Hi all,

the work on the new screen locker implementation is nearly done (I can unlock 
again :-) and that brings me to an issue 
where I wanted to have more opinions: screensaver.

What's important to see: screen locker and screen saver are two different 
things mixed together for historic reasons. 
The screen locker implements the security aspect of preventing someone else to 
use the screen. The screen saver 
shows an animation so that the hardware is not damaged. For some reasons those 
two things come together and 
also the old implementation is together.

The new implementation is about screen locking and not saving. My idea is to 
improve the screen locking experience 
which kind of looks like 1995. Let's reuse the background of the splash screen 
and show a nice QML-ified dialog for 
unlocking. Instead of showing the unlock dialog only when someone moves the 
mouse, it would always be present. If 
the screen has been locked for long time DPMS kicks in and disables the screen 
(yeah for energy saving).

This means there is no more place for screen savers. It would just not be 
visible. This also means we don't have the 
Plasma Screensaver any more (this might be fixable by using a Plasma 
containment as the screen locker in the first 
place).

But when compositing is turned off, you currently get the plain old 
implementation including screen savers. And I don't 
want to change that code.

So there are some solutions:
* drop screensaver support altogether, probably would create some troubles as 
evil KDE removed screensavers
* add Plasma widget support to new screen locker implementation but drop 
screensaver support (same problems as 
first option)
* add a fallback to legacy mode if a screen saver is configured. Means same 
security problems are present again 
which were the reason for moving the screen locker to KWin in the first place

Personally I would prefer option 1 with a later implementation of option 2 (if 
time allows even for 4.8). Option 2 needs 
support from Plasma hackers who are all currently fixing up a tablet ;-)

A possible solution for the user issue could be to clearly advertise that 
security reasons are responsible for removing 
screensaver support. Also an improved login process I have in my mind: with 
only one user configured do not stop at 
KDM but log in directly with screen locked. The unlock dialog would then be 
shown after the complete session has 
been loaded, so instant usage after typing in the password.

So looking forward to your comments on the subject.

Cheers
Martin

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