[shantly]

Yeah, saw this the other day on an Ubuntu machine (running whatever the last release was, not LTS) I have hooked up to a TV. Flash of the desktop for a second or so before the login screen. Speaks to something fundamentally wrong with the way the whole thing works, I figure.

[als0]

I had the same impression. That general feeling that the screensaver is like an app/overlay that is invoked only once the desktop is active. The speed of invocation also seemed related to how fast your machine is at launching general desktop programs...

[benwaffle]

>That general feeling that the screensaver is like an app/overlay that is invoked only once the desktop is active

That is how it is implemented (in X11)