Apple Will Permanently Remove Dashboard In macOS Catalina (theverge.com) 98
"Apple's Dashboard is getting quietly removed from the company's upcoming macOS Catalina update," reports The Verge, citing Appleosophy and MacRumors. "The Dashboard first launched seven years ago with Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger in 2005 and saw its final update in 2011 with the launch of OS X 10.7 Lion." From the report: The app first introduced the concept of widgets to Apple's desktop operating system and became a hallmark of OS X design for more than a decade. In particularly, Dashboard became well known for its desktop Sticky Note feature and its overall skeuomorphic approach best emphasized by the clock, stocks, and calculator widgets, a design philosophy that formed the foundation of the first version of iOS that launched a few years after OS X Tiger. It wasn't until iOS 7 in 2013 that Apple would abandon that aesthetic for a flatter, more modern one that eventual carried back over to its desktop approach.
Since 2011, Dashboard has been accessible in various forms, but it's had none of its widget design or UI updated, making it a bit of an anachronism existing behind the scenes on macOS. With OS X 10.10 Yosemite, Apple disabled the application by default, but still allowed users to access it either as a hotkey overlay or its own separate space within Mission Control. Now, in macOS Catalina, it appears Dashboard is going away for good. Appleosophy tried to disable and enable the Dashboard via Terminal only for the system to show it as missing even after a forced reboot. The Launchpad overlay also shows the Dashboard app icon as a question mark, the same as with the broken up and effectively killed off iTunes.
Since 2011, Dashboard has been accessible in various forms, but it's had none of its widget design or UI updated, making it a bit of an anachronism existing behind the scenes on macOS. With OS X 10.10 Yosemite, Apple disabled the application by default, but still allowed users to access it either as a hotkey overlay or its own separate space within Mission Control. Now, in macOS Catalina, it appears Dashboard is going away for good. Appleosophy tried to disable and enable the Dashboard via Terminal only for the system to show it as missing even after a forced reboot. The Launchpad overlay also shows the Dashboard app icon as a question mark, the same as with the broken up and effectively killed off iTunes.
Good riddance, Dashboard (Score:3)
Don’t let the door hit you on the way out!
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"The app first introduced the concept of widgets to Apple's desktop operating system and became a hallmark of OS X design for more than a decade."
Have fun without widgets.
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I don't remember the last time I used widgets... it was probably just after Apple did its poor copy job of Konfabulator to "invent" Dashboard.
The idea that widgets need to be in their own special space, separated from everything else, just seems silly.
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Re:Good riddance, Dashboard (Score:4, Informative)
I use it all the time. It's a one button push to push to pull up a calculator for instance or check a calendar. Never used the sticky notes though.
I'd rather lose the Mission Control than lose the dashboard.
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I don't remember the last time I used widgets... it was probably just after
Just after you finished typing the words, and before they appeared on the website, you used widgets.
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Please take Mission Control with you as you leave. That app picker is equally useless; basically a desktop rendition of the iOS app picker.
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I like mission control personally, but I agree on the app picker— a random idea for a function better performed by command-space. I often have 20+ windows open across my monitors, and mission control makes it easy to switch and manage things.
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While they really abandoned it a few years ago, I had a number of widgets that were useful to me, and I will miss the feature, at least in concept. The only real problem (ok, biggest) with it was the widgets aren’t continuously updated, so there is a significant lag when you first switch to the dashboard.
I’ll miss my world clock time/temperature/weather widget...
Re:Good riddance, Dashboard (Score:4, Informative)
Yeah I still use it too.
Mine has six clocks with various timezones so I can quickly check the time in london, san fransisco sydey or whatever. Its got a calculator for quick maths, the weather app and various stickies depending on what i want to remember
Its a crusty old system, but I'll be searching for a replacement when its gone
Not going to miss it (Score:3)
Not going to miss it going away. I discovered it by accident once, and thought how useless it was. It really reminds be of the desktop widgets of Windows Vista, which were kinda useful but not missed in their demise with Windows 7.
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It was moderately useful if you had useful widgets for things you wanted to access at a glance. I had usage monitors for my metered Internet connections, widgets to show the outlook/forecast from the Bureau of Meteorology (Australia), the dictionary/thesaurus, and the unit converter (which also did currency conversion). I missed the old spaces - I liked being able to think spatially with it. Mission Control always felt ugly an unnatural. I've given up on Macs completely now though.
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Yeah, they fucked it all up after Snow Leopard. Mission Control was worse than the old grid Spaces, and Dashboard as a space defeated the purpose of it.
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Not going to miss it going away. I discovered it by accident once, and thought how useless it was. It really reminds be of the desktop widgets of Windows Vista, which were kinda useful but not missed in their demise with Windows 7.
I thought the exact opposite. I had something like 10 world clocks on there, a translator utility, a currency converter, a multi lingual dictionary and a bunch of other stuff and it was all accessible by a single keyboard action or a couple of gestures.
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I had to look at the screenshot to know what it was. Having to get rid of all my windows to get to the desktop has never been a workflow I'm particularly happy with. Right now, my windows are probably a dozen deep - it's far quicker to press the calculator in the dock bar thing and use it in a window than it is to get to the desktop. I appreciate other use-cases exist, but I tend to check the weather once in the morning and forget about it for the rest of the day (other than maybe staring out of the window)
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This is Apple week, what with the "developers" thing they are running at the fruit company. It will die down. We can hope.
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Because so much of it is a stage show that has little to do with things developers are concerned with.
