KDE 4 to Support Apple Dashboard Widgets

Ryan writes to tell us Applexnet is reporting that Zack Rusin, a lead developer of KDE, has confirmed that KDE 4 will be able to run and display Dashboard widgets similar to Mac OS X 10.4. From the article: "Basically, this means that a layer (similar in some ways to layers in Adobe Photoshop) in the KDE desktop could function the same way that Dashboard does in Mac OS X. Widgets themselves are not inherently difficult to write nor properly interpret, since they are usually just HTML and Javascript (although Cocoa code can be included, the developer's skills permitting). Furthermore, since Konqueror and Safari share very nearly the same rendering engine, KHTML and WebKit, this too will simplify the process."

Comments

Too bad the K name is taken

[tepples]

Konfabulator?

Re:who knew

[theAtomicFireball]

Sure... if you define "anywhere" to mean "anywhere but windows"

A possible merge in store, perhaps?

[hahafaha]

Apple already took a lot from UNIX. It pretty much *is* UNIX. Perhaps it will lend something to KDE.

Most UNIX-people use Apple because it still is UNIX but with a better GUI. Perhaps KDE will convince Apple to make the GUI Free Software.

Or maybe Apple will just sue the socks off of the KDE project.

Re:A possible merge in store, perhaps?

[HowIsMyDriving?]

It will never happen. Apple needs OSX to be able to be in the market place. Apple, while making money off of the hardware will need OSX, especially since going to the Intel platform to make it different. If they opened it up to white box computers no one would buy Apple hardware, and they would soon be stuck with just iPods and iBooks and Powerbooks. The cannot do this, for it would kill the company.

Re:A possible merge in store, perhaps?

[Eil]

Perhaps it will lend something to KDE.

They already do. Safari is descendant of Konqueror and contribute (perhaps inefficiently) their patches back to KDE. However, since this is KDE's own effort to reproduce Dashboard from scratch (Dashboard isn't open source even if many of its components are), Apple has no reason or incentive to contribute any of their work on Dashboard to KDE.

Most UNIX-people use Apple because it still is UNIX but with a better GUI.

This needs to be qualified a little better because the a large number (most likely the majority) of "UNIX-people" are still happily using a non-Apple Unix. For example, I use KDE and don't see that changing anytime soon because KDE is, for me, a much more powerful UI environment than OS X. Most of my geek friends and co-workers are in the same boat, though some are considering Powerbooks for the occasional on-the-road work.

Perhaps KDE will convince Apple to make the GUI Free Software.

Not going to happen and literally everyone at Apple has said as much. The simple, elegant OS X GUI is Apple's trump card. It is the main reason to buy a Mac. If they give that away, then anyone on the planet can implement it and Mac sales go down the tube. Sure, there are many reasons to buy a Mac but the OS is definitely the biggie. This is why Apple is putting so much effort into making sure that OS X does not run (easily) on plain Intel boxes.

Or maybe Apple will just sue the socks off of the KDE project.

I don't see how that's possible unless Apple went patent-squatting on the desktop widget engine idea. Dashboard may be the most popular implementation, but it was hardly the first to exist.

Memory Usage

[Arctic Fox]

Hopefully, they'll find some way to knock down the memory usage. A couple of widgets (weather, stocks, iCal) were killing my 1Gb Powerbook.

I switched to the ex-Konfabulator, Yahoo! Widgets and now my PB doesn't seem to thrash as much. That, and I've added a number of additional widgets.

Re:Memory Usage

[theAtomicFireball]

I can't believe I'm posting hits, because I'm usually playing the drooling Mac fan-boy part in this here Slashdot play we're all in, but...

Do you realize how inefficient even a 12 meg memory footprint for something that pulls down like 20 bytes of weather data from a URL and then displays that data along with an image to indicate whether it's sunny, raining, or snowing? Widgets are a great idea, but they ARE memory hogs and take far more processor cycles than they should to do their job. They are not the best example of software engineering to ever come out of Cupertino by any stretch of the imagination.

