Personally, I'm not happy about this and will have to look for an alternative. What do you guys think?
Poll above.
Poll above.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
How do you feel about the removal of Dashboard?
- Thread starter ASentientBot
- WikiPost WikiPost
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
- Status
Unnecessary removal of feature, for which there was no good reason to remove, other than “it’s too old”. The thing is, there is no better thing to replace it. You remove the feature when you have something better to take its place. For Dashboard, there is nothing. Notification Center widgets are lame compared to Dashboard functionality.
The way tech headlines are written is also laughable. “Apple FINALLY kills Dashborard”. “Finally”!
Like it’s something that was all giving us trouble, and we couldn’t wait for it to get removed.
The way tech headlines are written is also laughable. “Apple FINALLY kills Dashborard”. “Finally”!
Like it’s something that was all giving us trouble, and we couldn’t wait for it to get removed.
Have to agree with StellarVixen. It's crazy how many people are cheering on at the death of something that never concerned or affected them. It was a great feature that I still used, and I will miss it. Sadly Apple does not provide a suitable replacement at this time.
This might be an unpopular opinion, but I am neutral on this. Apple clearly isn't willing to update or modernize it, and the Notification Center widgets do provide a lot (though perhaps not all) of the same features.
I do understand the frustration for those with 10+ year old legacy Dashboard widgets that are no longer being developed and have no replacement in Notification Center. But the lack of 32-bit app support in Catalina is a much bigger problem overall, as it's going to break plenty of older unmaintained apps and frustrate a lot of people. You'd think Apple could keep 32-bit support around a bit longer.
I do understand the frustration for those with 10+ year old legacy Dashboard widgets that are no longer being developed and have no replacement in Notification Center. But the lack of 32-bit app support in Catalina is a much bigger problem overall, as it's going to break plenty of older unmaintained apps and frustrate a lot of people. You'd think Apple could keep 32-bit support around a bit longer.
I love Dashboard, but it has been rotting for years. Plus, this is Apple, so it should not be a surprise that this happened. In fact, I'm surprised that it hung on as long as it did – I was sure it would be removed a long time ago. They haven't touched Dashboard in a really long time, and pretty much every single widget (even the third-party ones) has been abandoned (and a lot have broken too).
Perhaps this is a good chance for a third-party developer to step in and create a Dashboard replacement.
Perhaps this is a good chance for a third-party developer to step in and create a Dashboard replacement.
Completely neutral. Never used it but would have been ok if they kept it for people that did.
I had forgotten all about it. So clearly I’m not gonna miss it.
I'm in the camp that stopped using it once Spaces arrived. Then, I just set up a space dedicated to Stickies, Calculator, etc...
I don't miss it at all, but then it never did any harm having the option either. I guess Apple just wants to re-focus the OS and ensure features remain consistent.
I don't miss it at all, but then it never did any harm having the option either. I guess Apple just wants to re-focus the OS and ensure features remain consistent.
I used to use it, heck I even wrote some widgets for it, but haven’t used it pretty much ever since the Today tab appeared in Notification Center. So, I’m really kind of neutral on this. Never bothered me that it was still an option, but since I haven’t used it recently can’t miss it either.
How do you know this? Perhaps Dashboard is based on legacy technology elsewhere that Apple didn’t want to or couldn’t support anymore, like the older WebKit. If they weren’t interested in the feature anymore, they might have decided against spending resources on updating the code.
I have been using the Dashboard for years for simple widgets like weather in various places, time in time zones, ink level in my HP printer. and unit conversions. I run it in its own space. A simply swipe and I have the info right there.
The Notification bar Today View does not compare.
I think people using spaces will have more use for the Dashboard.
The Notification bar Today View does not compare.
I think people using spaces will have more use for the Dashboard.
The Dashboard has been useless to me for the longest time, and I thought it a bit odd that mac OS still had it as it was stuck way back in the past. So this removal is as expected.
itunes is just becoming a group of focused apps... makes sense. very different from dashboard, which is completely gone... (i haven't used it in so long i barely knew it's been around thru mojave)...
yes but iTunes and dashboard is what made macOS fun to use but I understand the reasoning kinda like when Windows decide to make the media center a paid app
dashboard=fun? try the calculator in the notification center, the notes app, forecast bar... etc. there are apps, websites, for everything. and the new apps that replace itunes should be just the same, overall; apps to play music, watch video...
Huge loss for me. I have a million stickies with notes etc I reference. What will happen to them? I am not going to upgrade till forced.
I've been dreading this. Been using it heavily since it was introduced.. for notes, calculator, currency, weather, world clocks.. it's extremely useful in my workflow.
I even use the Karabiner app to take back/remap the launchpad button on my MBP for it. It's 1000x more useful than having launchpad.
Overall, if they do end up killing it off, I hope some dev can make something to replace it.
I even use the Karabiner app to take back/remap the launchpad button on my MBP for it. It's 1000x more useful than having launchpad.
Overall, if they do end up killing it off, I hope some dev can make something to replace it.
I haven't used it for ages, so I don't care at all. The dashboard has been in coma for years now. No development at all and Apple had said many times that the Dashboard is a legacy feature. If you are still using it, then I am sorry, but it's time to move on.
Dashboard widgets are almost entirely web based, with a few Apple provided libraries for saving/loading preferences, starting native processes, and such. I think the solution could be as simple as a WebView or Electron app including some JS files copied from Mojave, plus a very simple backend to reimplement those features.
It might even be possible to simply copy the Dashboard app and supporting frameworks directly from a Mojave install.
Once I'm less busy with school and the Catalina on unsupported Macs project, I might take a look at it.