forgive me if this is extremely stupid, but I noticed that the "usplash" "executable" in /sbin appears to be what is, or at least what starts the usplash (graphical bootup screen with progress bar, etc.). At any rate, it is executed on bootup, and I was wondering if one could simply replace this with, say, something out of /usr/lib/xscreensaver? (just run anything in there and see what I mean)

Would this display a cool screensaver durring bootup!?