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Seriously, Konfabulator or DesktopX or Kapsules or Active Desktop or let's see if I can think of any more... Anyway, all of these I am certain have an audience. You have the skinning scene, the graphic artists, and basically Joe and Jane User who just like a "pretty" computer.

"Maybe AOL with their proxy systems, but I can't imagine why would a regular ISP highjack the html stream to insert their own content (not imposible, just unbelievable)."

Aparently it's a company called Adzilla. Quote:
"Problem iss solve-d. ISP tells me that this is intentional, and just something being tested. Company called Adzilla has software for ISPs that can insert custom content into specific pages, so ISPs can do things like sell very cheap broadband, with the cost supplemented by their own targetted banner ads on pages."

Perhaps the author of the software might want to do a little research first? Kapsules appears to do everything his software does, and more, for free. Plus there's the increased copying in the win32 world, and PC users in general are much less likely to pay for every little script and tweak.
I suspect Konfabulator will disappear very quickly.

Don't worry about this
or this
or even this
or this
hmm, or this

There's nothing "Mac OS exclusive" about widgets. Apple didn't do them first, just like they didn't do alpha blended shadows, app skinning, a dock, etc... first. But, for some reason, Apple users like to attribute all sorts of misplaced creative distinction to the folks in Cupertino.

uses the .net Framework, most widgets are written in Perl/Ruby .net. Works great for me, still needs some polish though.

Kapsules is similar to Konfabulator, so this isn't a new idea on Windows either. I never used it, but back when Windows had "active desktop" features those were quite similar to what Kapsules and Konfabulator offer.

I've tried both Kapsules and Konfabulator and once you get past the "nifty keen" factor, neither are really all that useful in my opinion.

Regarding the question about how MS deals with these shells: Well, the simple answer is that they don't. It keeps us off their back :). In fact, many of the well known win32 shell developers work or have worked at Microsoft. Alternative shells work just fine under Windows.

Now, there are actually a ton of shells (see the list) out there for Windows, and most are open source in some way or other. The most popular (and one of the oldest) win32 shells is Litestep, which is GPL'd.

For a somewhat decent overview of shells from a windows user's point of view, check out forum topic on deviantART. Alternative Windows Shells basically just replace the Explorer.exe file as the Windows shell... usually also resulting in the replacement of the well known taskbar, start menu, and desktop. Instead, you can use the tools provided by the shell to build your own interface. Shells are very similar to X desktop environments. They do not replace the Windows like a WM does. For general news and info regarding Windows shells, check out the following sites:

• ShellFront
• shellscape

Desktopian.org also covers Windows and shells news in-depth, along with some *nix related news.

Litestep is the oldest shell still in active development. It is by far the most popular shell (with an estimated 10,000+ users) and the most customizable shell (outside of Graphite). You can create almost whatever interface you want, thanks to the 300+ 3rd party modules for the shell. Litestep also has great support through the LS Mailing List and the IRC channels (#fpn, #ls2k, and #ls_help on irc.openprojects.net). Make sure to check out the following sites for Litestep:

• Graphic Language
• JoeBlade
• Litestep.net
• ShellFront
• LS Documentation
• LS FAQ
• The Module List - Module List with descriptions (a little out of date and incomplete, but better for most people)
• the Litestep Installer - a must to get Litestep installed and configured. Make sure to download 'OTS compatible' themes.

The second most popular replacement shell is geOShell, which is largely a minimalist's shell. It has a GUI configuration for most things. geOShell's main site is geoshellx.com. All information can be found there. They are also supported through the geoshellx.com forums and their IRC channel (#geoshell on irc.openprojects.net).

Most win32 shells out there today are either derived from Litestep or geOShell in some way or other. However, there have been two blackbox 'ports' recently to Windows:

• bluebox
• bb4win

It's impossible for me to explain everything here. However, for any *nix users who need to run Windows as well, these shells offer a great alternative to that drab and boring Explorer desktop. Win32 alternative shells even let you have your X desktop on Windows.

Now, the advantage to Object Desktop (namely DesktopX and objectbar is that it doesn't require that you replace your shell (which is a registry key change in NT and a system.ini file edit in 9x). Configuration is accomplished by a GUI. DesktopX is extremely configurable. Keep in mind that running Object Desktop will use up excessive cpu and/or memory. They can do almost anything, but will also use up resources... unlike most shells.

Hope this helps. Many *nix users are completely unaware of the Windows open-source community and of shells in general. We hope this will eventually change.