I have always wondered - do Screen Savers actually *save* anything? Do they save... | Hacker News

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		runn1ng on May 27, 2017 \| parent \| context \| favorite \| on: Lost Joys of the Screen Saver I have always wondered - do Screen Savers actually save anything? Do they save significant amount of electricity? Do they make the screen "last longer"? What was their purpose?

discreditable on May 27, 2017 | [–]

Old CRT monitors were susceptible to burn-in. Having a screensaver or turning your monitor off when not using it was how you prevented burn-in.

pmarreck on May 27, 2017 | [–]

The fact that there are people who don't realize that they prevented CRT burn-in just dates me I guess.

See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Screen_burn-in#CRT

Hence the name, "screen saver" ;)

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