[d00d]

Seriously, linking John Gruber once is enough.
There's a couple caveats to what Gruber said (IMHO).
He mentions that each Konfabulator Widget is a separate process. The same goes for Dashboard. Dashboard also gets slammed for excessive memory usage.
The big thing he misses is that what made Konfabulator unique, new, and interesting was that it allowed (relatively) light-weight applications to be written using web technologies. That is what Apple ripped off wholesale.
And mrbach has a point that people are suddenly wary of Konfabulator because it's now owned by Yahoo. Concern about the long term viability of the Mac version of the program is certainly warranted, but to swear it off completely just because Yahoo bought it is a bit silly. Konfabulator's main problem was that the engine itself cost money. With that aspect removed, it's poised to gain a lot of market share on both platforms.

[iMacAlot777]

I did get a bit slap happy with that article..lol..sorry bout that

[pixelcruncher]

The real question that popped into my head is that if this is distributed for free, or even preinstalled on PCs at retailers, does it diminish or dilute the impact of seeing a Mac with Dashboard up for the first time? In a side-by-side comparison, Dashboard may win in appearances, but will computer shoppers bother looking at the differences? They may even think Apple copied Yahoo.
Yahoo also offers a massive exposure/download opportunity for makers of widgets. Dashboard's audience is only Tiger users, so pre-Tiger Mac users might think Yahoo Widgets are a good option. So if Yahoo Widgets takes off, which developers are going to co-develop a Dashboard Widget, and which are going to tell Tiger users to download and install Yahoo Widgets?
I think this hurts Apple in a small way that might become more magnified if Yahoo really wants to push this technology.

[chewygoat]

Amnesty is not free, unlike now Konfabulator. Moreover, I tried Amensty and found it unreliable and unstable. Very flakey. It's not something I'd keep installed even if it were free, let alone pay for it!

[appleGuy57]

"Widgets", whether Konfabulator or Dashboard, are a new paradigm for software development that has struck a chord with users. Have you looked at what it takes to create an app for Microsoft's Pocket PC? Macromedia Flash is another small device/application platform as well as Java. Both Konf and Dash provide a way to develop small, dedicated apps using open source (for the most part) technologies that any developer can get in on the ground floor with. A tool was mentioned to convert from Konf to Dash and maybe vice versa, the technologies are not that disimilar. Small widgets that run on any device, Pocket PC, Palm, cell phone, maybe even iPod? I say let's move on from the whole "which is better/first/cooler, Konfabulator or Dashboard" argument and support this new development environment. Yahoo's tools for the Mac have been very poor so far; no Intellisync for My Yahoo! data to Mac handhelds, many problems with Yahoo! Messenger, etc. The more people developing for Dashboard or for Konfabulator the more cross development will happen between the two. That's better for everyone all around.

[jdb8167]

In reply to:

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The big thing he misses is that what made Konfabulator unique, new, and interesting was that it allowed (relatively) light-weight applications to be written using web technologies. That is what Apple ripped off wholesale.

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Windows had active desktop for years before Konfabulator. There is nothing new about using web technologies on the desktop.

[Janus]

OK, I am late to the party with Konfabular and Dashboard. If I make a widget for one, will it run on the other? If not, is a lot of re-coding (just Javascript, I believe) required? I ask because there are several cool Konfabular widgets, but very few useful or interesting Dashboard widgets.
In fact, I would love to just delete Dashboard to free up memory and speed. Anyone know how to do this?

[Solvs]

I used to use Yahoo!'s services all the time. The personalized Home Page, TV Listings, E-mail, Shopping, IM, etc. But I had so many issues with them - getting logged out constantly and not being automatically log back in, TV channels not showing up, formatting issues, not being able to see videos in FireFox or even the right ones in IE, Y!IM not working right my PC or Mac - I evetually just gave up on them. Customer service was practically non existant. Every time I e-mailed them about a bug, I received the same canned response. There are so many better alternatives out there, they lost me as a customer.
I hope they make some improvements, but I'll believe it when I see it. BTW, Apple's marketshare is at 4.5% now. Home user base for is even bigger. /forums/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

[SpaceCat]

I would rather see Yahoo! make their music services work in a Mac browser newer than Netscape 4.7 first.
Several months ago I tried to view a music video in Camino and Safari, but I kept getting the same "error" message about my browser. I know Windows Media Player support in Camino can sometimes be dodgy, but Safari shouldn't be unsupported (especially considering that it is now the only browser bundled with OS X). It's nice to be backwards-compatible, but they shouldn't make users start up OS 9 via Classic (provided they even have Classic and Netscape installed) just to view one webpage!
Plus, when people start switching over to Intel Macs in a year or so, that won't even be an option. If Yahoo! fixes that and other Mac-hostile bugs, then I'll take this push "to move more onto the Mac" more seriously.

[iMacAlot777]

Yes I have had some shaky support from Yahoo in my years of use too. One of the most glaring being Messenger..whereas when closing out a webcam window, the entire application crashes almost like clockwork. Yahoo hasn't updated it's Messenger for Mac since 2003..I think that's unacceptable and very hostile/lazy of them. I tried viewing music videos through Yahoo's site too..and got that nasty Netscape 4.7 message also. I DL'd that ancient app, ran it in Classic, and still coudln't view the content..lol. They aren't as mean as Sierra Valve, but they sure ain't nice. /forums/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

[d00d]

In reply to:

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Windows had active desktop for years before Konfabulator. There is nothing new about using web technologies on the desktop.

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Are you misinterpreting what I said this badly on purpose? Active Desktop can't interact with the system. It's a normal web page being presented on the desktop. Note, I said nothing about the desktop. I made reference to light-weight applications (capable of real functionality, not just a web page presented in a different way). The closest approximation would be Microsoft's Windows Update website (but that's specialty purpose and that kind of functionality is not accessible by other developers).

[Nobody]

This is excellent news for Mac users who have not yet gone the way of widgets.
I wonder if Yahoo! will reconfigure Konfabulator to work on earlier versions of OS X, notable 10.2.8 and before.
I can always hope.
Perhaps this is just the beginning for Yahoo!'s purchases and free distribution of Mac software, could Adobe be next? What about gaming software?
The mind boggles.

[d00d]

In reply to:

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I wonder if Yahoo! will reconfigure Konfabulator to work on earlier versions of OS X, notable 10.2.8 and before.
I can always hope.

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Um, it already runs on OS X 10.2.

[n8225]

I agree entirely about Yahoo! Mesenger on Mac. Because of it's state I have gotten in the practice of sitting in front of my mac with my Win 98 /forums/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif laptop with Yahoo! and AOL mesenger, while on the mac I'm listening podcasts.