Thank you. That answers my question. I figured you wanted to remain anonymous, but I liked your answer and I’ll be interested in what you find.

I was trying to word my initial post in a way to prevent you from becoming defensive, perhaps I failed. Though, I do feel quoting yourself is a bit… gauche, no? Especially since you are remaining anonymous.

Are you a single person or a group of people? Do you have any credentials that you’d like to share that might give some context to your research?

Where is the quote in your bio from?

Thanks for taking the time to reply, that makes a lot of sense.

I haven’t switched to Wayland yet. It makes sense why xscreensaver wouldn’t work well with an entirely different window server. I was just surprised it was so difficult (for me at least) to use with modern window managers despite being relevant and mature, haha.

I tried Linux briefly in highschool (around the year 2000) before going back to Windows (I love video games). I switched about 2 years ago back to Linux (Debian). Your comment made me remember xscreensaver and I went and installed it again. The matrix screensaver is a huge throwback, I love it and I missed it.

But it was a pain to do this. I’m using KDE/Plasma on Debian, and I had to follow this process to get it done. My lock buttons built into KDE menus still don’t work despite replacing kscreenlocker_greet like the manpage recommends. I’m not sure it’s worth my time to try to figure out, since the page warns an update will revert this. I’m not going to remember how to fix it later. I choose to lock my computer with super+L so this isn’t a huge issue for me.

The process to use xscreensaver with gnome looks equally bad.

WHY is this so tough, though? Debian “just works” for me, so needing to fumble through this manpage feels pretty lame. The process looks similar on other distros, from a quick google. I’m not an IT person or a programmer, and this doesn’t feel very “linux” that it’s this way. Why would these window managers replace something that just works?

I suppose it does look a bit dated?

How did you get them out of the chimney? I’d be scared, never know what wild animals will do

I’m not going to spend much time engaging with your comment because you didn’t read mine well.

I did not mention race.

I included mention of gay folks (see non-heteronormative). The “joke” doesn’t work unless the stem major desires being very close to a naked woman, so I don’t find your mention of gay men to make sense.

Only straight men are mathematicians, physicists and engineers. This is why the joke is framed this way.

See: responses from OP, valiantly defending his choice to “piss people off”, instead of noticing the joke is just yet another reminder that men are default.

After all, sexism is over, and STEM isn’t hostile to women/non-heteronormative people. It’s all in our head.