I have tried and tried to get into the widget craze.  I really have.  I try just about every widget that gets released (with the exception of all the weather ones that are made to match a certain skin).  In addition to all the DesktopX widgets I have tried, I have given just about every other widget program out there a fair test drive.

I have used Konfabulator (now Yahoo! Widgets), Kapsules, dot Widget, EZPod, AveDesk, Samurize, and maybe even a couple others I can't recall. 

I want to like widgets.  I really do.  I want to use them regularly.  One of the reasons I bought an Object Desktop subscription a couple of years ago (and have renewed it since that time) was because I wanted to "get" DesktopX.  And even though I now "get" it, for the most part, I still don't get widgets.

Perhaps it is because I am more on the minimalistic side when it comes to my desktop.  Perhaps I am just not using the right widgets.  Honestly, the only ones I use regularly are Tiggz masterful OMNI slideshow and occasionally his Orbital weather. 

The biggest problem is other widgets that I might use just aren't as functional as their counterparts that I already have running.  Battery monitor?  Great.  But there is one on my taskbar that also tells me about how much time is left, in addition to the percent.  Calendar?  Cool, but Rainlender integrates with Outlook (which syncs with my PocketPC), and there are only a couple of DesktopX widgets that do, and they don't do so nearly as fast are smoothly as Rainlender.  Task list?  Same as above. Clock?  There is one in the corner of the taskbar (I know I could turn that off).  News reader?  Okay, you got me.  There is one I could use, though Blog Navigator works better for that because it aggregates so much more than any widget ever could.  Media players?  Well, they all work pretty well with foobar, but alone they don't offer nearly the functionality that a full fledged media player does, so why run two programs when one does the job?  OMNI Mail 2 held a near and dear place in my heart until I found a Firefox extension that will check my multiple Gmail accounts and integrates nicely into the browser.

So, what widgets do you find useful?  What are your favorites?  And what about them makes them something you couldn't live without?  I really would love to find some more to use regularly.  And I will say, if someone ported Widescape Weather from Konfabulator to DesktopX I would be in heaven.