7 ms·

FINALLY we've come full circle and can have widgets on the desktop again! It's not like a revolutionary killer feature for me, but I just always preferred havi

FINALLY we've come full circle and can have widgets on the desktop again! It's not like a revolutionary killer feature for me, but I just always preferred having information always in my "peripheral" instead of having to actively check a separate menu.

crazygringo 3y ago
Wait when were widgets ever available on the desktop before? Years ago they were on a separate dashboard screen but that wasn't the desktop. This seems entirely new, not any kind of full circle. Edit: just to clarify, I'm talking about on Macs, not Windows.
- thangngoc89 3y ago
  Windows Vista and Windows 7 circa. Separate dashboard screen is from Windows 8
  - kube-system 3y ago
    Windows had Active Desktop way back in the day. https://duet-cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/0x0:1020x765/2400x1800/filters:focal(510x382:511x383):format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/2845994/ActiveDesktop.1402079265.jpg https://duet-cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/0x0:1020x765/2400x1800/...
    - thangngoc89 3y ago
      You learn something new everyday. We don’t have Internet during the Windows 9x circa so now ideas this is even possible.
- paradox460 3y ago
  Desktop Accessories were on Mac since 1984. Konfabulator was a much more modern precursor to Dashboard, and existed in the early 00s. It put them directly on your desktop. Also you could make Dashboard widgets stick around by changing a plist setting
  - crazygringo 3y ago
    DA's weren't widgets though. They were just regular apps with regular windows but with a black title bar. You couldn't stick them to the desktop or anything. And Konfabulator was cool but it wasn't part of the OS. The plist setting is interesting though -- definitely never knew about that. But again, not part of how they were designed to operate for the average end user.
- speedgoose 3y ago
  On Mac OS X Tiger, I remember that you could open the dashboard, drag a widget, and close the dashboard before you release the mouse and keep the widget on the desktop. But I may remember wrong.
  - Klonoar 3y ago
    You could, but I think you had to enable a hidden setting to do so. I used to keep a few on my desktop with this.
- Rebelgecko 3y ago
  At least some versions of OSX let you pull widgets out of Dashboard (don't remember if that feature was there in the initial release of Widgets, and it required a defaults setting)
pretext-1 3y ago
This time it can mirror widgets from iPhone though, which makes it much more useful.
- wilg 3y ago
  I totally missed this and it's very cool!
flenserboy 3y ago
It failed before because system resources and horsepower were too low to make it work smoothly (&, let's be honest, because there were often poor UI choices going hand-in-hand with poor speed/smoothness). Plenty of ideas resurface, not because they were bad & people think they just might work, but because they weren't practical when they came up. There are plenty of faded-away applications & forgotten old OSes with ideas way ahead of the curve, needed speed and/or memory, & were laughed at & called stupid because of system limitations that will show up again in our systems, someday.
- Klonoar 3y ago
  What? The old canvas based widgets in OSX were not performance hogs.
  - philistine 3y ago
    No but the desktop toys from the 90s were difficult to justify.
egypturnash 3y ago
god yes I miss Dashboard so much, it'll be absolutely hilarious if old Dashboard widgets turn out to work on the new widget thing.
- corbezzoli 3y ago
  The dashboard and its animations were killer in 2005. For someone coming from Windows XP, where the UI could be often seen painted pixel by pixel, a smooth water drop over everything, including videos, was magic.
- Klonoar 3y ago
  Old dashboard was HTML/CSS/JS before people started making them into the de facto UI system for desktop.
vaughan 3y ago
I haven’t seen my desktop in years…
behnamoh 3y ago
Next thing I'm waiting for: Apple removes the useless Stage Manager "feature" (it's not a feature, it's a bug).
- zapzupnz 3y ago
  You'd be surprised how many people I see in daily life who like it, mainly my students but some fellow staff colleagues, too. They use it as a concentration aide.
- jawngee 3y ago
  I daily drive stage manager. It's made me quite a bit more productive.
- RockRobotRock 3y ago
  Window management on macOS sucks so bad. I'm glad they tried to "fix" it, but I don't really like stage manager either.
  - semi-extrinsic 3y ago
    Have you tried yabai?
    - RockRobotRock 3y ago
      I had it starred on GH but never tried. I'll give it a shot.
- jereees 3y ago
  Ah. Such a good thing to be devoid of any disabilities! A bug is not a bug if you can turn it off after you explicitly turned it on ;-)

crazygringo 3y ago

Wait when were widgets ever available on the desktop before? Years ago they were on a separate dashboard screen but that wasn't the desktop. This seems entirely new, not any kind of full circle. Edit: just to clarify, I'm talking about on Macs, not Windows.

