Why Not Pre-Install World Community Grid on Ubuntu?

I have been using the World Community Grid as my default screen saver for quite some time. For those of you not familiar with the project, it basically creates a massive computing network (your computer and everyone else using WCG) to solve some of the most difficult problems facing science, such as curing AIDS.

The software is available on a wide variety of platforms,

including Linux. There is even an Ubuntu Linux Team (my distro of choice). Yes, you can create teams and track how much good you and your friends are doing!

What blows my mind is that, with all of the crappy, cheesy screen savers built into operating systems, World Community Grid hasn’t been.

If WCG were the default screensaver for every Ubuntu release going forward, what kind of difference would that make? Hundreds of thousands of new participants with computers that you know stay on forever and are well maintained (sorry for the geek stereotype, but come on, how many of you regularly turn off your computer).

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