DesktopX widgets of note

Konfabulator on Windows?

Published on August 14, 2004 By Draginol In OS Customization

This is a screenshot of Konfabulator. A MacOS X program for displaying widgets. Occasionally people will argue that nothing like this is available on Windows. But DesktopX has existed on Windows for years. Its popularity has steadily grown. Last week it was the 6th most popular desktop enhancement download on CNET Download.com with over 10,000 downloads last week. It's not exactly obscure.

One thing that is without dispute is that the typical MacOS skinner seems to have more artistic talent than the typical Windows skinner. But that's more a function of the number of skinners out there. But point made, it's often a bit harder to find slick looking content such as above. I did a quick browse through the WinCustomize library and I agree with people that many (most) of the objects are artistically lacking. But there's nothing stopping someone with artistic talent from picking up the ball and making incredibly cool stuff. Konfabulator has the benefit of having one of the most outstanding artists out there working on it -- Arlo Rose. Stardock has a lot of artists around but not many of them actively working on DesktopX content. That's going to change since it's obvious that aesthetics is at least as important as function when it comes to the impending "Widget wars".

Looking through the list of widgets in that Konfabulator screenshot here are some DesktopX equivalents I found quickly that are available today.

NoteIt

Extended Stock Monitor

Elegant Clock

Picture Frames (Landscape)

Plus there are things like these you're not likely to see on Konfabulator:

AlienBone (Meters)

Barney

Asteroids

(animated)

Animated weather forecaster

ChristmasTime Snowflakes (no rotation)

Pearl-Tech

I think it's fair to say that DesktopX's content is on par with Konfabulator already. These are just some I found without hardly any searching. When DesktopX 2.2 comes out later this month, a lot more stuff will be coming out. We would like to hear from you: What would YOU Like to see for DesktopX?

If you have Object Desktop (www.objectdesktop.com) you can have the power of DesktopX 2.2 right now, it's in beta there with all its coolness.

Comments

messybuu

on Aug 14, 2004

The problem I see with DesktopX aesthetics is that it's difficult to match widgets with the variety of WindowBlinds themes available. I'm sure most Konfabulator users don't change the look of OS X, so it's much easier to match widgets with the style of most people.

Urban1

on Aug 14, 2004

I have already said this before but what i most would like to see is something that looks very familiar to konfibulator, such as the weather widget, calender widget or maybe album widget, I would do it myself if i could.

TaoX

on Aug 14, 2004

I would like to see a clip board manager for DX.

adelorme

on Aug 14, 2004

I'd like to see a RSS Reader.

Draginol

on Aug 15, 2004

There are several RSS readers for DesktopX.

GhoS

on Aug 15, 2004

For me I haven't found enough usefulness to use the objects instead of either the real programs or alternatives like ObjectDock.
Perhaps once DX 2.2 is released there might be some more objects worth having, but with my desktop usually covered, I don't find DX something I need running. I realize that the newer version features a hide/un-hide type button and that will certainly help.

Adrenochrome

on Sep 01, 2004

As long as I can get equivalent functionality with a lower memory footprint from tools like Rainmeter, Rainlendar, Sysmetrix, KlipFolio and the like for the widgets I want running on my desktop (system resources, clock, calendar, weather and maybe an RSS feed), I won't run DesktopX. This is despite the fact that I've been an Object Desktop subscriber for two years and a Stardock supporter since the late '90's.) For similar reasons, I don't like IconX (part of DesktopX) because it adds little functionality for the amount of RAM it consumes. Big, animated icons can be fun, but not that much fun. Another thing that bothers me about IconX is that the context menu on objects on an IconX desktop does not bring up the standard explorer shell menu options. It forces me to fish around for access to certain standard shell options not on the IconX-modified context menu. This does not seem like true shell integration (if, indeed, that was ever intended). Let the widget wars begin ...

Draginol

on Sep 01, 2004

You think Rainmeter and Rainlendar or Sysmetrix have a lower memory foot print? Have you ever looked at a widget's memory requirement compared to that of Rainmeter?

Draginol

on Sep 01, 2004

IconX doesn't modify context menus btw.

bmetelsky

on Nov 05, 2004

Desktop X is generally too much for me. I have experimented with widgets out of curiosity but have sadly been dissappointed. They have problems staying where I want them to stay, problems retaining settings (how good is a mail checker widget that requires the user to put the settings in each time it loads), etc.

Welcome Guest! Please take the time to register with us.
There are many great features available to you once you register, including:

Richer content, access to many features that are disabled for guests like commenting on the forums.
Access to a great community, with a massive database of many, many areas of interest.
Access to contests & subscription offers like exclusive emails.
It's simple, and FREE!