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konfab not hitting potential
- Thread starter mnkeybsness
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RBMaraman
macrumors 65816
After reading all these posts, I have a few comments:
1. If you don't like the program, DON'T DOWNLOAD IT! Stop whining! If you don't like it, that's fine. Just don't b*tch about how YOU think it's bad.
2. I really like Konfabulator, and I think it's got a ton of potential. I had no problem forking over my $25. If the money helps them build a better and more useful program, great! That's exactly what I want.
3. The developers made this program to make money! If you don't like it, go write your own version. I get so pissed when people try to get something for free. Money is a huge part of life, DEAL WITH IT!
4. The developers are still writing widgets, so it's not like ONLY the users are writing the add-on's. Have you ever written anything in AppleScript? Have you ever used Terminal? OH MY GOD! You paid Apple for their software, and then you dared to use there programs to write something for yourself?! Come on people! Konfabulator is the same thing. Consider it a mini-OS, and the widgets are like free-ware. Somebody is paying the cost, and I don't mind supporting it.
1. If you don't like the program, DON'T DOWNLOAD IT! Stop whining! If you don't like it, that's fine. Just don't b*tch about how YOU think it's bad.
2. I really like Konfabulator, and I think it's got a ton of potential. I had no problem forking over my $25. If the money helps them build a better and more useful program, great! That's exactly what I want.
3. The developers made this program to make money! If you don't like it, go write your own version. I get so pissed when people try to get something for free. Money is a huge part of life, DEAL WITH IT!
4. The developers are still writing widgets, so it's not like ONLY the users are writing the add-on's. Have you ever written anything in AppleScript? Have you ever used Terminal? OH MY GOD! You paid Apple for their software, and then you dared to use there programs to write something for yourself?! Come on people! Konfabulator is the same thing. Consider it a mini-OS, and the widgets are like free-ware. Somebody is paying the cost, and I don't mind supporting it.
janey
macrumors 603
but you're talking about APPLE products. We wouldn't be b*tching about Apple products. It's the actual act of hyping Konfab and not delivering a "good" product when it comes out that makes me pissed. Anyone could just make anything like konfab and give it out for free...how possibly hard is it supposed to be to make something as dumb as konfab-and i dislike it so much right now that I deleted it. Happy?!
springscansing
macrumors 6502a
I agree with mnkeybsness and AmbitiousLemon. Konfabulator is a piece of junk. You pay 25 dollars to either make something yourself (duh), or hope that in the future someone else makes something that isn't a clock. I for one am not going to pay 25 dollars for nagware. Not to mention, immediately after installing Konfabulator, I received my first kernal panic ever under Jaguar. Lovely.
This software was hyped WAY too much, and only have about 1/10th the functionality that it was originally supposed to. Virtually every useful feature was dropped, even text fields. How inept are these programmers that they could not give us text fields? Would this seriously of taken months?
What turns me off the most is that it was hyped so much, then they sock you with a very high free for shareware (25 dollars!!), and then you download it and it doesn't even do ANYTHING useful. Not even anything pretty really!
I mean for god sakes, there's much more functionality with Stickies than there is with konfabulator.
Anyone who payed 25 dollars to basically develop "widgets" (stupid name) for people is insane. The developers are relying on people to make all the useful widgets for their software, which doesn't really do all that much except handle some javascript in a half-assed manner. Text fields? hello?
Now Kaleidoscope was similar in methodology, but at least that was fun, and wasn't hyped like some kind of god app when it came out. It seems the developers have a huge ego from all the people that praised them for making Kaleidoscope, which was basically software to mac your mac uglier, slower, and a LOT less stable.
*sigh* I'm very disappointed with the whole thing. Idiotic, and in very, very poor taste.
springscansing
macrumors 6502a
springscansing
macrumors 6502a
I'm with you. It lasted about 2 minutes on my system. I deleted it before I even realized I had to pay for it. I never even saw the nag screens. I deleted it assuming it was FREE.
That's how pointless it is. I mean.. a pictureframe widget!? If konfabulator can be made to do such great things, you'd think the developers themselves would have made it do at least ONE great thing!
springscansing
macrumors 6502a
*sigh* I actually read somewhere, that since the iMac came out, the IQ of the average mac user dropped from 116 to 107, or something like that.
All this good looking stuff is making the mac users as a whole progressively more stupid.
I say OS XI should go back to the OS 9 way of viewing things. Like seriously... it was cleaner, easier to look at for hours on end, and faster.
What's this Aqua business? Why does my browser look like fake metal?
