A few points to note up front:
- I’m referring to standalone dedicated applications that are used in desktop OSes and not smartphones.
- Whether you call it a gadget or a widget, it’s the same thing.
- This is not OS-specific. Microsoft Windows has ‘em, Apple Mac OS X has ‘em and Linux (specifically KDE) has ‘em. For the Windows that doesn’t have ‘em (pre-Vista), there’s Yahoo! Widgets and Google Desktop.
- A desktop gadget is distinctively different from a web-based gadget in the respect a desktop gadget is actual software that runs locally on your computer – even if it polls its information from the Internet.
I am of the opinion that desktop gadgets are worthless mainly because for whatever they can do, the web itself can do better and more efficiently.
Two of the most popular desktop gadgets I see people using are the analog clock and simple weather reports – with emphasis on simple.
The analog clock gadget other than for aesthetic value is worthless because a) You’re using it on a fundamentally digital medium and b) You already have a clock in your taskbar/panel/menu bar.
The weather gadget is worthless because it cannot display everything you need to know that’s important (keyword there) in a single view. If for example I bookmark Tampa, Florida on Weather Underground, this tells me everything I need to know without even having to scroll past the first page. Temperature, humidity, heat index, wind direction and speed, five-day forecast and any weather advisories. In addition, leaving that web page loaded auto-refreshes itself every few minutes. I can’t get that all that information in a weather gadget without having to pile through menus or tabs. And yes, the fact I’d have to pile through menus and tabs is annoying because it shouldn’t be required.
Yes, I know, I’m seriously raking desktop gadgets over the coals here, but I honestly question whether they’re actually useful or not. Stylish and "cool", yes, but useful?
My question to you, the reader, is this:
What desktop gadgets do you use, if any, and why do you use them? Don’t worry, I won’t chastise anyone that does use them. I’m asking just to see if anyone finds any real value in having those little mini-apps on the desktop. When I see gadgets, I see Microsoft Bob, but you may see something different, and if so, feel free to explain why you think they’re useful because I can’t think of any good reason to have them.
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I generally find most widgets useless. There are three I do like to have on my desktop though; the widget that shows CPU usage, the widget that shows HD space used/free, and the widget that shows RAM usage. Yes, all of these can be viewed with one or two clicks in much more detail given by the widgets but I like to have it available quickly from my desktop as well.
I pretty much find them useless myself. I once tried Yahoo's widgets and the only one I found useful and cool was a radio widget. I don't use them at all though at the moment.
I like em…
I use Desktop Sidebar (an oldie, but goodie). Highly customizable. I especially like the e-mail plugin, quick shutdown buttons, and the stock ticker.
I only recently installed a couple of Widgets on my screen. My 25″ monitor leaves plenty of space so I keep my browser sized just to the edge of the widgets. I have the geeky CPU/Network monitoring ones and the weather for the quick glance once in a while.
Do I need them? Probably not, but I like to see what's going on in the box.
Anthony Russo
http://www.anthonyrussoblog.com/Anthony
Skype: anth.russo
Twitter: @AnthonyRusso
I use System Monitor II by Igor Bushin (Igogo), available from MS. It displays Ram usage, CPU usage (for each core), clock speed and multiplier, and when core temp is running in the background, CPU temp (for each core). I've been watching it to see which Autodesk software is taxing my workstation the most, and to get a loose understanding of why. Since I upgraded to 8GB RAM, that's never an issue. But software like Revit constantly uses 90% of core 2, while leaving the other 3 at less than 10%. It seems fairly evident that this software was not designed to use multiple cores (except when rendering), and that I may get better performance out of a dual core at a higher clock speed. I like leaving it up so when my system slows down, I can look at the widget and see if my PC is being sluggish, or if I'm just getting lag from the server or the net.
Well there is big difference between gadgets/widgets that Windows and Mac OS have and KDE Plasma Widgets. While in Windows and Mac OS they are mostly just an add-on to the normal old desktop (similarly to how theey have only been an add-on in KDE 3.5 a few years ago), in KDE 4 desktop is actually built out of those gadgets/widgets (they call them Plasmoids). So they are like LEGO bricks from which anyone can build their own desktop configuration. This makes them quite important and actually indispensable in KDE 4 and there would actually be no desktop without them.
The way gadgets work between OSes is drastically different and that is true, but what I was asking is whether people like yourself find any real value in using them – no matter how good the engine may be.
I agree with you, for the most part they're just window dressing (pun intended).
I have the weather, calendar, and system monitors. I could live without them all. However, on Windows 7, I must have the 7 sidebar plus App Launcher. As I wrote for this blog once, these are replacements for me in the line of Office Shortcut bar, Quick launch, etc.
I really think MS made an error in 7 making the gadgets desktop only, vs being able to dock them to the side. On a widescreen monitor, there's plenty of room to have these gadgets always available, where they can be more useful than eating CPU cycles hidden on the desktop.
I like the Weather Network Gadget for a quick look at the temps and such and I love my Garfield and Dilbert of the day Gadgets for a quick chuckle
Thanks for sharing this information.
I like 'Qlock' very much as I can tell what time it is at my friends locations—on & off with a kick of the mouse.
I use the CPU monitor on my laptop, kinda for the same reason as Kidd, just to see if i have lag from processes or from the network
The widgets/gadgets that have offline functionality (bad move Google, killing Gears) are very useful. This is especially true for laptop users who are often between data access points.
I like the WeatherMAN gadget that gets its information from the WeatherChannel. I like that it is tailored for my town and whein I hover my mouse over it I do get an aweful lot of useful, accurate information in a small, easily readable area. And the radar image it uses is really good compared to the one I had been using.
The real value of gadgets or widgets or plasmoids or whatever you call them is in the eye of the beholder, just as most of the software suggested in PCMech newsletters are. I use a CPU usage gadget that in most cases serves as a nice set of flashing bar graphs. I probably wouldn't use any if Windows 7 went back to having a taskbar with quicklaunch and background programs that reside in the system tray like xp/vista did.