Dashboard a Ripoff? Boycott Apple?
The images of the new OS X feature “Dashboard” have prompted more than one compairison to Konfabulator, and some people are pretty pissed off about it - even looking for a boycot of Apple. Russell Beattie says:
It’s very simple. Support your fellow
developer or watch as the next application Apple copies wholesale is yours. They’ve done it to Adobe, they’ve done it
to Watson, they’ve done it to OmniWeb and now they’re doing it to Konfabulator. I’m a wanna be switcher and a
Jobs-devotee and if you’ve been reading this weblog for any amount of time you know I normally never miss a keynote
once it’s available online, but this time I don’t have the stomache to bother watching it. This is the biggest ripoff
ever.
I think in the past I’ve seen some justification for Apple’s infringing on third party developers. I think we’ve all done that - things that “should” be part of the OS and make wholistic sense, well, we’ll give Apple some leeway. A menu widget or extensions to Sherlock. Okay. A web browser? Why not. Even Brent saw the practicality in adding RSS to Safari, no? RSS is getting more popular every day, it’s only a matter of time before Apple and Microsoft add it in.
But copying the JavaScript-enabled Desktop Widgets? Nonononono. That’s not right. I remember when I first read about Konfabulator about a year ago I was amazed at how cool the app was and how ingenious it was as well. We *all* love elegant, simple to expand solutions like Konfabulator. But vital to the Mac OS? No. Not in any respect. For Apple to copy Konfabulator like they did is just stealing. Not “Great Artist” stealing like what Jobs did at PARC, just plain outright idea theft. A common robbery. A mugging.
And he’s not the only one - Marc Cantor and Scoble are pissed as well, on the other hand, Jason DeFillippo thinks people should calm down:
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Pat said 4:16PM on 6-16-2005
Caught this http://www.xpthemes.com/forums.asp?MID=19&CMID=19&AID=4472 in the comments on Russ' post. Seems like Konfabulator wasn't the first kid on the block either...
Rip. Mix. Burn.
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Mike said 4:16PM on 6-16-2005
I can't believe the stink surrounding this "incident". I wonder how the many developers of WindowMaker plugins felt when Konfabulator came up with their widgets.
Wait. I wonder how the people at NeXT felt when WindowMaker duplicated their little dockling widgets.
Wait. I wonder how BeOS developers felt when the folks at QNX built little mini-apps into their OS.
Oh, hold on... I wonder how Serence felt when they saw some of the Konfabulator RSS newsfeed widgets! With TRANSPARENCY and everything. Oh... and don't forget Javascript, which Klipfolio (the Serence product) uses as a script language.
Suffice it to say, little mini floaty desktop apps have been around for *years*. Sure, Konfabulator made them "popular" under OS X. But this stuff has been in a number of X11 window managers in Unix, easily for the past decade. Then you have to take into account things like Desktop X, and Klipfolio under Windows ... and really, does the Konfabulator team have a right to claim "Apple stole our idea"?
Kettle meet pot. Move along.
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James Mohler said 4:16PM on 6-16-2005
I just bought a copy of Konfabulator. It really is cool AND I don't have to wait 6 months to a year to get it.
If anything Apple just unsold me on 10.4 and convinced me to get a third party tool instead.
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Sunny said 4:16PM on 6-16-2005
Boycott Apple?! Now they are really dead. ;-)
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~bc said 4:16PM on 6-16-2005
How far do you want to go back for lil apps? October 1981?
http://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?project=Macintosh&story=Desk_Ornaments.txt
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TimD said 4:16PM on 6-16-2005
I use Konfabulator and quite like it althought on a 12" powerbook things can get in the way. If they really want to go down the line fo claming "theft" then the Rose and Perry should also look inside at their own "Konspos?feature. These are Java apps for crissakes, that's all.
James - if Dashboard was your sole reason for upgrading to 10.4 (when it ships) then that's pretty sad. Core Image/Video, Spotlight and full 64 bit processing strike me as more important aspects. I'll use Dashboard as I like the way it gets out of the way when not required.... a function of the fantastic rendering that OS X can do...but it's not what I consider to be crucial to 10.4...
