I totally forgot about that thing! I used it all the time on my 8500.

The big difference that I see between Konfabulator and Dashboard is that Konfab widgets can be integrated [b]into[\b] the desktop, as opposed to being brought up with a keystroke.

I keep my iChat list, IP/Connection, and Weather widgets sunk into my desktop, which it doesn't look like Dashboard will do.

So, yeah. I think there's room for Konfab to move away and improve in a different direction than Dashboard.

But I say that as someone who's used it for less than a week. I like what I see, so far.

[nostalgic picture deleted as requested by Millennium]

Arlo was not involved in the Aaron project. You must be thinking of Greg Landweber. He and Arlo did not join forces until Aaron morphed into Kaleidoscope.

Yeah, and Konfabulator is a rip-off of DesktopX, a Windows widget program that was released three-years before Konfabulator.

DesktopX screenshots

From the creator of DesktopX:

As usual you are wrong.



And there in is the problem with Konfab. Most of the useful applications of it were not made or developed by them. They created a shell to run the Java apps in OS X, nothing more. No innovation, no original concept as has been proven by several others.

I changed my opinion.

If they had copied DesktopX in the first place, then they might as well burn in hell.

haven't the konfabulator type apps existed on Linux for a while now?

and for picking javascript, i can see why: its a fairly easy language to understand, learn, and write. i can open up a ".kon" file and practically know what each thing does, even though i don't know a bit about javascript.

i find konfabulator almost usless. i have it and the only time i use it is when i boot or reboot and it starts up with the weather widget. i then turn konfab off. my desktop is messy enuf, i don't need an app to do it for me with a bunch of goofy widgets.

as someone else said dashboard at least looks like it may be useful and may be everything that konfab is not.

adam, greg landweber was aaron's creator.

and arlo, if you and greg are listening...you should have stuck with kaleidoscope for x. the guy working on shapeshifter has hit a brick wall and i think he's in over his head.

my two canadian left wing cents worth.

Did they rip off a developer? i don't know if i'd say RIPPED-OFF....although Apple may have borrowed the idea, I can't foresee their program being as awful as Konb, which is just slow and a complete CPU hog. I hope Apple can really improve on the original idea of Konb. so they get a

he is? since when?

Well, on the sae lines, Microsoft didnt 'RIP-OFF' the MacOS in the 80s and 90s either. I have to side with the third party developer in this case(as i did with Watson). It's really sad to see Apple playing this game this way. I would have admired their move if they chose to buy the Porduct (like they did with iTunes/Visulaizations) and then sell it to customer, thus preventing Konfaulator(which i think is an AWESOME X App) from making it to Windows.

The way they chose to go about it, has me placing Apple and Microsoft in the same boat. Come on Apple....you more than anyone knows what it's like to be ripped-off, don do the same to the people who promote your system. You dont have to analyze this situation to see that it's just plain wrong.

Cheers.

Another tangent;

In systems 1 - 9, the Apple Menu was home to Desk Accessories, such as the calculator, stickies, puzzle etc. It was nice, easy to remember and quick to access. This scheme got a bit confusing later, as the difference between apps and accessories got fuzzier.

So in OS X, Apple had decided that all apps go into Applications and the Apple Menu becomes something else. Logical move, kinda, but it left all these little apps that you'd like to access _quickly_ without a home and diluted their 'special' role as accessories.

I'm sure they noticed that, possibly when observing konfab. Apple didn't want to go back to an OS 9 Apple menu or overload the Dock, or menubar. So I think Expos� kinda neatly provided a new 'location' for these widgets, the Dashboard 'layer'.

For me, in the end, this is just the return of the Apple Menu (DA aspect) to OS X. Konfab, though great, is more or less 'just widgets'.

J

Not sure this is totally correct.
David Hyatt chimes in on dashboard.

That makes sense actually. I was just about to go on a rant about Apple neglecting their own technologies, namely OSA. But if they're nothing more than small HTML widgets, JavaScript seems pretty logical.

Are they insane?!

If this is true, then God help us all. The extensions WebCore would need to support an adequate widget API are nothing short of complete and utter lunacy from a security perspective. The possibilities for exploitation are enough to make me sick to my stomach. Note, for example, that in order to put together that demo page, they had to make AddressBook available through JavaScript. Can anyone else here see the possibilities for Safari-specific worms?

However, I will now concede that they did not in fact steal from Konfabulator. No need to, if you're going this route. But I can honestly say now that I wish Apple had; that would be far better than this insanity.

What really amazes me is back in 1984 a personal computer was put out in the general market.

At the time we said "no-one will use this...it's too technical and too expensive"

Not long after a new OS was seen. It had "folders" and "widgets" and "windows". It had "drop down menus". You used a "mouse" and it was called Mac. You were greeted with a smiley face.

In 1995 a new kid on the block came into play. It had "drop down menus", "folders". etc and it was called Windows. Where were the martyrs then? Where were the cries of "rip off" then?

Today's developers have just utilised what was already there and had been indentified by Apple years before. They didn't re-invent the wheel they just found another way to make it roll.

According to Arlo Rose "The use of the term "Widgets" in Dashboard led many people to the conclusion that Dashboard was somehow based on Konfabulator. While Rose readily admits that the term has been around for many years to describe a variety of things, he contends that in the Mac market "Widgets" have been closely associated with Konfabulator." - MacCentral 29/6/04

Infact the term widgets was pegged by Apple many years ago, Rose now tries to convince his client base that his application made it a common name. Does he not realise calculator, stickies etc had been with Apple OS for a long, long time?

Rose then spreads a rumour that Apple tried to buy konfabulator from them but Rose held out. This makes no sense at all. Apple develope software and have done for over 20 years. Rose has merely taken advantage of the hard work Apple did to develope something that always existed.

The widgets may be web pages, but that doesn't mean they're loaded automatically at all. You add a widget, you take the risk of it doing something nasty. Just like you do with a normal application. They won't automagically spread around your computer.

Edit: oh I think you meant that normal web pages would be able to access everything? I highly doubt that, that would be a very illogical (and stupid) thing to do.

Ok wait...Rose is now saying Apple tried to buy Konfabulator? So basically he creates all this hype that Apple stole his idea and then claims they tried to buy it? Good thing I never found Konfabulator useful enough to purchase it...