Exciting

[BrenBren]

I think this is a great idea. Right off the bat, there will be lots of Widgets available.

The Apple community will also benefit, because there are probably a lot of people in the Linux community that will write new Widgets that haven't been thought of (or thought necessary) by the Apple programming community.

I, for one, welcome our new Widget overlords.

Re:Exciting

[mblase]

I think this is a great idea. Right off the bat, there will be lots of Widgets available.

No, there won't. The headline is misleading. Read carefully:

...the upcoming KDE 4 will be able to run and display Dashboard widgets much in the same way that Mac OS X 10.4 can.... I'm planning to add full OSX Dashboard compatibility layer for Plasma....Basically, this means that a layer (similar in some ways to layers in Adobe Photoshop) in the KDE desktop could function the same way that Dashboard does in Mac OS X.

Furthermore, keep in mind that a not insignificant number of OS X widgets interact specifically with OS X apps like iTunes. Obviously, only internet-based widgets (like Google lookups) could be cross-platform.

Re:Lets slow down KDE Even more!

[chill]

You haven't used KDE lately, have you?

Each release has been faster than before with 3.5 being noticably faster than 3.4.1.

Finally, get off your whiney ass and compile it for yourself using Konstruct. Pick just exactly what you want and make it nice and slim for you.

That is what the source code is for, you know.

Re:Am I the only one

[AntiOrganic]

Can you explain to me, from an accomplished software engineer's perspective, what's so bad about modular components that can be reused in multiple applications?

The problem with Internet Explorer was never that it was coupled too deeply into the file manager and it was therefore buggy and insecure, and only someone with no clue whatsoever would tell you that. Internet Explorer is problematic because it has multiple zones with different security settings, and as history has shown, it's very, very easy to trick Internet Explorer into thinking that a script executing from the Internet zone is actually in the Local Computer zone, and thereby able to overwrite files, instantiate arbitrary ActiveX/COM components, and do all manners of naughty things that it shouldn't be able to.

re: Dashboard and usefulness

[King_TJ]

That's exactly the problem with Dashboard though ... it's too tempting to approach it as "let's load it up with all types of crazy widgets!". By doing that, you make it less functional. (Takes longer to switch to them when you've got a whole screen full of them, etc.)

Certain Dashboard widgets *can* change the way you work, but only when you select the right ones, and eliminate the rest!

For example, Ambrosia Software makes a free widget for easily printing addresses on envelopes (http://www.ambrosiasw.com/utilities/easyenvelopes /). That's something I occasionally need to do, and it's something you don't really want to load up a whole word processing package for.

I find the weather widget handy too. It lets me get the forecast on a whim, while not constantly running and eating resources when I don't need it. Sure, you can visit a web site to get the same info - but a widget is faster and always saves your preferences. (Web sites usually rely on cookies that you might clear out of your browser cache.)

Re:Huh?

[jZnat]

Yeah; GNOME 2.12 is already far ahead at the "shaving off bloat" to the point where Linus said "fuck it" and switched to KDE. As long as the bloat is optional and configurable, everyone can be happy.

Re:Why a separate layer?

[thatguywhoiam]

That's just apple's workaround for "we think virtual desktops are too complicated." No need to impose that on KDE.

That's just your workaround for explaining Apple's more elegant solution to the problem...

Re:Superkaramba

[10Ghz]

SuperKaramba, Kicker and the Desktop are going to be merged in to one coherent whole in KDE4 called Plasma. These widgets and related technologies will be part of Plasma. So, in KDE3.x, we use SuperKaramba to handle widgets like these. In KDE4, it will be handled by Plasma.

Re:Who knew that open source would be beaten

[CaptDeuce]

Now, as a Java developer I see nothing wrong with this... [Java is] an easy language to pick up

Really? Compared to what?

I'm finding that learning to speak Italian is easier, even though it will take longer. And Italian is a lot more useful for ordering food at a restaurant in Italy. Java is pretty useless in that respect -- even at a Starbucks.