Clockwork Orange vs Palace

Clockwork Orange manages desktop wallpapers on KDE Plasma 6, Windows 10/11 and macOS 13+. It can select random images from local folders, distribute choices fairly among sources and assign a different image to each monitor. On KDE Plasma, it can rotate the lock-screen image separately from the desktop. Download plugins fetch images from Wallhaven and DuckDuckGo Images on hourly, daily or weekly schedules, with a file limit configurable for each source. Wallhaven’s full catalogue requires an API key. The app records image URLs and content hashes to prevent duplicate downloads, even if a file has been deleted. Marking an image in the window deletes the file and adds its hash to a blacklist for future downloads. Version 4 is a native Go program with a command-line binary that also runs as the daemon, plus a Fyne desktop window with plugin controls, history, blacklist management and settings. It is free under the MIT License. On Linux it can run as a systemd user service; the macOS app is ad-hoc signed and not notarised.

Palace is a personal media manager and wallpaper engine for organizing and displaying wallpapers and other media. You can sort items into categories, albums, and favorites, then search by name or tag. Display choices include fill, fit, center, tile, stretch, or spanning multiple monitors, with adjustable background colors and effects. Automatic rotation can run sequentially or in shuffle mode, at intervals from five seconds to several hours, and can target individual displays. Palace supports GIFs, video files such as MP4 and WebM, GLSL shaders, and locally stored images; desktop video wallpapers require MPV. Online sources use public JSON files and must provide direct public media URLs, not private or password-protected files. Local media works offline, and ordinary use does not require an account. Palace says wallpapers, preferences, and settings stay on the device and personal images are not uploaded or accessed. The web hub supports browsing community sources, downloading wallpapers, and submitting source URLs. A Palace lifetime license costs $4 as a one-time purchase; Google Play costs $7.99, paid once for Android only.