Apple Confirms Dashboard is Going Away After 14 Years

[bphendri]

I use it on a daily basis!

I live in a foreign country and it's great for unit and currency conversion on the fly, checking the weather, or quickly making sure I am not calling my friends and family back home at some ungodly hour.

 

[Sam_S]

For you Dashboard lovers out there, you can convert your current widgets to applications using the now unsupported Amnesty Singles utility. Just google it....

Thanks will do this now!

 

[MiamiC70]

14 years and no one used it, good riddance.

 

[terryreid62]

It’s a useful resource. I still use it all the time.

So do I. I use the very quick and handy converter for weight, volume, currency, length several times a day. Not sure what to replace it with it is so handy.

 

[bv36533]

I'll miss the whoopee cushion

 

[ErikGrim]

I have yet to see a single argument for Dashboard (minus the guy with the security camera widget) that can't be as or more easily done with a combination of Spotlight (calculations, conversions, currency), Notification Centre (world clock, calculator, calendar, weather) and putting iStats in the menu bar.

 

[Ankaa]

I have yet to see a single argument for Dashboard (minus the guy with the security camera widget) that can't be as or more easily done with a combination of Spotlight (calculations, conversions, currency), Notification Centre (world clock, calculator, calendar, weather) and putting iStats in the menu bar.

Easy: Sticky notes (yes, I know there is a native app - not even close to being as nice, on top of other things = you need a dedicated space, and you have to have the app open all the time = showing up in the dock = = not as or more easily).

Extra: tab view of the notification center that you can't (to my knowledge) change with gestures.
Extra2: "combination of ... " .... yeah, why have ONE solution with everything in ONE place when you can distribute it over a multitude of different options. This, right there, is what Apple drove into ruin before, what Steve Jobs opposed, and what's currently happening at Apple again, both with hardware and software. Fragmentation.

 

[groove-agent]

And Apple telemetry shows less than 0.1% of total mac user base are actively using it? .

Source for the <0.1% statistic?
[doublepost=1560738006][/doublepost]

Thanks will do this now!

Amnesty will have to output to 64 bit for this to work in Catalina. You might be wasting your time.
[doublepost=1560738038][/doublepost]

14 years and no one used it, good riddance.

Clearly you haven't read posts in this thread at all.
[doublepost=1560738183][/doublepost]I think it might be more long-handed to do all these things in spotlight.

What if you want to refer data from one widget while typing into another widget. Depending on the scenario, you can't do that in spotlight.

I have yet to see a single argument for Dashboard (minus the guy with the security camera widget) that can't be as or more easily done with a combination of Spotlight (calculations, conversions, currency), Notification Centre (world clock, calculator, calendar, weather) and putting iStats in the menu bar.

 

[Shirasaki]

Source for the <0.1% statistic?

I don’t have the source, and 0.1% is a random number. You don’t see me using question mark at the end of this sentence?

 

[zephonic]

I hate this.

Dashboard is an integral part of my computer time. Use it several times a day.

 

[ErikGrim]

Easy: Sticky notes (yes, I know there is a native app - not even close to being as nice, on top of other things = you need a dedicated space, and you have to have the app open all the time = showing up in the dock = = not as or more easily).

Yes, RIP to easy to recall sticky notes. For this I agree.

 

[peter2]

And Apple telemetry shows less than 0.1% of total mac user base are actively using it? We may never know.

Even if your 0.1% were not taken out of your hat, has it ever occurred to you that the more advanced users (who are usually those using less mainstream features of macOS, like dashboard) have telemetry turned off? Certainly I do on 20+ macs I administer over 10+ years... and certainly most of those macs have dashboard used every day (as overlay).

 

[tonesfone]

Bye old friend. I've used it nearly every day since Tiger, and when I read it was disappearing it was a little sad as I still remember the excitement back then during the Tiger keynote. I've moved a few things in to the notifications bar, but I'll miss Dashboard in its overlay mode. It would of been nice if they left it in the OS disabled by default for those of us that still used it daily

Any suggestions for a Notifications area replacement for the Unit Converter?

I use spotlight search for any calculations or conversions.

 

[Shirasaki]

Even if your 0.1% were not taken out of your hat, has it ever occurred to you that the more advanced users (who are usually those using less mainstream features of macOS, like dashboard) have telemetry turned off? Certainly I do on 20+ macs I administer over 10+ years... and certainly most of those macs have dashboard used every day (as overlay).

