Many years ago, we used to have CRT screens. Remember those? They were these massive screens that would take up most of your desk.
Later on, plasma screens were trending.
Both of these technologies had a problem. Quite often, you’d leave the same image on the screen for a long time. When you did that, that image was “burnt” into the screen. The effect was known as “ghosting“.
Where there’s a problem, there’s often a solution. The solution in this case was screensavers.
I’ve had so many of them. From Sierra’s Johnny Castaway to the beautiful Dream Aquarium and the Living Snow Globe screen saver, people were getting really creative.
They years have passed, and most modern screens no longer suffer from ghosting.
Modern screens don’t suffer from ghosting. They have other, short-lived phenomena. But the screensavers prevailed. Instead of staring at a black screen when your computer is inactive, you can enjoy something that’s more colorful.
My current favorite is Aerial. There are Windows ports, too.
The ghosts are gone. Luckily, we still get to enjoy what they left behind. Eww. I don’t mean the octoplasm.
Optimising My Life 