Gerardo Ballabio wrote:
Hi all, I'd like to add my two cents to the discussion. I don't think that "random screensaver" should download *anything* from the Web. Not everybody has fast Internet connections, and I don't want my computer to waste bandwidth unless *I* tell it to. "You enabled random screensaver, you got what you asked for" is nonsense. If I am to use software packaged by other people, I must be able to trust that it does what it *says* it does, and that it doesn't do random unrelated things. A screensaver is a screensaver is a screensaver. I don't see why anyone in their right mind should assume that "random screensaver" may download stuff. I thought that the point of free software was that *I* decide what my computer does, not the package writers?
I believe you've missed the point. As I understand it, the Random option does exactly what it says, it starts one of the named screensavers at random. The problem is that some of the screensavers work by taking an image, and then manipulating it in various ways. That's fine but it needs to get the images from somewhere, and one of the options is "look on the local drive, and chose an image at random". That too is fine until it turns out that you maiden aunt has selected the Random screen saver on a machine where your pubescent son has recently been exploring the breadth of educational material available on the web. It's not that "random" goes of hunting for porn and slapping it on your screen, it's that certain "offensive" images may end up being downloaded, and then displayed to people who would prefer not to see them. Cheers, Phil.
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