Although many of you will think that we are talking about mobile terminals, the truth is that widgets were in the desktop world long before than in the mobile world. If you use Windows Vista it will surely sound familiar to you, but Microsoft was not the first to use widgets on the desktop, but rather Gnu / Linux and Apple already incorporated it a long time ago.
In Ubuntu we can have it easily and simply. The way to get it is via screenlets or gdesklets, widgets that are written in Python and that work in a light way so that our desktop has more functions than it should. A long time ago there were several types of widgets, they responded to the name superkaramba, adesklets, gdesklets and screenlets. Of all these, Superkaramba belongs to the KDE desktop, so in Ubuntu it used to be difficult to use and to do so, it required a lot of computer resources although in Kubuntu it is ideal. Adesklets is a lightweight option that was quite popular in the past but fell into oblivion and stopped being developed. Although it can still be installed, the truth is that it can cause security flaws.
Gdesklets and Screenlets are available in Ubuntu 16.04
Gdesklets and screenlets are the most current options that exist and also more functional than the old adesklets. The installation of any of these systems can be done via the Ubuntu Software Center or through the console using the command «sudo apt-get install«. Once any of these systems has been installed, in accessories we will find the application that will open a window where we will select the widgets that we want to load on our Desktop. Also in both systems we will find links to download as many functions as we want in addition to the fact that there are official guides on the Internet to create our own widgets and improve the functions of our desktop.
There is a third way to get widgets on our desktop, although only graphically, this is achieved with Conky, a system of which we have already here previously, but it only works as a viewer.
I have personally used and still use widgets on my desktop, a simple and fast way to have the main functions of Ubuntu at the click of a button. And although they are not very current programs, the truth is that they work Have you already tried them?
No. I don't like having things on my desk. At most indicators on the panel that, when clicked, display information. For not having I have no conky. And see that this can be put so that it is very well integrated with the themes that exist or with your own. But what goes, in the end it puts me back to have something permanently there.
The screenlets package is not yet available for 16.04 ... at least in the software center I can't find it and the command "apt-get install" doesn't find the package either
True Mon, not available
screenlets not yet available in the software center, nor when trying to install it by console, I will try gdesklets… Thanks for the publication!
neither is available
The content of this page should be marked as obsolete or, outright, be removed.
Indeed, as they have said, neither of these two packages are available today.
Both Screenlets and gDesklets are obsolete packages, they are no longer available in the Ubuntu repositories.
And when I say obsolete, it is because the latest revision of gDeslekts (which is available on launchpad.net) dates from 2011.
They should first verify what they post.