Developer calls Apple's Tiger a copycat: Arlo Rose is outra...

[MacBytes]

Category: 3rd Party Software
Link: Developer calls Apple\'s Tiger a copycat: Arlo Rose is outraged that Apple\'s Dashboard is so similar to his Konfabulator (http://www.macbytes.com/link.php?sid=20040628194840)
Posted on MacBytes.com (http://www.macbytes.com)

Approved by Mudbug

[ALoLA]

A negative slant from CNet. Who knew? :rolleyes: As for widgets in NeXTStep, if true, then Apple had the technology long before this Konfabulator thing. I haven't seen it, so I have no idea what it is though. In any case, if there is something good out there for OS X, better to incorporate it than to be held hostage by a third-party. :)

[davecuse]

In all fairness to Arlo, the idea looks almost identical. I like konfabulator a lot, and if I were in his position I would think it's pretty bogus too. At the very least they could kick him some money for the intellectual property rights. Let's be honest who is going to buy konfabulator when the same thing is built into your OS, he just released a new version too. There goes his livelihood.

I wish the best for the guy, because he got a pretty raw deal. Hopefully he has another idea up his sleeve for a great new product that Apple can eventually copy. In his own words, "Cupertino, start your photocopiers".

Lame.

[Sun Baked]

It's his choice, he can either redo Konfabulator to work with Dashboard -- while providing superior widgets or die.

Some of Apple's widgets/rudimentary applications tend to stay around forever with little if any change (some of the stuff pre-OS X like calculator changed little, and some of the NeXT stuff just got a facelift.)

If he provides superior widgets that provide the extra functionality, he may still be in the game -- or not.

[ALoLA]

After looking at Konfabulator's site, I'm afraid it does look awfully similar to what Dashboard is doing. I wonder if there is some significant difference in the way Dashboard works? Also, I still haven't heard from those in the know about whether NeXTStep already had this widget concept or not. It wouldn't surprise me if it did, though. I remember back in the early days of using X-Windows, that there were little apps like this accessible from a context menu on the desktop. But, Konfabulator does put all this in a nice package in OS X. I guess Apple should at least give some acknowledgement.

[bousozoku]

It's a good thing that he didn't borrow anything to make Konfabulator work. :rolleyes:

http://www.latenightsw.com/freeware/JavaScriptOSA/ was available prior to his work. I wonder if he's as clean and innocent as he would have others believe.

Still, it's hard to take when you're no longer an exclusive. Good luck to him.

[NAG]

I don't understand why people are treating it like konfabulator invented the wheel.

[Sun Baked]

I don't understand why people are treating it like konfabulator invented the wheel.Personally I think the guy is spend all his time getting mad instead of figuring out Dashboard.

Basically somebody else will probably replace him.

[gerardrj]

People... Konfabulator is nothing but a glitzy version of Desk Accessories that Apple introduced back in system 6 or perhaps earlier. Alarm clock, notepad, puzzle, calculator... all of these were Desk Accessories.

MultiFinder came along and made the concept of these dedicated desk accessories unnecessary, they could now just as easily be full on apps.

OS X has had widgets in the dock(docklings) and toolbar, but not the desktop. Arlo left apple and decided to fill that niche, using all of Apple's previous ideas.

Now Apple has brought back desk accessories with full OS X graphics and calls it "Dashboard".

Now... who's ripping off who?

[wdlove]

In technology today, its a must to continually update or perish. I also wish the best for arlo.

[nacl99]

Did someone spill some milk?

[space2go]

Did someone spill some milk?
I'd rather say it was this:
http://www.feisar.de/stuff/breakingnews.jpg

[ChrisH3677]

Ironically, Arlo's partner in K, Perry, has taken it quite well and is looking at all the positives.

[killmoms]

Arlo has two choices: he can adapt or die. He can sit around and bitch and moan about his stolen idea being stolen back, or he can change his plans.

Think about it: there are people who won't upgrade to Tiger immediately, so they'll still need Konfabulator. For the people who DO upgrade, HERE'S a guy with lots of real world widget building experience! Start building really high-quality widgets for Dashboard, maybe sell them for a couple bucks a pop. I'd be much more inclined to buy a set of useful, pretty widgets powered by a VERY well programmed set of underlying OS-level technologies that I would Arlo's current buggy, resource-hogging Konfabulator.

Adapt or die.

--Cless

[FattyMembrane]

The good
Konfabulator can't take credit for the whole idea of "widgets". as others have mentioned, desk accessories were around long before macs even had color screens. check out a side-by-side (http://fattymembrane.250free.com/compare.jpg) comparison and it's rather obvious the idea was there. there's a calculator, a puzzle game, a clock, a calendar, volume control (the 1984 equivalent of an itunes remote), and a notepad (replaced by stickies, which apple did buy from a 3rd party developer). and let's not forget the wonderful dockling technology that apple killed in 10.2. these were small apps that ran in the dock and provided weather, stock quotes, news headlines, clocks, cd players, etc.

The bad
Dashboard looks exactly like Konfabulator. some of this is to be expected, after all, K modeled itself to look like the aqua environment, so in a way, it was using the look of the os. The apps are called widgets. K really coined this term as it applies to these little gui doo-dads and using the same name only makes it look like more of a rip off. The widgets are coded in javascript, which is the same framework that K uses, so it's quite obvious that apple lifted the implementation from arlo and perry. apple should have done an applescript/f-script/php/etc. implementation as it would not only have provided more power than javascript, but would also differentiate it from K.

[ChrisH3677]

As long as Dashboard doesn't support "Always visible" widgets, then K has a future.

[drizahy4]

I just have a question not to sound funny but in all seriousness.
When sherlock came out it was basically a dirrect copy of watson. Was there a huge deal about it back then?
I can't remember.

Arlo thanks for the work you put into Konfabulator. some say in this post that they stole it back but the fact of the matter is you brought it to us way before 'tiger' and for that im grateful.

[Rower_CPU]

I just have a question not to sound funny but in all seriousness.
When sherlock came out it was basically a dirrect copy of watson. Was there a huge deal about it back then?
I can't remember.
....

Apple came out with Sherlock as a minimal local search engine with some channels to do some web searching, too. Watson came out, spinning off of the Sherlock name, and added more web channels. Apple updated Sherlock to include some of Watson's channels and people started crying bloody murder.