Mac developer gets out of Tiger's cage

With Apple threatening to push his product aside, longtime Mac developer Arlo Rose has moved his Konfabulator over to Windows.

Back in June, Apple announced that it would offer a feature called Dashboard as part of its next version of Mac OS X, code-named Tiger. The feature, which allows easy access to a variety of small applications called widgets, is remarkably similar to Konfabulator. Rose's software also uses the term widgets to describe the types of plug-in programs it enables: small graphical applications that sit on the desktop and offer stock quotes, weather information, and so on.

Rose, who once worked at Apple and now heads up a small company called Pixoria, said the new version will be available Monday.

"We're all diehard Macintosh developers here, but we recognise that Windows is the dominant platform," Rose said in a statement. "When you have a great idea, you want more than 2 percent of the global market to have access to it."

A Windows version was already in the works when Apple announced its plans for Dashboard, but the move made the PC option all the more important. Rose said many of the 800 widgets already created for Konfabulator will work on the Windows version as well as on Mac OS X.

When Apple announced its plans for Dashboard, Rose accused Apple of being a copycat, a charge the computer maker denied. Apple noted that widgets have long been a part of Mac OS X and its NextStep OS predecessor.

Apple senior vice-president Phil Schiller said in a June interview: "The goal isn't to be like anything else. It's not his stuff. What we've done is ours."

Rose reiterated his contention in the press release announcing the coming Windows version.

Even moving to Windows may not ensure Konfabulator free rein. Microsoft plans for the next version of Windows to have a slightly different twist on the same idea. The company has demonstrated a feature called Sidebar that allows access to similar sorts of information in one part of the Windows screen.

However, Rose has some more time in that the new Windows is not due until the end of 2006, whereas Tiger is slated for the first half of next year.

Ina Fried writes for CNET News.com.