Mac OS X Tiger and Other Mac News
The first and most major news of this fine Monday is Apple’s preview of the next revision of Mac OS X, code-named Tiger. Apple’s introduced some very provocative new features, all of which are documented (albeit informally) at their Tiger preview site.
The first feature to catch my eye was Spotlight. Based upon Apple’s new Metadata-based search technology, Spotlight brings live search to not just the file system or Mail atomically, it allows for system wide searching of many services including Mail’s messages, contacts, calendar entries, the filesystem, etc. all at the same time. Very cool. However, following a disturbing trend that Apple is perpetuating, Spotlight also very closely resembles one of my favorite pieces of software, LaunchBar. Live searching across multiple data types is what LaunchBar excels at (especially the upcoming 4.0 version which has many, many file types and databases integrated into its own search engine).
Another interesting feature is Dashboard. I saw it and immediately thought, “This looks really familiar.” This is yet another instance of Apple’s new trend of ripping off developers, only this is even more blatant than Spotlight or say Watson. Spotlight has a resemblance to an existing product. Sherlock 3 was a rip-off of Watson, with a more flexible extensible implementation (using XML). Dashboard is a carbon copy, right down the fact that its components are called Widgets and are implemented in JavaScript, just like Konfabulator. This has incited Arlo Rose, one of its main developers to bash Apple for ripping him off. I feel this is completely justified and continued theft of shareware ideas will only completely alienate Mac OS X’s rich shareware community. There was a time when Apple integrated these products into the OS by hiring the developers (such as SuperClock’s developer). Apple set a dangerous precedent with Sherlock 3. It’s now just playing with fire.
Speaking of Watson, its creator, Dan Wood, has announced that Watson has been essentially bought out and all support will end October 5th. I hope the company offering the new product offer it with a huge discount (or possibly free) to existing Watson users because I bought Watson only a few months ago and getting less than a years with of maintenance support (Watson’s back end won’t be updated after Oct. 5th to reflect changes in source websites, effectively breaking modules) is beyond poor. It’s piss poor and unprofessional. Paid users deserve several years of support. Every major software company follows this practice and Dan Wood will remain small potatoes if he doesn’t follow suit.
That’s all for today!
Edit: Adding link to debate at Maccentral about Konfabulator and Dashboard.
Hey Derik,
I was interested to read what your opinions were in regards to Dashboard. I personally don’t see it as stealing the idea. I’m not well versed in the development of these kinds of apps, but I did read around, and found out that the concept of Konfabulator isn’t original to begin with. The idea can be traced all the way back to the original Mac OS (if I’m not mistaken), and they were called Desktop Accessories. A number of these have also existed on the Windows side of things long before Konfabulator. My point is that even though Konfabulator is a great app, it never was original to begin with. Widgets could also be just as generic as the word Icons, I think. Anyway, I think Dashboard is actually a lot different from Konfabulator in that its job is the exact opposite of K. Konfabulator is meant to be always present on your desktop, while Dashboard keeps these Widgets hidden, and only brings them forward when triggered. I think their respected functions differ greatly because of this.
Anyway, just thought I put my 0.02;)
Desk Accessories weren’t too similar. They were essentially mini applications and Apple eventually came to grips with this when they were promoted to full applications.
Konfabulator’s latest version (which did come out before the debut of Dashboard) still displays on the desktop, but also allows you to bring them to the front by pressing F8 (and I think it also dims everything else on the screen (a la Expose).
The language used to implement widgets is also fairly important. The fact that it uses the same exact one (JavaScript) speaks volumes about Dashboard being modeled after it.
I didn’t say it wasn’t modeled after it, I just said the functions aren’t the same thing. Konfabulator is without a doubt the inspiration to Dashboard, I just don’t think it’s stealing.
Well, you and I will have to agree to disagree. You’re not alone by any stretch of the imagination. I’m amending my entry to list a link to a recent Maccentral article filled with debate about this issue.
Interesting article. I found this other equally interesting article, and I thought you might want to check it out.
http://daringfireball.net/2004/06/dashboardvskonfabulator