It's too bad (Score:1)
What about Bash??? (Score:3, Informative)
I'll never update my MBP with Mojave. I'll keep my bash
I have Mojave, my Terminal shell is still Bash, what are you going on abut here?
My new machine is a Dell XPS 15.
Which has far worse shell options and no Dashboard at all, so why would you are if it vanished from the Mac laptop? None of this makes any sense.
If you really want a UNIX based laptop today, still no better option than a Mac laptop running OSX.
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I have Mojave, my Terminal shell is still Bash, what are you going on abut here?
It was likely a mistake. They either mistakenly thought Mojave was where it was changing, or the mistakenly said Mojave instead of Catalina. Both of those features are removed/changing in Catalina.
Which has far worse shell options and no Dashboard at all, so why would you are if it vanished from the Mac laptop? None of this makes any sense.
They said they had a MBP. Those features would be going away in Catalina on the MBP.
If you really want a UNIX based laptop today, still no better option than a Mac laptop running OSX.
Ever heard of linux? I hear it can be installed on all sorts of computers with lots more freedom of choice than macOS. As for his choice of laptop model, it's the same CPU with a better SSD and a better video card for less money.
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What? Do I understand that there is no terminal in Catalina?
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I'll never update my MBP with Mojave. I'll keep my bash and Dashboard while Apple charges fans more for less and less. My new machine is a Dell XPS 15. It is wonderful, and I can afford a summer vacation this year.
Mojave? You mean Catalina, don't you? Because the Dashboard is still available in Mojave. You do need to ensure it's activated though.
Funny you say the Dell XPS 15. I have a MBP 15 as my personal computer and a new XPS 15 as my work computer. Sure the base model is cheap enough, but I specced mine up to be useable for what I do and price wise there's not much daylight between what I paid for my Mac and what I paid for my XPS. Of course the Mac was more expensive, but we all know that.
Anyway, all this
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Sure the base model is cheap enough, but I specced mine up to be useable for what I do and price wise there's not much daylight between what I paid for my Mac and what I paid for my XPS.
I just priced out the Dell vs MBP last night for another comment I made. The Dell is $600(non sale price) cheaper with a 1080p screen, $200 cheaper with a 4k screen. The CPU is the same. The Dell has a better video card, faster RAM, and a larger SSD. So, we're talking $200-600 cheaper for a better product in terms of specs. That's a roughly 10%-30% price difference.
You could make an argument about port choices, but realistically it would be nitpicking for most people. Further, there are some spec differen
"seven years ago" (Score:4, Interesting)
WTFH beauHD?!?!?
Seven years ago... in 2005. In just what goddamned alternate number system do you figure that 2019-2005=7? That's not even a missed decimal place error, which would land you in 2002! I already knew it was way too much to ask of you and your cadre of Slashdot "editors" to do the jobs of actual editors. But it it *REALLY* too much to ask of you to be able to master elementary-school level arithmetic?
And by the way, to anyone who might defend this dolt: TfuckingA correctly says fourteen years. So, no, it wasn't a copy&paste error; not that that would excuse it anyway.
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Re:"seven years ago" (Score:5, Funny)
Making a typo or an obvious math mistake like this is the best bait. So many people want to say "I'm so much smarter than the editor".
This is Slashdot. Everyone is smarter than the editor.
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Maybe they hire incompetents to do this job on purpose, so that slashdot makes us feel smart, and we keep coming back to share our opinions and generate page views.
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I didn't say Slashdotters are smart in the absolute sense; I said they're smarter than the editors. Not a difficult bar to clear, and not something to be particularly proud of
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Look at all these clicks!
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Turning 14 years into 7? That happens when you half-ass your math.
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Computation errors vs. anger management problems as a character failure. Go.
I'm OK with that (Score:1)
Re: apple copying microsoft.... (Score:2)
Sad, very sad (Score:2)
Dashboard is the one thing on macOS that I use constantly. I have a 12month calendar there, easy currency conversion (with free input). Weather info (the only thing that exists as a notification widget), conversion stuff, etc.
But yeah, death is death. Another useful thing dies *shrug* So it goes.
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Oh, no, MacOS, like NEXTSTEP before it, was what made Unix even start to be usable. Otherwise, one was stuck in front of a vt100 or an X terminal and had to know the relevant commands to use before one could start doing real work.
The dashboard - was it something like NEXTSTEP'S Dock? I really loved that in the days I used to work on those NEXT terminals
I liked it but forgot about it (Score:2)
Mission dashboard (Score:2)
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Mission Control is basically a funky window switcher. Think alt-tab on Windows and you've got it.
Dashboard is a separate screen where you can load up widgets to do things. Kinda like the widgets you can get for the Notification Center. Also think Windows Vista Sidebar done full-screen.
Conky? (Score:2)
I wish Conky for MacOS was usable. Last time I checked, it didn't have the hooks into the OS to do anything useful.
Will be missed (Score:4, Insightful)
Most people I've met who purchased their first Mac since 2010 or later have not adopted it; perhaps because its benefits (or just its existence) was not touted to users. I'm guessing the biggest issue was that it didn't get much use by the majority of current users and so there was no incentive to keep supporting it.
Personally, I'll miss the functionality and hope their is a good 3rd party alternative that can be installed. Currently I have on my dashboard:
- Weather
- Day Calendar with month showing
- iStat Pro (memory, CPU, WIFI, etc... stats, 3rd party)
- A programming calculator (3rd party)
- Three simple calculators
- Five sticky notes, each color coded for different reminder/lists
lame (Score:2)
osx (Score:2)
Apple says (Score:3)
"It worked really well and people liked it," an Apple spokesperson said, "so we removed it."