Well, I’m rather passively searching for a new screen saver, so I thought I’d see if anyone here has some cool ones. Currently, I am using the Matrix Code screen saver that has that cool green code trickle down the screen.
It’s a good one, but I’ve had it for a long time. What makes it cool is that it’s simple and doesn’t press the system too hard.
What cool ones to you guys know about?
For the last two years, I’ve used the Seraline screensaver. It uses multiple random algorithms to draw, and I’ve never seen the same thing twice. It comes up with some really gorgeous stuff.
Being a psuedo-Trek geek, I really like the System47 screen saver from http://www.mewho.com/
And not only is it free, but it’s available for Macs, too! 
I like Voodoo Lights. It costs about $14 for the zip file, and I think it’s worth it. Great 3-D, cool colors.
Maybe there’s something just as good for free, but I don’t surf much and I loved this screen-saver as soon as I saw it.
I used to have this faithful old 8mb laptop, so pretty much the only entertainment left to me was collecting as many screensavers as I could.
Have you heard of http://www.expressit.com? They have a bunch of really quite groovy free savers in exzhange for your name and e-mail address. I expect they’ll probably bombard us with junk at some point but who cares, huh? It’s cheaper than actually PAYING.
The best from expressit are BUMPDEE (humpty dumpty singing a rap song) and JESTER, both of which will quickly become annoying anyway. TrumpetPlayer is pretty cool too.
For some wife-induced reason I am Generally In Favour Of moles. http://www.redmole.co.uk will helpfully provide screensaver featuring a red mole ambling down tunnels dressed ina variety of costumes. Doesn’t do much for my own fetish but it may tickle your… um… fancy.
savergen.com has at least one amusing collection of cartoons.
http://www.andrewgray.com/savers/home.htm will give you Screens In The Night. It’s not all that great. I’m including it only to justify my download. But it features a few different savers.
http://www.geliosoft.com- is crap but 3D’s 3D and if you really REALLY like dinosaurs it may be for you.
Running a search on PCPete should eventually net you a free corporate adventure starring a little bloke in a customisable (by you!) flying saucer flying around space searching for entrants for an intergalactic talent contest.
Run a search on SCREEN ANTICS and look for one about a guy on a desert island. It’s the oldest and best ‘story’ screensaver.
http://www.digimindsoft.com/ should provide you with the ElectriCalm saver, a beautiful digitised storm. You have to give them money though, or it only works once every time.
There are millions more. Find one that’ll display as slideshow and then go to ucomics.com or userfriendly.com or
somewhere and download a years’ worth of your favourite comic strip.
The best screen saver is no screen saver.
I love the After Dark Bungee screen saver.
Is Berkeley systems still around? I’d love to find out if After Dark will work well with my Windows ME or if it will royally screw things up.
WinNT BSOD screensaver, or blank screen.
NTInternals created a sweet screensaver that looked just like a BSOD, complete with coredump data from the system and processes that were actually running when the screensaver kicked in. It had two modes: Static “Crash”, where all you had was the BS, and “Crash-Scandisk-Crash” I usually keep the static option running, as it’s very easy on the system, but I’ll run the dynamic one every now and again for grins: It’ll give a BSOD, then attempt an auto-recovery, finding corrupt discriptors and other bad things, then BSOD again, endless loop. Scares the living daylights out of even experienced, cynical techs.
Saddly, I’ve been unable to find NTInternals on the 'web for a couple of years and must assume that they’ve passed-on.
Gotta go with After Dark, best screen savers ever!
Flying toasters, HA!
and the terrain generator one, that you could set for different planets, i thought that one was neat, too.
His name’s Johnny Castaway. He has his own website, with all the details of the story, what you need to do to see everything, etc. I’ve sat for hours just watching Johnny. (How lame is that?) Plus, he runs in 16 color and doesn’t use up a lot of memory.
Right now I have this astronom screen saver, which has a view of where it’s dark on earth. Cool. I can tell you the terminator is passing over the atlantic. 
I use drempels desktop and drempels screensaver (when I run a screensaver, which isn’t often–screensavers just annoy me.) I won’t describe them, 'cause I can’t. They are just too cool. But this is how they describe it on their webpage:
Find them at this site.
XaraCube… by far the best screen saver I have encountered. What is great about it is that you can use the GIFs of your favourite album art to cover the sides of the cube. Of course, with those teeny tiny CD covers it is hardly worth the effort (lament for lost album art, boo hoo)
It’s a project that was launched in April that could allow millions of personal computer users to help scientists find a cure for cancer. The joint venture partners and project sponsor say it will speed up research into new cancer drugs.
The research aims to exploit unused power from PCs to process information on molecules and send it back to a central server. Studies quoted by the university estimate that on average office workers use as little as 20 percent of the power available on their PCs.
Oxford University hopes to screen 250 million molecules by this technique. If they succeed, it will be the world’s largest ever computational project.
Computer users who participate in the project will receive an initial package of 100 molecules over the internet, along with a software application called THINK and models of target proteins known to be involved in causing cancer.
If you have a PC you can help!
Those who want to participate in the project can download the non-invasive device from United Devices’ Web site here. The screen saver shows what molecule and protein is being researched and lists the number of potential hits from that THINK package. It’s quite interesting, and visitors to the house always comment on it. It’s a free download and even though you’re not actually doing anything it feels good to help.
Abby
Anything from http://www.ahouse.ru or http://pigeons.net
I haven’t used a screensaver in years. They aren’t necessary anymore and they can interfere with other applications.
I stopped using them years ago because they were causing too many conflicts for their limited [sub]IMHO[/sub] usefullness.
Per the OP though, before I stopped using them I liked the transforming ball thing that came with Windows. I don’t remember the name of it.
My home PC is in currently in Red, White & Blue mode, the screensaver is set for 3D pipes and a US flag texture. Otherwise, I use a screensaver from Flywheel Sofware.
The Golem project screensaver. It evolves artificial organisms that walk (actually, mostly crawl) across the screen according to a few simple rules. The big difference with this one is that the organisms evolved can actually be built, and have been in a few cases. Read about it and download it here:
http://golem03.cs-i.brandeis.edu/index.html
I used to run the seti@home screensaver, also pretty cool. The advantage to the Golem screensaver is it does not require a periodic connection to the internet (although it can use one if desired).
I am surprised that no one’s recommending the SETI screensaver.