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The role of gadgets on Windows Vista
Saturday, July 15th, 2006
Over in the Microsoft development community there has been an increasing amount of concern 
over just what role gadgets (in the form of the Windows Sidebar) are going to take.
Windows Vista is scheduled to ship with the Windows Sidebar, a sort of dock that sits on the right side of the screen. On the sidebar, users can add "gadgets" to it. Gadgets are essentially the same as widgets that have been popularized by programs such as Yahoo Widgets, DesktopX, and Apple’s Dashboard. Gadgets that come with the Sidebar currently include RSS readers, a clock, a picture viewer, a recycle bin, and an assortment of other fairly simple "mini applications" that have come to be associated with gadgets and widgets.
The objection some developers are having is how gadgets are made — HTML with extensibility being done with ActiveX. The current gadget implementation doesn’t, for instance, support Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF aka "Avalan" so the graphics are done using PNGs much like DesktopX and Konfabulator have been doing for years. Another objection is that the gadgets don’t natively support .NET languages which seems odd in an OS that is putting so much stock into C# and other .NET languages. SysAdmin.it - Our VISTA on Microsoft Technology: The role of gadgets on Windows Vista
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