thangngoc89 3y ago
Windows Vista and Windows 7 circa. Separate dashboard screen is from Windows 8
- kube-system 3y ago
  Windows had Active Desktop way back in the day. https://duet-cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/0x0:1020x765/2400x1800/filters:focal(510x382:511x383):format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/2845994/ActiveDesktop.1402079265.jpg https://duet-cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/0x0:1020x765/2400x1800/...
  - thangngoc89 3y ago
    You learn something new everyday. We don’t have Internet during the Windows 9x circa so now ideas this is even possible.
paradox460 3y ago
Desktop Accessories were on Mac since 1984. Konfabulator was a much more modern precursor to Dashboard, and existed in the early 00s. It put them directly on your desktop. Also you could make Dashboard widgets stick around by changing a plist setting
- crazygringo 3y ago
  DA's weren't widgets though. They were just regular apps with regular windows but with a black title bar. You couldn't stick them to the desktop or anything. And Konfabulator was cool but it wasn't part of the OS. The plist setting is interesting though -- definitely never knew about that. But again, not part of how they were designed to operate for the average end user.
speedgoose 3y ago
On Mac OS X Tiger, I remember that you could open the dashboard, drag a widget, and close the dashboard before you release the mouse and keep the widget on the desktop. But I may remember wrong.
- Klonoar 3y ago
  You could, but I think you had to enable a hidden setting to do so. I used to keep a few on my desktop with this.
Rebelgecko 3y ago
At least some versions of OSX let you pull widgets out of Dashboard (don't remember if that feature was there in the initial release of Widgets, and it required a defaults setting)

pretext-1 3y ago

This time it can mirror widgets from iPhone though, which makes it much more useful.

wilg 3y ago
I totally missed this and it's very cool!

flenserboy 3y ago

It failed before because system resources and horsepower were too low to make it work smoothly (&, let's be honest, because there were often poor UI choices going hand-in-hand with poor speed/smoothness). Plenty of ideas resurface, not because they were bad & people think they just might work, but because they weren't practical when they came up. There are plenty of faded-away applications & forgotten old OSes with ideas way ahead of the curve, needed speed and/or memory, & were laughed at & called stupid because of system limitations that will show up again in our systems, someday.

Klonoar 3y ago
What? The old canvas based widgets in OSX were not performance hogs.
- philistine 3y ago
  No but the desktop toys from the 90s were difficult to justify.

egypturnash 3y ago

god yes I miss Dashboard so much, it'll be absolutely hilarious if old Dashboard widgets turn out to work on the new widget thing.

corbezzoli 3y ago
The dashboard and its animations were killer in 2005. For someone coming from Windows XP, where the UI could be often seen painted pixel by pixel, a smooth water drop over everything, including videos, was magic.
Klonoar 3y ago
Old dashboard was HTML/CSS/JS before people started making them into the de facto UI system for desktop.

vaughan 3y ago

I haven’t seen my desktop in years…

behnamoh 3y ago

Next thing I'm waiting for: Apple removes the useless Stage Manager "feature" (it's not a feature, it's a bug).

zapzupnz 3y ago
You'd be surprised how many people I see in daily life who like it, mainly my students but some fellow staff colleagues, too. They use it as a concentration aide.
jawngee 3y ago
I daily drive stage manager. It's made me quite a bit more productive.
RockRobotRock 3y ago
Window management on macOS sucks so bad. I'm glad they tried to "fix" it, but I don't really like stage manager either.
- semi-extrinsic 3y ago
  Have you tried yabai?
  - RockRobotRock 3y ago
    I had it starred on GH but never tried. I'll give it a shot.
jereees 3y ago
Ah. Such a good thing to be devoid of any disabilities! A bug is not a bug if you can turn it off after you explicitly turned it on ;-)