15 Free Mountain Lion Screensavers

And, when I say Mountain Lion screensavers, I mean ones that are compatible with Apple OS X 10.8. Here is a fine listing of 15 OS X Mountain Lion ready screensavers from independent and Mac App Store developers. From practical (clocks) to simply beautiful (fractals), I have tried to find tastes for every tongue while emphasizing value.

Or, put another way, all of the screensavers listed herein are free.

• X-Galaxy, X-Galaxy Vortex, download

— An animated nebula screensaver + 3D version of the same, a two-fer!

• Screensaver + free, Mac App Store

— Feature two clock designs, flip clock and traditional clock

• Ephemeral, download

— Draws animated IFS fractals, giving an ever-changing display of complex, natural shapes

• Aquarium Screensaver Lite (image above), Mac App Store

— Make your desktop into a fully customized aquarium, beautifully realistic images and lovely fish

— Top pick

• LotsaWater, download

— Renders a fairly realistic water effect over your desktop, showing it distorted through the wavy surface of the water as raindrops fall on the surface

— Top pick

• Screen Saver Lite, Mac App Store

— Helps you make all kinds of screensavers easily. A large number of diversified screensaver templates are built in, bright and colorful

• Electric Sheep, download

— A collective “android dream”, blending man and machine to create an artificial life form

— Top pick

• iScreensaver Personal 4, Mac App Store

— The only way to mix movies and photos in one screensaver

• Rastafied, download

— Another OpenGL based screensaver featuring an effect of the demo Super SIDekick.

• Raindrops, download

— Approximates the ripples from raindrops as they fall in a puddle

• Plasma Tunnel, download

— The result of a boring, rainy sunday here in Germany

— Top pick

• System 47, click through for download

— An LCARS style modular animated screen saver

— Still functions, but it’s Flash-based and a little crashy

• Matrix Reloaded GL, click through for download

— A cascading alpha-numeric character screensaver that morphs to display Matrix characters

• Hyperspace, click through for download

— Simulates what it might be like to travel at speeds faster than light

• FreshComics, download

— Uses the weekly Fresh Comics update to create a colorful fullscreen gallery of covers from the week’s upcoming issues

And, why didn’t Apple include actual Mountain Lion desktop pictures (wallpapers) when it shipped OS X 10.8? Who knows, but the Fairer Platform has collected 10 Mountain Lion wallpapers for your Mountain Lion Mac from 10 unique wallpaper sites — dig in.

Know of great Mountain Lion compatible screensavers or have links for Cougar pics suitable for the desktop? Share a link in the comments below…