Done with Dashboard: Back to Konfabulator

Wow, you all didnt realize that all you have to do is open the dashboard menu bar at the bottom, start dragging a widget onto the desktop and hit f12....no need to do anything with terminal.

I agree that the dashboard is not as usuable as it could be. So I wrote a Screensaver that uses the dashboard. Therefore, when my computer screensaver comes on (after the set amount of time), the dashboard is activated and the desktop hidden. Now, whenever I'm not actively using my computer, or walk up to it, the dashboard is automatically visible. I now use the dashboard really frequently by seeing weather, email count, news items,etc. The program is DashSaver and is available on my website.

djones: so your main argument is that people don't like it because it's "sloppy" to have the Dashboard code loaded when they don't need to? Dashboard is not tied to the OS, it's like any other application running WebKit, it is tied to the Dock, being a sub-process of it. It is a sub-process to avoid duplicating resources with the Dock, which has special routines to move around and distort windows. What you don't seem to know is that the virtual memory scheme is OS X won't load the Dashboard sub-process in RAM until it's needed, even if it's part of the Dock process. Also, the extra code for DashBoard is actually small, the bulk of what makes Widgets is WebKit, which is used by Safari and other things in the OS. Remember, this is not OS 9... programs can grow and shrink their memory and CPU usage based on what is needed. Dashboard doesn't "reserve" any RAM for widgets.

I use both. Dashboard: Dictionary/Thesaurus and Countdown (because I don't need them until I evoke them at the touch of a keystroke) Konfabulator: Picture Frame, Waste Basket, and iTunes Bar + Sing That Tune (because I prefer them to be available on my desktop) I especially like the fact that Konfab's widgets float on my second monitor.

And so we see Konfabulator begin its transformation into an advertising delivery vehicle...

After downloading Dasher, a great dashboard utility, I have found Dashboard as a productive screensaver that displays my iCal Events, Metro Alerts and local traffic info after a few minutes of idle. You can find it here: http://www.splasm.com/products/productdasher.html

I need a nap. O/S instead of just "OS"? I think I've been reading too many "O/S 2 Warp is Finally Dead" articles.

"How is Dashboard a waste of resources? Maybe I don't know what I should be looking for, but when I check Activity Monitor I don't see dashboard slowing me down... Most widgets - if properly made - don't use any CPU when Dashboard is not active...." Activity Monitor is not a good indication of memory usage of background applications. It's not reporting what's being used, only what's reserved should the application execute something or need focus. The problem, though, is that there is no such thing as zero-impact code. The fact that Dashboard code is tied to the O/S is what people are having issue with. They argue that since they don't like it, it's sloppy on their systems to even have the code loaded, tied to the Dock process, instead of just being a standalone Apple application with identical functionality. There is a theoretical performance decrease by having it tied to the O/S. The realworld, though, is that if you have no widgets and/or only widgets that are not authorized to run shell commands, there is never anything circulating through memory. Only on a Dashboard event being invoked does anything step in. Other than that, it's very similar to being another line in a Select statement of an event handler. Which, if Apple wants to give users the option of not running Dashboard, and there's no reason not to, it's a sloppy solution, and there are more environment friendly and responsible programmatic methods that could have been used.

Whenever I am trying to maximize my CPU power and minimize my memory usage I simply turn off Dashboard with DashOnOff. It is a preference pane item which works just fine. It can be downloaded here: http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/18261,performance

On my 12" Powerbook I use the same 2 widgets you do, weather and picture frame. Though mine is tied to my actual Flickr account. I use Synergy and CalendarClock so there's no need for an iTunes controller or calendar widget. At work I have a dual monitor setup with plenty of real estate, so I have a few more widgets up and running. Always on my desktop: Weather, Picture Frame, Digital Clock, Desk Calendar, and SubtleTunes to control iTunes. Then on Konspose only I have PIM Overview, Stock Ticker, and Pagerank going.