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art_director · Aug 17, 2007, 09:08 AM

Does anything exist in the PC world that is in any way like widgets in OSX?

C.A.T.S. CEO · Aug 17, 2007, 09:21 AM

Microsoft calls them 'gadgets'.

art_director · Aug 17, 2007, 09:29 AM

Thx for the reply.

Do they come with the OS or do users need to add?

Do they work with XP, Vista and other flavors of Windows?

MacosNerd · Aug 17, 2007, 09:34 AM

Originally Posted by art_director

Thx for the reply.

Do they come with the OS or do users need to add?

Do they work with XP, Vista and other flavors of Windows?

As usual Microsoft copied Apple and created gadgets which are only for Vista so you don't get them on XP. Also they are not cross compatible so any OSX widgets will not run on vista.

Vista, like OSX comes with a small selection of gadgets but you can download a lot of them and while OSX widgets will not run on Vista, their's plenty of gadgets that offer the same type of functionality.

Personally I like how the gadgets on vista sit on the side of the screen visable, instead of hitting a key to view them like on osx - but that's me. I generally don't use vista - I have it loaded but its bloated, slow and has a lot of compatability issues so I generally don't boot into it until I have too (for work reasons).

zro · Aug 17, 2007, 10:12 AM

Konfabulator, yo! Yahoo! Widgets - 1,000s of Widgets for your Mac or Windows Desktop

Boom.

mpancha · Aug 17, 2007, 10:34 AM

On Windows, Yahoo has had them for ages, Google has them now (Sidebar), Konfabulator jumped ship to Windows after Apple stole their widgets idea and "created" Dashboard. All of these work in XP.

Google: Google Desktop Gadgets (the sidebar is part of the Google Desktop Search, which you can disable, but you need it installed to have the sidebar)

Yahoo: Yahoo! Widgets - 1,000s of Widgets for your Mac or Windows Desktop

Konfabulator: Konfabulator - Gallery (it looks like they are now part of Yahoo's Widgets)

In Vista, they have Gadgets, works just like Konfabulator, Yahoo and Google.

MacosNerd · Aug 17, 2007, 10:37 AM

I was wondering if Konfabulator was still alive and kicking. I'm not sure how popular it is, even when it was on OSX

mpancha · Aug 17, 2007, 11:22 AM

MacosNerd >> from what I experienced/saw, Konfabulator was very popular pre-Dashboard on OSX. I never tried it on the PC, honestly, everything I need on the dashboard, I already have running in OS X (applications already running or in the menu bar). And the same is true on the PC.

JKT · Aug 17, 2007, 01:10 PM

Originally Posted by MacosNerd

I was wondering if Konfabulator was still alive and kicking. I'm not sure how popular it is, even when it was on OSX

I use it on my work PC (XP) - it's OK, but does cause Powerpoint 2003 slideshows to shutdown my computer without warning!

SkaGoat · Aug 17, 2007, 08:49 PM

The SideBar is not a copy of Dashboard.... even if it were, it was in Longhorn before Tiger was released...

mpancha · Aug 18, 2007, 11:53 AM

SkaGoat >> you're right. It was available as a download for quite awhile off of MS' site back when Windows 2003 Server was in Beta... that was when I noticed it at least. Regardless, it was available for download from MS, and was actually available by some other company (whose name escapes me) even before that. Point being, way before Apple took Konfabulator's Widget idea.

The first ones though, from my own personal experience though was Konfabulator on the Mac platform.

Appleman · Aug 18, 2007, 03:30 PM

Apple stole the idea from Konfabulator.
Microsoft did as well, calling it gadgets.
Yahoo! bought Konfabulator some time ago.
It works on a peecee.

MacosNerd · Aug 18, 2007, 03:46 PM

Originally Posted by Appleman

Apple stole the idea from Konfabulator.
Microsoft did as well, calling it gadgets.
Yahoo! bought Konfabulator some time ago.
It works on a peecee.