Why are people paying 25 bucks to put a giant faux digital clock on their desktop, when there is already a clock on the top-right of their screen?
Now if someone came out with an app that made OS X look and feel like OS 9, I would buy it. And no, I'm not some old freak who doesn't like change. I'm 18. But I do not like having to wait for dialog boxes to roll down from the drops of my windows, and for crazy genie action to finish before I can do something else.
In my opinion, Aqua is ugly. I thought it was so cool at first. I thought it was cool for months. But now that I am finally gearing up to switch to X for audio work, I realize the GUI is ugly when you have windows all over. There's dozens of drop-shadows, it gets so confusing! I guess I will have to deal with the excessive GUI candy to enjoy the benefits of Coreaudio.
I'd install something to remove the drop shadows, but the windows have no boarders, so they look even worse without drop shadows. And I do not want to use something to change the appearance of everything because so far, none of the OS X skinning apps work very well, and it tends to bring the system to its knees when you update the OS.
And... damnit, why are icons on my dock bouncing? XP might be fisher price, but OS X is like .. well .. I donno. Something better than fisher price though.
janey
macrumors 603
for me it was the sheer number of pointless clock "widgets" and the actual design of the program that made me delete it. Oh and the fact that the code for konfab wasn't available (since I really like open source stuff).
There's also a clock you can put on your Dock-and it COMES WITH JAGUAR!!!
There's also a clock you can put on your Dock-and it COMES WITH JAGUAR!!!
springscansing
macrumors 6502a
I do not care about open-source or coding ethics or anything. If it did something I'd use it.
But it doesn't .. except cause kernal panics.
springscansing
macrumors 6502a
People can express their opinions. I'm sure you've bashed microsoft before. Why not just not buy MS products if you do not like them? It's the same thing.
And money is not going to help build a better and more useful program. It's all the people making widgets getting paid nothing that make it a better program.
It's not like I have something against capitalism. I pay for stuff that is good. Money is nice. I'm fine with that. But I'm not going to pay for junk, and I want to voice my opinion before other people fork over money for this scam as well.
And Konfabulator is not a mini-OS, and have nothing in common with the Terminal or Applescript.. partly because the Terminal and Applescript are actually useful.
janey
macrumors 603
sometimes you just gotta buy MS products because you have no choice.
the one useful thing konfab did during its short life on one of my Power Macs was the iTunes remote. It always said "AppleScript Error..."
I guess Konfab uses AppleScript...to imagine that such a crappy program uses AppleScript...
the one useful thing konfab did during its short life on one of my Power Macs was the iTunes remote. It always said "AppleScript Error..."
I guess Konfab uses AppleScript...to imagine that such a crappy program uses AppleScript...
RBMaraman
macrumors 65816
Springscansing,
I respect your opinion's and I do agree with you on some of your points. You don't like Konfabulator, and that's fine. I just happen to think it's useful for me. I can use it to consolidate several small freeware applications that I used to run. So, instead of having 3 different programs running at once, I only have one. Plus, it doesn't slow down my G3, like running multiple programs does.
Once again, I appreciate you explaing your points of view. It's good that people see the pro's and con's of Konfabulator. And yes, I even admit that there are some con's to having it (though I didn't experience a kernal panic, thank God!).
springscansing
macrumors 6502a
That last post was a bit off topic (I'm sure you recognize that) and I'm really hoping that quoted line up there isn't directed towards me, or my soon to be switcher friend, as a personal insult.
I'll go out on a limb and defend the program - and all the clocks.
First of all, as far as I can tell, it only downloads with two clocks - one analog, one digital. (I am aware of how many are on the wesbite). So far, the digital clock has been a big help for me - I wear glasses, and my Powerbook is the only clock I have in my room. Before Konfabulator I had a real tough time seeing the mini little clock in the menu bar when I didn't have my glasses on. Now all I have to do is roll over in bed in the morning, and look at the big thing and see what time it is immediately. Once someone writes in an Alarm Clock into this widget I will be evern more happy.
The picture frame is awesome, and original - I haven't seen any third party apps that do this. It's great for me to have a rotating frame of all my pictures - it adds in many ways to my computing experience.
The Calendar and Weather widgets are great as well - a quick and handy reference.
I realize that almost all of these functionalities are available as third party freeware apps (exception: Picture Frame). The way I see it, Konfabulator is, at best, a great way to intergrate all of your third-party freeware app functionality into one application. And this is a great thing. Konfabulator does for those small freeware applications what iLife does for the digital hub, and what the Offices and Appleworks do for office applications. You get all the little nit nack funtionality of those tiny apps you keep downloading from VersionTracker, or the AmbitiousLemon.com App of the Week, in visually pleasing packages that don't suck up space in the dock or menu bar.
