Dashboard vs Widgets - Polar11

Dashboard WIDGETS themselves are not activated until one hits the F12 key (or clicks on the dashboard icon) for the FIRST time after boot-up. After that, all widgets remain active (whether in the background or foreground) consuming RAM. This does not change until the system is rebooted, or the user kills the dock. If you do not want any of the widgets to load and use RAM, then do not hit F12 or click on the dashboard icon in the dock.

But the question remains - How much memory does dashboard itself use ? In my own test, there was no difference in active RAM usage whether dashboard was enabled or disabled as long as I did not launch any widgets.

This utility provides the user with a way to completely deactivate dashboard, although curiously the dashboard icon still appears in the dock with a small black triangle implying that it is active. Once the script is run to turn off dashboard, the dashboard function (after reboot) is no longer available to the user until such time that he runs the script again to reconnect dashboard. Both on and off functions require a restart.

Since this script requires a restart to take effect, which by default turns off all running widgets anyway, I don't see much use for this program unless one is seeking a way to turn off the entire dashboard for extended periods of time and wants a simple means of re-engaging dashboard at some later date.

What would be much more useful would be a way to turn on and off individual widgets without having to reboot. This way a user can turn off problematic widgets without having to disengage the entire dashboard.

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Tuesday, May 24 2005 @ 09:06 AM PDT

Dashboard vs Widgets - Mark Douma

There is no such thing as "Dashboard" separate from an instance of a widget. That thing you see in the Dock is not a running application, although Apple made it to look like that. (What other application that's running (has the black triangle underneath it) in the Dock can you drag out of the Dock and have it go "poof"? None. You're able to do it here because that icon doesn't represent a running process).

When you hit F12 or click on that Dashboard icon in the Dock, the Dock application morphs to show you available widgets. There are no new processes that are activated if you are simply looking at your widgets! "Dashboard" does not suddenly become active and start consuming resources. Dashboard isn't even a secondary process -- it's built directly into the Dock. Not until you explicitly click on a widget in the "Dashboard tray" to create an "instance" of a widget, does any process actually launch, in order to create an instance of a widget. (You've probably noticed the slight delay before a new instance of a widget "wakes up" and is ready to use -- that's the Dashboard Client process that launches and gets the widget up and running). The things you see down in the "Dashboard tray" are little different from a non-running application in the Dock: they do not use any resources.

If you click on the Stickies widget twice, you've created two separate instances of the widget. Both of these instances will "consume" resources in that each one is a process that will occupy RAM. If they are active on the screen and you dismiss the Dashboard interface and return to your regularly scheduled programming, then yes, those 2 widget instances will continue to run in the background (and "consume resources").

If, before returning to the normal interface mode, you clicked the black and white X in the upper left-hand corner of the instance of the widget, you will QUIT the widget. If you clicked to close both of them, you would be back to square one in terms of resources (RAM would be freed, etc.). If you do not have any instances of any widgets, then there are no resources that are being consumed.

Trying to "kill" or turn off Dashboard by killing the Dock is absolutely ridiculous. There's simply no need for it. Just click the X for each widget you have on your screen and you've returned to your "pre-Dashboard" state.

So, what to do if you don't want to use Dashboard or want it "consuming resources"? Don't create any instances of any widgets. It's that simple.

Hope this helps.....

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Tuesday, May 24 2005 @ 10:49 AM PDT

On or Off? - coldfusion

Well Apple say that it doesnt use any resources when its 'put away'.

I would assume that they mean that it wont use any MORE memory that it already has and that CPU useage will be negligible.

And you must remeber that memory is not a problem on a machine which features such an advanced virtual memory system (which is ALWAYS active) built into the operating system.

Dashboard is great. I just wish i had some programming skills ...

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Tuesday, May 24 2005 @ 11:50 AM PDT

On or Off? - igoeja_dotmac

You can easily see hom much RAM the individual widgets take up in Activity Monitor. Right-click (Apple+Click) on the window title bar an select Real Memeory.

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Wednesday, May 25 2005 @ 04:38 AM PDT

See Widgets together in Activity Monitor - Pop Guru

You can also group the widgets together in Activity Monitor if you show "All Processes, Hierarchically." All Widgets will show up as children of the Dock.

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Wednesday, May 25 2005 @ 05:05 AM PDT