Actually Apple had it in its classic app so technically Konfabulator stole it from apple.

Appleman · Aug 18, 2007, 03:52 PM

Originally Posted by MacosNerd

Actually Apple had it in its classic app so technically Konfabulator stole it from apple.

Classic App, like OS 6, OS 7, OS 8, OS 9? I have never seen it before OS X.

According to Wikipedia:

History

Initial development

Yahoo! Widgets was originally developed as Konfabulator, by a core development team consisting of Arlo Rose, Perry Clarke, and Ed Voas. Originally released on February 10, 2003 as a Mac OS X only application which cost US$24.95 (and later, with the release of version 2.0, US$19.95), its Windows version was released on November 8, 2004 with the release of version Konfabulator 1.8, and made freeware with the release of Konfabulator 2.1 on July 25, 2005, when it was sold to Yahoo!. Shortly prior to this, Apple released a similar widget engine, Dashboard, as part of its Mac OS X Tiger operating system. Konfabulator's main commercial competitor on the Windows platform is DesktopX, developed by Stardock. Other programs offering similar functionality include Kapsules and AveDesk (for Windows), gDesklets (for GNOME), and SuperKaramba (for KDE).

mpancha · Aug 18, 2007, 04:01 PM

I'm curious too, what was the pre-OSX version of Widgets on an Apple computer? I don't recall ever seeing it, but back in those days all I did on a Mac was word processing, and Quick Basic programming.

Art Vandelay · Aug 18, 2007, 05:11 PM

Desktop Accessories

MacosNerd · Aug 18, 2007, 07:13 PM

Thanks Art, The name had escaped me when I first entered the post

Mithras · Aug 18, 2007, 07:35 PM

Now that there's Safari for Windows, and hence a stable WebCore compiling for Windows, someone could write a Windows Dashboard. Though many widgets use Cocoa plugins...

mpancha · Aug 18, 2007, 10:20 PM

Desk Accessory - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

It sounds more like a pre-cursor to Multi-Tasking, in a way I can see how it could be considered Widgets.

But still, according to the WikiPedia article, with System 7 and the introduction of "multi tasking" they took away Desktop Accessories.

Konfabulator, aside from not having its own "layer", is a carbon copy of what we call a Widget in OS X today. Its a really gray area, but based on what I read about Desktop Accessories... Apple is still on the dark side on this one IMO.

Appleman · Aug 18, 2007, 10:46 PM

Originally Posted by mpancha

Its a really gray area, but based on what I read about Desktop Accessories... Apple is still on the dark side on this one IMO.

I guess it is a grey area.

JKT · 06:41 AM

Fwiw, you could consider the Docklings that were in 10.0 and 10.1 as precursors to Widgets as well. The main difference that Konfabulator brought to the table was the culling of their data from the internet, although it is arguable that this was an idea borrowed from Watson and Sherlock.

Also, Apple's Clock in 10.0 could be placed anywhere on screen (and still can be) and preceded anything put out by Konfabulator by many years.

mpancha · Aug 19, 2007, 08:40 AM

I guess its one of those things where ideas were borrowed from everywhere, but in the end, its become a standard feature.

Like Airbags... they used to be an amazing costly feature to add to a car, now every car has driver/passenger and most come preloaded with the curtains as well.

saddino · Aug 19, 2007, 01:39 PM

Originally Posted by mpancha

But still, according to the WikiPedia article, with System 7 and the introduction of "multi tasking" they took away Desktop Accessories.

Actually the article specificially states that Desktop Accessories continued to be a part of the OS all the way through OS 9:

The system continued to run DAs (and still does up to Mac OS 9.x) for backward compatibility.

mpancha · Aug 19, 2007, 02:43 PM

yes, it stated:

With the advent of System 7, which included a standard co-operative multitasking feature, the need for DAs diminished greatly, and developers were encouraged to develop small applications instead.

I used the wrong word on my original post, I shouldn't have said "took away DAs" but rather what it said in the above quote.