If you don't need that sort of integration, or have no interest in that type of application, then Konfab will be a waste of money and time.
Complaining about an Application you don't like thats available as a free demo is a waste of time - it really helps no one and just brings a lot of unnecessary negativity to the forums. Arlo Rose (I think that's his name) and the Konfabulator team is not trying to rape the mac community or rip us off or ruin our computing lives. They put together a nice little environment they rightfully felt many people would enjoy and in the spirit of American Capitalism politley asked people to pay them for their efforts. Don't dehumanize them as monsters, I am sure they love the world of Apple more than most of us.
Thanks,
Davis
janey
macrumors 603
the clock-you can just hack together something that magnifies the time.
the calendar-iCal.
the weather-always 3-20 degrees off
the IQ of the average mac user is soo low because most geniuses *cough cough my friends whose IQ's are upwards of 150* think that the ease of use factor is for sissies 🙄
Besides, isn't 107 still average...that tells you something.
the calendar-iCal.
the weather-always 3-20 degrees off
the IQ of the average mac user is soo low because most geniuses *cough cough my friends whose IQ's are upwards of 150* think that the ease of use factor is for sissies 🙄
Besides, isn't 107 still average...that tells you something.
shadowfax
macrumors 603
This has to be one of the coolest threads i have seen in a long time. i never realized there was so much controversy over konfabulator. i thought it was pretty cool at first. but after listening to ambitious lemon and springscansing, among other things. i am changing my mind slowly.
to put myself in perspective, i was one of the first to DL the program when it came out... i got it at about 2 AM central (i was bored and still up). i tried it, and, though i haven't deleted it, i only used it for about 3 minutes. then i went to deskmod and called my latest screenshot "konfabuless."
I think that "widget" is an ok word, and i appreciate the humor of making up words, like konfabulator. it has that lightheartedness that i just love about Winamp.
i have 2 parallels to konfabulator: an OS and winamp.
at first, i was thinking of Konfab more like an OS. i mean, what's the point of an OS? it's just a platform on which to do stuff. you're making a platform that other people can write stuff for. if no one wrote stuff for it, where would the OS go? some apps are free, and some are more elaborate and cost money. i thought that this could be kind of like konfabulator, but it really is MUCH more large scale, of course.
now i am thinking of it more in terms of winamp. you can do SO MUCH with wasabi and winamp, from an SD perspective. have you seen the skins they have for it? dang. Winamp is so cool--they have figured out how to get the internet art community to advertise their player with THE COOLEST skins of any app ever. this is what konfabulator is doing. it's just a way to make it easier for people to mod their desktop... winamp is free. winamp is much more elaborate than konfabulator. i just don't see how they can justify charging for it--at least not 25 bucks. they should have made it donationware or something, only without the stinking nags.
but objectively, AL, the rape thing was way way way too much. it is a free community. if they want to pay 25$... well, why not?
i like my menubar stuff. it takes up less space, can't get covered up, and is all free. FYI, i run meteorologist (quirky but OK), uptimeinmenubar, spy, and menumeter, just for the ram usage stats. i like having stuff on the menubar, because, hey, when was the last time you saw an app that had a menu that went that far across the screen. the right side of the menubar is totally empty without all that stuff🙂.
to put myself in perspective, i was one of the first to DL the program when it came out... i got it at about 2 AM central (i was bored and still up). i tried it, and, though i haven't deleted it, i only used it for about 3 minutes. then i went to deskmod and called my latest screenshot "konfabuless."
I think that "widget" is an ok word, and i appreciate the humor of making up words, like konfabulator. it has that lightheartedness that i just love about Winamp.
i have 2 parallels to konfabulator: an OS and winamp.
at first, i was thinking of Konfab more like an OS. i mean, what's the point of an OS? it's just a platform on which to do stuff. you're making a platform that other people can write stuff for. if no one wrote stuff for it, where would the OS go? some apps are free, and some are more elaborate and cost money. i thought that this could be kind of like konfabulator, but it really is MUCH more large scale, of course.
