My Mac using friends have often ooh-ed and ahh-ed over a small bit of OS X functionality: the Widget.

A Widget is a small little graphical application that appears in your Mac OS Dashboard, which is essentially a shadowy desktop hidden beneath your normal desktop. With a quick click the user is presented with a wide assortment of small little interactive programs that can report weather, give sports scores, tell fortunes, provide quick amusement, and any other smallish program that doesn’t take up too much desktop real-estate.

Well, the up and coming Windows Vista is now going to have its own little source of digital bemusement; introducing Microsoft Gadgets. They work much the same as the Mac Widgets, and is kind of a nice touch, albeit a stolen one. Still, it seems as though there are quite a few aspects of OS X that are being brought into the new Windows, like the cool scrolling program selection bar that beats the pants off the Windows “Start” menu any day.

Not a bad idea really, since the OS X does indeed provide a great user experience despite the great disadvantage that Mac mice only have one button and no scroll wheel .

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