PlexyDesk desktop - new environment for widgeteers

See addendum with regard to price.

There is a new entry into the desktop widget/customisation world and that goes by the name of PlexyDesk. PlexyDesk was originally an open source Ubuntu-based application designed to provide desktop widgets and multiple workspaces (desktops) on version 16.04 of that environment. PlexyDesk has been around for a while on Ubuntu but has recently grown in capability so that it now provides the identical desktop/widget functionality not only on Ubuntu but now Windows and Mac OSX. PlexyDesk's main competitors are Xwidget, Rainmeter and the Yahoo Widget Engine all of which have been extant for some years now. You'd have thought this was tough competition for a new widget engine but all of these competitors are deficient in some way, the Yahoo widget engine is a dead-end being unsupported abandonware, the Xwidget engine has a developer but he is uncommunicative and seldom available, updates have been thin in the ground for years now. Rainmeter has limitations with regard to the ability to perform complex animations efficiently, it just isn't designed for that.

So, in comparison to the others there is still a real need for a true multi-platform widget engine that is scriptable, supports transparencies, handles animation, that can create odd-shaped programs that do not conform to the old fashioned square window paradigm.

The current version of Plexydesk is still beta but provides multiple desktops (workspaces), background image management and a default set of widgets which includes:

    Note pad
    Clock
    Timer
    Calendar
    Task pad



As you can see, some quite uninspiring widgets running on an Ubuntu desktop. Not the most graphically exciting of widgets in comparison to my own steampunk monstrosities but it shows the default set in operation.

Supposedly there is 3rd party developer support that allows you to write your own widgets using QML and HTML but information is thin on the ground at the moment and I have not yet shelled out the required $0.99 which is required to download the beta version of the software. The use of QML indirectly implies that javascript will be supported to allow the logic of the program to be controlled (QML traditionally uses javascript for its imperative logic). This bodes well for existing developers of other javascript based widget engines such as the Yahoo widget engine (and Xwidget users that may be familiar with javascript to a lesser extent) as there exists the possibility that some Yahoo/Xwidgets could be ported to run on Linux/Mac platforms.

ADDENDUM:

I have been in touch with the developers and the high $9.99 price indicated on their website was a simple mistake during technical testing! Plexydesk actually costs just less than a dollar which makes the software much more accessible than initially thought.

-oOo-

The product is new so we can't expect much at the moment, some bugs perhaps but if the developers really manage to create a true multi-platform engine that allows widgeteers to create thin client apps in QML/javascript with full access to the OS via well-coded APIs  - all this sounds very nice indeed. Possibly a fitting replacement for the no-longer-supported yahoo widget engine and an alternative/complement to Xwidget?

At the moment the documentation is sparse, there is no designer GUI (which will put off the Xwidget community) and there is a small price to pay. I don't expect everyone to dive in and start using it immediately, given that it is in beta too. However, I would keep an eye out for it here at their website: plexydesk.org/

Read through the site, it is quite new and as a result it is choc-full of typos, grammar mistakes and chopped text but be positive and hope that it will all mature soon enough.


NOTE: this journal was re-created from the original at yahoowidgeteers as group-specific journal entries cannot be submitted to other groups.

ADDENDUM: I've submitted this to a few groups that are interested in customisation of the Windows/Linux and MacOSX desktop, as I feel it is of interest to all such groups - however, if you feel that you don't want to accept a journal then that's fine by me - I won't be hurt!