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Microsoft Has Killed Widgets Six Times. Here's Why They Keep Coming Back. (xakpc.dev)

submitted 6 months ago by Rekall_Incorporated@piefed.social to c/technology@piefed.social

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30 years of Windows widgets - from Active Desktop to the Widget Board. Six implementations, six deaths, and the scar tissue that shapes the platform you'd build on today.

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[–] Onomatopoeia@lemmy.cafe 5 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (2 children)

Microsoft appears to have realized that widgets shouldn't compete with applications for desktop space. They belong in the liminal moments of computing - the glance before you unlock, the pause between tasks.

Yea, no, I don't want that stuff on my lock screen, what I want is the gadgets bar back, on the right hand side, so I can glance and see the info I want to see.

Any motion required, mouse movement, keys, etc, disrupts what I'm doing - may as well launch a full app then.

And this argument about consuming desktop real estate? Nonsense. My laptop screen is 14", my desktop is two 26" monitors. I have real estate. Let users chose the value of screen real estate.

[–] Sylvartas@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

Yeah my desktop is 27" + 24" and has 0-3 icons on it at any given time. It yearns for remotely useful things to display. A long time ago I got frustrated with never being able to keep it organized, so I decided to keep it clean instead. I used the hell out of rainmeter for a while but I remember thinking that was ironic even back then because Microsoft was touting widgets as this revolutionary new thing since windows Vista, yet their implementation of them was terrible.

[–] azimir@lemmy.ml 2 points 6 months ago

Let users make decisions about what they want? That's not how Microsoft works, at least not for a decade now. It's their computer according to them.