now i am thinking of it more in terms of winamp. you can do SO MUCH with wasabi and winamp, from an SD perspective. have you seen the skins they have for it? dang. Winamp is so cool--they have figured out how to get the internet art community to advertise their player with THE COOLEST skins of any app ever. this is what konfabulator is doing. it's just a way to make it easier for people to mod their desktop... winamp is free. winamp is much more elaborate than konfabulator. i just don't see how they can justify charging for it--at least not 25 bucks. they should have made it donationware or something, only without the stinking nags.
but objectively, AL, the rape thing was way way way too much. it is a free community. if they want to pay 25$... well, why not?
i like my menubar stuff. it takes up less space, can't get covered up, and is all free. FYI, i run meteorologist (quirky but OK), uptimeinmenubar, spy, and menumeter, just for the ram usage stats. i like having stuff on the menubar, because, hey, when was the last time you saw an app that had a menu that went that far across the screen. the right side of the menubar is totally empty without all that stuff🙂.
springscansing
macrumors 6502a
Well I'm 165 and I have a dual 867. And my girl is 160-170 also, and she has.. well.. a 3400.
200mhz of pure diesel it is!
springscansing
macrumors 6502a
Congrats, you've been reported to Mr. Moderator. I'm sure he'll appreciate the extra work.
Stop posting in multiple threads for no reason.
Dunepilot
macrumors 6502a
Shadowfax pretty well summed up what I was going to write after I'd finished reading this thread.
Ambitious Lemon - I used to respect the things that you wrote on MR, but you've got to be more responsible as a moderator. Using the word 'rape' to describe a semi-commercial product is completely inappropriate and the sort of thing that causes a lot of offence to a lot of people.
You don't like Konfabulator? Fine. Say you don't like Konfab, or the ethics behind their business model, or whatever. Don't call it 'rape'. It isn't rape.
If people like Konfabulator - which I do - they will buy the $25 license. It's the first thing I've seen in some time which has really added some fun/useful functionality to my desktop. It's this sort of thing that really will bring Windows users over, if they see it.
It may be that it survives from the goodwill and ingenuity of its users, but I know that I could go out and spend a lot of money and time learning javascript, and I'd rather not. I'd rather someone handed me a really cool little desktop app that gives me some useful feedback, as well as fun, and pay them for it. If I have one gripe it's that once I restarted, the iTunes control started misbehaving, and keeps trying to open the classic version of iTunes...?
shadowfax
macrumors 603
i think we all knew this. the dictionary has the various ways words can be used, but does little to help you with the connootation, though in this case, it's quite obvious--it conjures up some rather disturbing images for me, which is the intention of the word. if he had said "abuse" of the mac community, or something with a more moderate connotation, it would have been appropriate; as it is, he may as well have said that they are ****ing the mac community over. that has a pretty similar connotation. it was inappropriate.
Sorry to get so off-topic.
I remember my freshman year in college. I was at a basketball game. I was very a very involved fan, to say the least. There was a point in the game were a player on my team was stripped of the ball in the paint. I thought a foul should have been called and the crowd generally agreed...except that I started yelling that he got raped. Someone pointed out to me that the word rape might not be the most appropriate one to use at that time, for something so trivial. I was, of course, very defensive and did not agree. I even went back to my dorm after the game and looked the word up in the dictionary. I felt vindicated because there were many differing definitions.
I realize now that rape is a very emotionally charged word and even though it has other possible definitions, everyone thinks of only one whenever they hear or see it used. I don't think anyone would use the word so casually if they knew what kind of pain it could cause.
I regret my immaturity in that situation, but I have learned from it. It is improtant to remember that this is a $25 shareware program. You can download it and try it before you pay the price. I'm not sure what the motivations of the authors are. Maybe they want to con every mac user out of $25, but even that is not as sinister and evil as rape.
I remember my freshman year in college. I was at a basketball game. I was very a very involved fan, to say the least. There was a point in the game were a player on my team was stripped of the ball in the paint. I thought a foul should have been called and the crowd generally agreed...except that I started yelling that he got raped. Someone pointed out to me that the word rape might not be the most appropriate one to use at that time, for something so trivial. I was, of course, very defensive and did not agree. I even went back to my dorm after the game and looked the word up in the dictionary. I felt vindicated because there were many differing definitions.
I realize now that rape is a very emotionally charged word and even though it has other possible definitions, everyone thinks of only one whenever they hear or see it used. I don't think anyone would use the word so casually if they knew what kind of pain it could cause.
I regret my immaturity in that situation, but I have learned from it. It is improtant to remember that this is a $25 shareware program. You can download it and try it before you pay the price. I'm not sure what the motivations of the authors are. Maybe they want to con every mac user out of $25, but even that is not as sinister and evil as rape.