The xscreensaver program waits until the keyboard and mouse have been idle for a period of time, and then runs a graphics demo chosen at random. It turns off as soon as there is any mouse or keyboard activity. It can also lock the screen immediately, after a longer idle period, or on demand.

The xscreensaver package consists of two parts: the screensaver and the "driver" or "daemon", which detects idleness and does locking, and the many graphics demos that are launched by xscreensaver.

Any X program that can draw on the root window can be used with xscreensaver, regardless of how that program is written, what language it is written in, or what libraries it uses. The xscreensaver daemon takes care of detecting when the user is idle, locking, and checking passwords and all the other book-keeping. All the other programs need to do is draw.

The benefit that xscreensaver has over the combination of the xlock and xautolock programs is the ease with which new graphic hacks can be installed. You do not need to recompile (or even re-run) the xscreensaver program to add a new display mode, you just change a config file.