Best Mac screensavers

June 30, 2007 5:27 PM

Best (free/cheap) Mac screensavers? No Electric Sheep.

Flurry is fun but I'm tired of it. I also downloaded Offshoots, Fields, VisionSynth, Scattered Flurries, Lotsawater, Euphoria, and Lotsaglass.

Got any other free/cheap suggestions? I love Electric Sheep but I can't get it to work properly on my Mac.

I like to use Backlight so that I can use screensavers as my desktop wallpaper.

posted by GardnerDB to computers & internet (30 comments total)

I still think the flying toasters are cute
posted by matteo at 5:37 PM on June 30, 2007

There's always xscreensaver, which runs on OS X (10.4 or later). It's a little overwhelming. There are a lot of good ones, but also a lot of them aren't so pretty, and I actually have gone back to flurry.
posted by advil at 5:46 PM on June 30, 2007

Does your Electric Sheep not load, saying it is downloading the first sheep? Just let it run for a couple of hours (!) or see if you can still find that torrent of starter sheeps.
posted by stereo at 5:58 PM on June 30, 2007

I use BSOD from xscreensaver on such a short timeout that my machine "crashes" anytime somebody comes over to talk to me at my desk.
posted by mkb at 6:17 PM on June 30, 2007 [2 favorites]

If you have the Developer Tools installed, you could try making your own with Quartz Composer (in /Developer/Applications/Graphics Tools). It's a simple, visual, drag-and-drop interface to the advanced graphics functionality in your Mac.
posted by panic at 6:26 PM on June 30, 2007

red pill is good
posted by milarepa at 6:45 PM on June 30, 2007

I made this one that I really like, although it's not very fancy.
posted by bshort at 6:46 PM on June 30, 2007

http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/icons_screensavers/defconglobescreensaver.html
posted by WCityMike at 6:51 PM on June 30, 2007

The best by far: Fenêtres Volantes.
posted by nicwolff at 7:11 PM on June 30, 2007 [2 favorites]

I'm going to go with a kernel panic. .

But...If you just want beautiful...

Soundstream is excellent.
Defcon Globe if you liked WarGames.
Fenetres Volantes is really cool
Helios is also breathtaking.
posted by filmgeek at 7:14 PM on June 30, 2007

Ooh there's some new ones to me up there...
I've only got one:
Polar Clock
posted by blastrid at 7:21 PM on June 30, 2007

Ignis Fatui (Windows and Mac)

Throw it on full random for an incredible screen saver. I have it on about at least 3 machines.
posted by niles at 7:35 PM on June 30, 2007 [1 favorite]

Phil Ryu lists his top 10 plus some extras in comments. Lotsasnow would look nice as a motion desktop background.
Unusual screensavers at Plasq.
Personally, I like Futurismo Zugakousaku's really weird quartz composer animations as screensavers the best. Fish and Fish Crowd are especially cool and always gets a double-take when people see it.
posted by junesix at 7:41 PM on June 30, 2007 [1 favorite]

I like EuclideanGarden, a cool tree-growing screensaver.
posted by booth at 7:52 PM on June 30, 2007

If you like lotsawater, update it with an image of your own. Rather than having my desktop look submerged, I took an overhead shot of my kitchen sink filled with random stuff - never fails to draw a crowd.
posted by jalexei at 8:03 PM on June 30, 2007

I'm surprised no-one's mentioned Hotel Gadget (formerly known as Hotel Magritte).
posted by ulotrichous at 8:06 PM on June 30, 2007

Ignis Fatui, Fenetres Volantes and Soundstream are fantastic. Keep the suggestions coming everybody!
posted by GardnerDB at 8:16 PM on June 30, 2007

I guess I'm kind of old school, but I love the Really Slick collection, particularly Solarwinds, which I never tire of.
posted by O9scar at 8:46 PM on June 30, 2007

If you're still using a PPC, then you'll want Fluid
.

They've been promising an Intel version, but I don't think it's going to happen.
posted by Cat Pie Hurts at 8:48 PM on June 30, 2007 [1 favorite]

My favorite screensaver is Pong Saver, from the good folks over at Rogue Amoeba (makers of Audio Hijack Pro).

The cutest thing about it is that the "score" is actually the current time in hours and minutes. I 've been thinking of putting my old 12" Powerbook to use and create a DIY Pong Clock using this screensaver.
posted by melorama at 8:54 PM on June 30, 2007

It's very minimal, but I have been using Fliqlo for a long time and enjoy the retro alarm clock look.
posted by caaaaaam at 10:54 PM on June 30, 2007

I'm surprised no-one's mentioned Hotel Gadget (formerly known as Hotel Magritte).

Well...two comments above yours was a mention of Futurismo Zugakousaku, the maker of that screensaver as well as the one I use: Full Color Bossa
posted by vacapinta at 10:56 PM on June 30, 2007

Holding Pattern Coach Class
posted by plokent at 4:03 AM on July 1, 2007

Looking at the source, plokent's link was supposed to go here.
posted by WCityMike at 7:43 AM on July 1, 2007

electropaint is THE dog's balls. sgi created a true 3d classic; now available on mac, lunix (stonerview) and pc. however, I've no idea if the osx/ppc version will work on osx/intel. still, it's worth a try as it's magnificent.
posted by dorian at 7:58 AM on July 1, 2007

Seconding Fenêtres Volantes
posted by shanevsevil at 9:25 AM on July 1, 2007

These screensavers are great. Solarwinds rocks. Give us more more more!!
posted by HotPatatta at 10:12 AM on July 1, 2007

Fractal clock is surprisingly cool. You have to let it warm up for about 30 seconds for the show to really get interesting.

Electric sheep should work fine on the mac. You might want to look into manually downloading some starter movies which is what I did for a while.
posted by chairface at 12:38 PM on July 1, 2007

breveCreatures
posted by brundlefly at 1:24 PM on July 1, 2007

seconding soundstream
posted by DJWeezy at 8:12 PM on July 1, 2007