Google Releases Desktop Gadgets For Linux

mstrom writes "Google announced it has ported its Google Desktop Gadgets platform to Linux, making it the first cross-platform [desktop] gadgets framework. In a sign that Google is fully embracing the open source model, it admits the product is not feature-complete and has opened up the code base hosted on Google Code 'to give everyone a chance to tinker with the code powering the gadgets.' According to Google: "Gadget support is not just a single feature, but rather an entire platform for miniature applications.'"

Google gadgets?

[Yetihehe]

How much search bars and adboxes do one need on a desktop?

Konfabulator?

[PainMeds]

making it the first cross-platform [desktop] gadgets framework

Wasn't Konfabulator the first? It supported both Mac and Windows, and was the tool of choice until Apple decided to release the Dashboard.

Gagdets, Widgets, etc.

[MistrBlank]

Do people really use them? I don't use any of the widgets on my Mac OSX system. I sort of used the calculator, but do I really need one in the background all the time? On Vista I shut down the sidebar, what a huge waste of resources. And why do I need a clock gadget when there's one already in the system tray? This just seems like a gimmick to waste collective time.

Re:Gagdets, Widgets, etc.

[Chyeld]

I don't use the Google versions, but I do have Confabulator/Yahoo! Widgets installed and do actually USE some of the widgets for more than eyecandy.

Granted 90% of the widgets out there are useless, and the other 10% probably have alternatives to them that don't involve running in a widget engine. But the fact that there are other ways to skin the cat doesn't immediately invalidate the way you prefer.

That said, when I'm expecting to do heavy duty work that will probably peg the resourse on my aging computer, the first thing that dies is this.

Re:Gagdets, Widgets, etc.

[qoncept]

There are a whole bunch of things that make you think they'd be useful. "Oh man, that would be so cool if only I [insert something you don't do, and realize that even then it probably wouldn't be very useful]." I used it for a while, mostly for the weather and and to keep an eye on my network activity. Huge waste of space and now that I'm in Linux there are much better options.

For the most part, you get blocks that staticly show one unimportant thing, or tickers. Tickers aren't convenient. You have to wait to see what you are interested in, or actively watch it. If you're going to actively watch it, you might as well visit whatever site the RSS feed is coming from.

Not sure about licensing (Qt is GPL)

[hubert.lepicki]

Hi all, I am not sure if they are not breaking rules of GPL. Of course, I don't think this is intentional - but if their gadgets use Qt - they should be released under the terms of GPL and not Apache Software License 2.0. Quick browsing their code repository shows that even files that require Qt headers have Apache license header - not a GPL one. Does anyone know if this stuff is legally possible? I'm not accusing Google of anything, I'm really happy that they released it and I'm building this software right now. I just think the legal stuff is really important.

Re:Google gadgets?

[Hatta]

But we already have tons of dock apps [dockapps.org] that work with just about any window manager. Why is Google reinventing the wheel here?

Java 6u10 (beta) came first

[Nicopa]

This new release rewrites the plugin used to provide applet support to browsers. One of the new features is the ability of dragging an applet to the desktop, and the applet would stat there. It's really simple and it's very cool. This is coupled with the newly added support for abitrarily shaped applets.

Sun is trying to revitalize applets. There's no reason a Java applet should be slower than flash, and the language is much more powerful.