This is basically telling you to let somebody else run xplanet for you, then download the results every four hours. Pining for my xearth root window of yore, I wrote up how to run xplanet on your local machine, rendering out a nice new version every few seconds. This makes your desktop a useful global clock.

http://www.njl.us/rotating-picture-of-the-earth-as-ubuntu-wa...

those clouds are real[1]. So it can be used to predict weather :)

> Watch the sun rise and set all over the world on this real-time, computer-generated illustration of the earth's patterns of sunlight and darkness. The clouds are updated every 3 hours with current weather satellite imagery.

Also it's possible to do this automatically in Windows 7 if there is some sort of RSS[2]

[1]: http://www.die.net/earth/

[2]: http://on10.net/blogs/sarahintampa/Get-a-Live-Updating-Bing-...

Brilliant! It's exactly this kind of customisability that motivates me to use linux.

EarthDesk (http://www.xericdesign.com/earthdesk.php) does this same thing on Mac and Windows.

OSXPlanet does the same thing for Mac (free): http://www.osxplanet.com/

You can download version 2 from Softpedia.

this is pretty nice

I am pining to be able to properly set a webpage as my background in ubuntu and osx, but its proving annoying (needs to be interactive)

feels strange to be begging for a feature that was enabled in windows years ago.

I tried that in Windows when they first implemented it, but didn't find it very useful. I'm one of those that actually use my Desktop for stuff I want quick access to (docs to read when I have time, docs I'm working on, etc.). Having the icons obscure parts of the webpage just didn't work all that well.

xearth or it's modern avatar xplanet has been around for quite sometime, and they mostly do other astronomical objects besides earth...

xscreensaver can run any hack in the root window. Some work better than others depending on how they update/draw on the screen.

desktop = solid color, 0 shortcuts beside recycle bin