I surreptitiously ran this on my wife's Linux laptop while she was using it. She called out from the other room "it's snowing on my laptop!" Thanks h2odragon and HN, I had completely forgotten xsnow existed and it made for a lovely surprise this morning. :)
Back in the day, it wasn't uncommon that the security configuration of an X workstation was open to external windows/display. e.g. you could run a program on your system, but target your neighbor's display.
I think universities did this to make it easier to help/troubleshoot a workstation remotely, but once you figured out the commands, xroach was one of my favorites to run on another machine.
If you're using Ubuntu a variant called oneko [1] is still available in the repositories (not sure about the differences, it looks like the xneko that I remember)
Going beyond things like After Dark, there was a novelty commercial Windows program where you could attack your desktop with comical firearms and explosives. The name of it escapes me. It wasn't well-known, but it was cute for about 5 minutes.
I remember that one. I have to say I miss the CDs loaded with what we'd call theming assets today. Sound themes, sound files for all those desktop apps that let you pick sound files for when your render finished or Lotus alarm went off or whatever.
Color themes for your desktop. Wallpapers, icons, some fonts and even some clip art both in EPS and BMP. Browse by category. Work assets, sure. But also family, holiday, history...
This could be done incredibly well today, but it isn't, that I know of. We've made big strides but I think there's still plenty of room for this important little stuff.
Readit News
Here's a pretty exhaustive list:
https://cyber.dabamos.de/unix/x11/
I'm pretty sure what I'm remembering is tgif: http://bourbon.usc.edu/tgif/index.html
I haven't used a unix plotting package in years but it appears derivatives of grace and xgraph are still around.
https://acme.com/software/xantfarm/
Back in the day, it wasn't uncommon that the security configuration of an X workstation was open to external windows/display. e.g. you could run a program on your system, but target your neighbor's display.
I think universities did this to make it easier to help/troubleshoot a workstation remotely, but once you figured out the commands, xroach was one of my favorites to run on another machine.
Dead Comment
If you're using Ubuntu a variant called oneko [1] is still available in the repositories (not sure about the differences, it looks like the xneko that I remember)
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-04lSS99z0
>Stable release 3.3.2 / November 4, 2021; 36 days ago
There was a derivative called xoj where police cars chased a white bronco across your screen while a crowd gathered to watch.
It appears you can download it here: http://www.desktop-destroyer.net (I can't vouch for how legitimate the link is though)
I also remember a "cup holder" app which was advertised as a free cup holder. It had a button which when clicked opened the CD drive.
I miss those apps.
Color themes for your desktop. Wallpapers, icons, some fonts and even some clip art both in EPS and BMP. Browse by category. Work assets, sure. But also family, holiday, history...
This could be done incredibly well today, but it isn't, that I know of. We've made big strides but I think there's still plenty of room for this important little stuff.
I remember a Coca-Cola branded version of that app. I had way too much fun giving it to friends. :)