Ok, so here is the case. Assuming telemetry is turned off, Apple may not have the actual percentage of whether those users are still using dashboard. For other users who leaves the telemetry open, Apple knows they are not using dashboard. What would you expect to happen in this scenario? If I were Apple, I would still trash dashboard. Plus, if dashboard is mostly written in 32bit code, apple’s decision to remove 32bit support (which has far greater impact than removing dashboard) may be the main reason why dashboard is removed. We may never know.

 

[peter2]

Ok, so here is the case. Assuming telemetry is turned off, Apple may not have the actual percentage of whether those users are still using dashboard. For other users who leaves the telemetry open, Apple knows they are not using dashboard. What would you expect to happen in this scenario? If I were Apple, I would still trash dashboard. Plus, if dashboard is mostly written in 32bit code, apple’s decision to remove 32bit support (which has far greater impact than removing dashboard) may be the main reason why dashboard is removed. We may never know.

If I were Apple, I would trash notification center, as it is close to useless on macOS.

 

[CGNY1]

Likewise, I access it multiple times a day for quick thesaurus and dictionary usage while I’m writing, calculator access, weather updates etc. and will definitely be delaying updating. Sad day.

I evoke the dashboard overlay via one of my hot corners dozens of times a day. Stock quotes, weather, measurement conversions, iCal events, June Cloud for shipment updates, Safari web clips etc.... In the past I have always upgraded each new version of os on day one, Catalina may be different, I may have to hold off.

I have ben trying to wean myself off dashboard for the past week but it is a struggle. No app or set of apps will come close to the experience dashboard offers. Physiologically a quick glimpse at the overlay is almost magical as it does not take you out of the current workflow yet manages to provide a quick update on so many different things.

I am astonished that this feature was not utilized by most users. I attribute the downfall to the lack of widget development which I believe was a result of a lack of a real widget store.

Hopefully a developer will come along and fill the void....quickly.

CGNY1

 

[groove-agent]

If I were Apple, I would trash notification center, as it is close to useless on macOS.

Agreed. Notification Center is simply an attempt to mirror an iOS feature on the Mac, much like Launchpad. It's simply not necessary on a computer with a dedicated keyboard and mouse.

 

[ErikGrim]

Dashboard is simply an attempt to mirror an iOS feature on the Mac, much like Launchpad.

Dashboard preceded the launch of the iPhone by three whole years.

 

[jrau13]

Another daily user of this feature and will be hard to break the habit of my hot corner I set up for this.

 

[groove-agent]

Dashboard preceded the launch of the iPhone by three whole years.

Sorry, I meant Notification Centre, not Dashboard. I've edited my post.

 

[AdamMagus]

I still use this daily. I travel for work and having a handy clock, currency, weather, calendar and stock widget on 1 page is one of the reasons I left windows in the first place.

 

[4487549]

I still use this daily. I travel for work and having a handy clock, currency, weather, calendar and stock widget on 1 page is one of the reasons I left windows in the first place.

I have a bunch of world clocks in the Today view. Obviously, weather is there too (multiple apps offer this including Carrot). For currency conversion, I use Spotlight: command+space bar. There are probably some apps that offer a Today view currency converter as well. Hope that helps!

 

[silvertech]

I still use this daily. I travel for work and having a handy clock, currency, weather, calendar and stock widget on 1 page is one of the reasons I left windows in the first place.

You left windows for dashboard lmao. You know everything is in Notification center now

 

[groove-agent]

Since this thread I've been conscious of how many times I use Dashboard. A call comes in and I have to take a quick note, check the calendar, calculate tax, convert to a different currency, set a reminder all while watching the time. I can do all this with a flick into a hot corner and not have to launch anything or juggle windows around. It's going to be a major adjustment when I finally upgrade and lose dashboard.

 

[zephonic]

My widgets:

Dictionary
Currency Converter
Unit Converter (as a European expat in the US this is invaluable)
Calculator
6 World Clocks (LA, Amsterdam, Nairobi, Jakarta, Taipei, Paramaribo)
2 Weather (LA and Amsterdam, but these already stopped working)
Calendar
And a bunch of Sticky Notes

And I used to have Sudoku in there. It’ll be a sad day when Dashboard goes. It's ridiculously good with the touchpad, four-finger swipe left to get in, four-finger swipe right to get out. Maybe we should petition Apple to bring it back in Catalina 10.15.2?