfortunately, being "cool" doesn't get your needs represented, so it's really not always in your best interests to never opt in.
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