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David Stutler said 4:16PM on 6-16-2005
Arlo Rose made the following comment -"When I saw Apple's banners saying, 'Redmond, start your photocopiers' I thought that was the creepiest thing they could have done knowing that half of the technologies they are tossing into Tiger are things they lifted from other people."
Can he be serious? Half of the technologies! Core Video - Core Image ... it's called innovation. This crybaby mentality is out of control.
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Mark Baker said 2:10PM on 10-05-2005
... is to be copied by Apple/Microsoft and incorporated into the OS. Some will get lucky and be paid for their ripoffs, some won't.
Having said that, its not like Konfab can't survive and be better for it. How many web browsers are there? How many email applications? There are many, many applications that basically do the same thing as bundled apps, only much better and in a more customisable way. Konfab will be the same. Apple providing their own version of Konfab isn't going to kill it off, it may even introduce more people to the idea.
What's the alternative, really? Patenting the idea? We all know how that ends...
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Collin said 4:16PM on 6-16-2005
The Konfabulator guys have reason to be angry, but quite honestly, Apple's implementation is much better. I installed Konfabulator not too long ago, played with it for around 10 or 15 minutes, then chucked it. Not worth my time. The Dashboard, however, is quite convenient.
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G2 said 6:44PM on 8-26-2005
I had to check the site folklore.org to make sure I had my facts right before entering this. Didn't Apple come up with this whole idea way back in Oct. 1981? They called them Desk Ornaments. Who is copying who? I like it when a software author takes what the OS folks do and fine tune it to our needs. But to say they came up with the idea would not be true.
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RVH said 4:16PM on 6-16-2005
The only reason the Konfab guys are complaining is now they have to make their product better. Ain't competition a bitch...and the consumer will be better for it.
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anthony said 4:16PM on 6-16-2005
I tried Konfabulator once, but when I opened it up the next time it said to pay.
Nothin'doin I said: Its cool, but I'm not gonna pay just to have an uptime clock or a stock checker. these are things I already have! Running all of the seperate apps together would probably use less system resources than Konfabulator too.
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Dave said 4:16PM on 6-16-2005
How about a Konfabulator boycott for lying about how they invented this idea and Apple stole it. Taking credit for others work is just about as low as it gets. Bye bye.
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David Stutler said 4:16PM on 6-16-2005
I agree with Dave.
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TimD said 4:16PM on 6-16-2005
Anyone notice on the Apple site that the Tiger Preview contains not a single image of a Finder window.....
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James Mohler said 4:16PM on 6-16-2005
Point: James - if Dashboard was your sole reason for upgrading to 10.4 (when it ships) then that's pretty sad. Core Image/Video, Spotlight and full 64 bit processing strike me as more important aspects.
Counterpoint: I run a G4. There goes 64bit. I would spend $2K on an additional 23' monitor.
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jeremy said 4:16PM on 6-16-2005
in case you haven't seen it, john gruber over at daringfireball pretty much slammed any arguments you may have about apple ripping off konfab:
http://daringfireball.net/2004/06/dashboard_vs_konfabulator
...arlo and company need to get back to the drawing board and start innovating again. and didn't they just add "konspos?in the new update, effectively borrowing expos?or their own product? who is ripping off who?
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TimD said 4:16PM on 6-16-2005
Kames - I use a G4 too. There's plenty more in Tiger besides Dashboard - although I think it will be truly useful. More useful than Konfabulator. I read the John Gruber page and he makes a very valid point about memory usage of Konfabulator as well as the history behind widgets/gadgets/ornaments... I opened Process Viewer and running 4 widgets it using 27.5 Mb of real memory and 550 Mb virtual memory.. That's pretty steep.
The greater optimisation in Tiger should make it run faster on all systems - not just G5s, so I think it will be worth the $129 upgrade...
I too want a 23" monitor!! Best of luck...
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Nils said 7:20AM on 11-05-2005
Konfabulator did not come up with the idea, it's ANCIENT. Hell, even Windows has had soemthing similar with the active desktop. They should stop whining! They certainly lost me as a potential user with their shitty attitude. And Russell should make a public apology to Apple. God, is he pathetic! Boycott Apple? For what? Because Russell is too stupid to get his facts straight? Go back to kindergarten where you belong.
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