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The menus available in xnow

Recurring buttons

The following buttons are available on most menus:

  • Defaults: Default settings for the current menu.
  • Vintage: Vintage settings (i.e. like in the original xsnow-1.42 version for the current menu).
  • All defaults: Default settings for all menus.
  • All vintage: Vintage settings for all menus.
  • Hide menu: Minimize/Iconify the menu.
  • Quit xsnow: Stop the program.

When you hover any button, an help text is shown.

Main menu

The welcome menu showing some general information. Note the button Donate: this will lead you to the PayPal site where you can donate a few bucks to support the development of Xsnow.

Snow menu

Here the preferences for snow are set. In vintage-mode, Rick-made snowflakes are shown. By default, you will see randomly formed flakes.

Santa menu

Here you choose your favorite Santa, with or without Rudolph (the red nosed reindeer). You can also choose for a slower or speedier Santa.

Scenery menu

Choose here the scenery for the lower part of the screen. In vintage mode, only the Xmas tree is selected, the color of which you can set.

Celestials menu

Here you choose and influence items that have their place in the sky, more or less. In vintage mode, all but the wind is gone. You can choose to have an halo around the moon. For the aurora (northern light) you can set where it will appear (left, middle, right) and you can specify the width, height, speed and brightness. To mimic the long exposure times and time lapses that are generally used when taking pictures and films, crank up speed and brightness.

Birds menu

The birds originate from a separate project of mine, hence the overwhelming number of settings. In short: the birds are attracted to each other in space and velocity. Also they try to go to the 'attraction point'. If you are interested in this simulation, you can choose for 'birds only' and fiddle with the parameters. In vintage mode, there are no birds.

Settings menu

Here you set some global settings, some of which are to compensate for misbehaviour of xsnow or window managers. Moreover, you can opt for the standard theme colors for the menus (Menu colors), let xsnow run on all your workspaces or on only one (On all workspaces) and let the animations take place over your windows (Below windows). The latter will not always work, so you will be asked for a confirmational click. After Xscreensaver you can set the background to be used when Xsnow is started by Xscreensaver (for details see the man page).