Konfabulator for free!

So Apple added to Tiger widgets. Widgets are tiny applications that float on your screen when enabled (press F12 on your Mac).

While Apple declared it was an innovation, the guys at Konfabulator didn’t quite agree and were rather upset that Apple developed its own technology while it was SO similar to their.

I have used widgets since I have had Tiger (a couple of months now) and I have to say that I’m not particularly happy with it. Honestly I still don’t see that big use with them. I have the iTunes controller, forecasts, Calvin & Hobbes stip, calendar, calculator and a couple more. What I don’t like about widgets is that I need to start them and while they are on I can’t do anything on my desktop.
Why should I press F12, wait for widgets to start or get updated and then press the button to move to the next song on iTunes, when I can do it with two clicks on my Dock? Also why do widgets move between sessions? Every time I start them, I need to re-position them.

On the other side Konfabulator (it was free for testing) offers about the same functionality and the same cool graphics (or even better) and has had TONS of widgets available for at least a year (I didn’t know it before, I don’t know how long it’s been available, but I KNOW it’s quite popular).
Of course when Apple released their own widgets (Konfabulator used to call them widgets from the beginning) the guys from Pixoria thought it was time to move on, but also thought that Konfabulator was great, so they ported it for Windows XP. While I don’t have Windows XP I understand it’s popular from the number of widgets that were developed for windows!

Now Yahoo! has bought the software and hired the developers. What’s going on? What will happen? I consider Konfabulator superior mostly because I can have it floating of my desktop while doing other things. What do I need stickies for if they are hidden in a menu/desktop that I can see pressing F12? I will not see them on my desktop, then it’s as valuable as storing them in a todo list in iCal or in a text file… I don’t see the difference, really!

I am really curious to see what will Yahoo do. They promised to keep the development of the Mac version and possibly extend it to other platforms such as Tivo. We’ll see.
In the meantime I have downloaded the free version, YES, Yahoo! is giving it for free!
Why is Yahoo giving it for free?
They understood the power of the Apple widgets and want their hands on the Windows version?
They liked the idea of the Apple widgets but Konfabulator is better?
They simply wanted a new good looking tool?