Kuldgets is a small application that lets you run OS X Dashboard Widgets in Linux.
Install Kludgets
Grab the source: http://kludgets.googlecode.com/files/kludgets-0.9.1.linux.tar.gz
Save it to your desktop and extract. (Right Click > Extract)
Enter the extracted folder and double click on the ‘Kludgets’ runtime.
You’ll now notice a little rocket in your notification tray.
It’s from here that you can launch and add new widgets.
Widgets
Sadly, whilst not not every widget works well under Kludgets, a great selection do.
Below are some of my top picks that seem to work fine!
Twitter Trends
Twitter-aholics ahoy!
This nifty widget displays the top 10 trending topics on Twitter and is updated every minute.
You can choose between
– the current top 10 trending topics on Twitter
– the top 10 trending topics for each hour of today
– the top 10 trending topics for each day of the current week
Download: http://www.apple.com/dashboard/twittertrends.html
Tea Timer
“A widget that reminds you of all that stuff that you always forget and that then either gets bitter/cold (your tea) or burned (your pizza).”
What works: You can cutomize this widgets ‘til your hearts content! Set background colour, opacity, the title of the “countdown”, the countdown time, etc…
What’s borked: Sadly the “main” function of this widget – the alarm – doesn’t function in Kludgets but it is still a handy countdown timer – so long as you remember to look!
Download: http://www.apple.com/downloads/dashboard/food/teatimer.html
Word Of The Day
Displays a ‘word of the day’ from a choice of different websites.
Also has various themes to choose from. I’m using ‘Smoke’ in the above screenshot.
Download: http://www.apple.com/downloads/dashboard/reference/wordoftheday.html
BBC News Ticker
A simple news ticker for the BBC News website.
Headlines and short summaries “type” along inside the widget. Clicking on a headline will open up your default browser and take you straight to the story.
Download: http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/prototypes/mac_os_x_dashbo.html
Dashtrology
“Enjoy a wide variety of over 20 daily, weekly and monthly horoscopes for all 12 signs of the zodiac. Minimizable to a small footprint, this handy gadget sits on your desktop, making the rich content of Astrology.com available right at your fingertips!”
I have loved this widget for a long, long time. (Bite me!) Part of what i love about it is that it’s so fluid, so uncluttered and the sweet little animation when clicking on it to open or close the shell is just… awwwwh!
Download: http://www.apple.com/downloads/dashboard/astrologycomdashtrology.html
Worth It?
I found some widgets running through kludgets are resource hogs – not so much that they slow the system down, but still more usage than probably needed for long periods.
As such, i recommend opening Kludgets only when you want access to your screenlets.
Think of it as a manual “Dashboard”!