John's Background Switcher VS cppq

• Versatile Image Sources
  John's Background Switcher allows users to select images from various sources, including local folders, online photo sites like Flickr, and even social networks like Facebook and Instagram, ensuring a wide variety of potential backgrounds.
• Customizable Frequency
  Users can set how often the background changes, from every few seconds to once a day, providing flexibility to match personal preferences.
• Image Collages
  The software can create collages from selected photos, adding visual interest and variety to the desktop background.
• Multi-Monitor Support
  John's Background Switcher supports multiple monitors, allowing users to have different images on each screen or a single image spanning multiple screens.
• No Clutter
  The software is designed to be unobtrusive, running quietly in the background without impacting system performance significantly.

Possible disadvantages

• Limited Platform Availability
  As of now, John's Background Switcher is primarily available for Windows and macOS, leaving users of other operating systems without support.
• Complex Customization Settings
  Some users might find the extensive customization options overwhelming and potentially confusing, making it less user-friendly for those who prefer simplicity.
• Dependency on Image Sources
  The quality and variety of backgrounds depend greatly on the connected image sources. Issues with these sources (e.g., changes in APIs or policies) might affect the functionality.
• Update Frequency
  Updates to the software may not be frequent, which could be problematic in addressing bugs or keeping up with changes in supported online image sources.
• Paid Features
  Certain advanced features or extensive usage may require a paid version, which could limit functionality for users relying on the free version.

• Lightweight C++ implementation
  cppq is written in modern C++ and designed to be a minimal, efficient task queue library, making it a good fit for performance-sensitive applications where the overhead of scripting language runtimes is undesirable.
• Redis-backed reliability
  Built on top of Redis as the message broker, cppq benefits from Redis's persistence, atomic operations, and wide adoption, giving the queue system durability and the ability to survive process restarts.
• Inspired by proven design (asynq)
  The library's architecture mirrors the popular Go asynq task queue, so it inherits a well-thought-out API design for task enqueueing, retries, and worker processing patterns that have already been validated in production systems.
• Native integration for C++ projects
  For teams already working in a C++ codebase, cppq allows adding background job processing without needing to introduce a separate service written in another language (like Go or Python), simplifying the technology stack.
• Open source and inspectable
  Being open source on GitHub, developers can review the source code, modify it for custom needs, and contribute improvements, which offers transparency not available with closed-source queueing solutions.

Possible disadvantages

• Limited maturity and battle-testing
  Compared to established task queue libraries like Sidekiq, Celery, or asynq itself, cppq is a newer and smaller project with less real-world production usage, which may translate into undiscovered bugs or edge cases.
• Smaller community and ecosystem
  Because it has far fewer users and contributors than mainstream task queue systems, finding community support, third-party tutorials, or pre-built integrations is more difficult.
• Documentation gaps
  As a smaller project, cppq may have less comprehensive documentation compared to major task queue frameworks, requiring developers to read source code directly to understand advanced features or edge-case behaviors.
• C++ build and dependency complexity
  Using cppq requires managing C++ build toolchains and dependencies (such as a Redis client library), which can be more cumbersome than installing a package via pip or npm in other ecosystems.
• Fewer built-in features and tooling
  cppq likely lacks the extensive ecosystem tooling of more mature queues, such as web-based monitoring dashboards, extensive metrics/observability integrations, or advanced scheduling features found in more established solutions.

• Ask HN: What project do you donate to?

  Not regularly, but I have donated to: FreeFileSync, an excellent file sync utility within a network. https://freefilesync.org/ StemRoller, separate stems (e.g., voice) from songs. https://www.stemroller.com/ John's Background Switcher,... - Source: Hacker News / over 1 year ago

• Microsoft should make it easier to people use other Shells/window managers

  Now it's just a wallpaper changer pointed to a folder of my kids pics This one : Https://johnsad.ventures/software/backgroundswitcher/. Source: over 3 years ago

• Where you get wallpapers for your Mac?

  I used to use https://johnsad.ventures/software/backgroundswitcher/ and it's cool. But latest years I just stick to Snow Leopard. A bit of nostalgia. :). Source: over 3 years ago

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Tracking cppq since Nov 2022.