Anybody using KONFABULATOR? NOW FREE! Read Post #19

Ronald Epstein · 02-14-2005, 07:28 AM

What is Konfabulator?

This month's MaximumPC magazine
has an in-depth look at this new program
that puts customized information "widgets"
all over your desktop.

The website is right here

This thing looks incredible -- and, from
what has been reported, you can run loads
of these things all over your desktop at
once and it uses a tiny fraction of your
CPU and memory.

Go to the gallery and look at the dozens
of small applications you can place on your
desktop -- from utilities to games to app
extensions.

I'm going to start playing around with this
later today and most likely will register it
by week's end.

Just wondering if anyone else has been using
this and what they think.

...of course, I highly expect this thread to
produce many curiosity seekers like myself to
try it out as well.

Lee Scoggins · 02-14-2005, 08:39 AM

Thanks for the heads up Ron. I think I may add this to my ThinkPad.

It is also worthwhile to note that many of these types of widgets will soon be Apple's Mac OS X Tiger system. Anyone on that format can see them in action in Steve Job's 2 hour keynote address at MacWorld on Apple's site.

Update: Wow. Looks like Konfabulator has it for the Mac as well.

Joseph S · 02-14-2005, 10:06 AM

Quote:

Wow. Looks like Konfabulator has it for the Mac as well.

It's from the same guy that wrote the Aaron extension and Kaleidoscope theme cp/extensions for OS 8 and 9. Around that time he did this on the side while working for Apple. Konfabulator was Mac only until OS X Tiger was demoed last year containing "Dashboard" which does the same thing as Konfabulator integrated into the system. He threw a fit and released it for PC as "protest."

SteveLa · 02-14-2005, 11:03 AM

Dashboard

Darryl · 02-14-2005, 12:22 PM

Look a lot like DesktopX (www.desktopx.net, which has about 1800 different objects, widgets, and themes available (www.wincustomize.com). It's very cool. You can even build and script your own behavior.

**HTF Ads**

Ronald Epstein · 02-14-2005, 12:28 PM

Darryl,

At a quick glance, can you see which
program might be better?

I quickly looked at the DesktopX widgets
and they didn't seem to be as good as the
Konfabulator ones.

On the other hand, you may have more
experience with DesktopX, and thus, a
better opinion on all of this.

Thanks

Dave Gilbert · 02-14-2005, 12:31 PM

I use Konfabulator for Windows, and I love it.

I currently have widgets which show me the weather at home and at work (1.5 hr drive from each other, so the weather does vary

), a calendar, a picture frame that refreshes every 15 minutes, and a GMail notifier. There are tons available, and most are cross-platform.

Travis Olson · 02-14-2005, 01:53 PM

Nice little program.

Darryl · 02-14-2005, 02:33 PM

I've never used Konfabulator, so I can't really compare. They just came out with a new version of DesktopX which I haven't tried, so I'm not an authority there either. But version 2 is very cool. Here are some features that I appreciate; I don't know how they compare to Konfabulator at all:

You can create your own objects. You have total control over how they look and behave.
You can use COM objects and ActiveX controls natively. As you script your objects' behavior and appearance, that gives you a ton of flexibility while allowing you to leverage existing capability. Embedding a web browser as part of your wallpaper is cake. Coding a widget which reads and displays appointments from my outlook calendar is effortless.
There are several full "desktops" available (collections of objects, widgets, and wallpaper, changing the whole look and feel of the UI, like WindowBlinds gone extreme)

Another thing that some people might like about DesktopX is that there is a $15 "client" version, which lets you use other people's objects and widgets but doesn't let you create your own. I like DesktopX precisely because I CAN code my own, with very few limits, but if that's not your thing there's a cheap version just for you.

Konfabulator might be better than DesktopX. I really have no idea. I'm gonna check it out. Thanks for the link Ronald.