I have, like others, conflicting thoughts on the latest out of Cupertino. I am, of course, drooling over all the features. But I am flabbergasted by Dashboard. I had heard mention of Konfabulator before, but had never seen it in action until after the WWDC triggered me to investigate it.

Dashboard is (and there are no other words to describe it) a pixel-by-pixel lifting of Konfabulator’s work. Everything even down to the use of the term widget — It’s all been swiped.

What is so sad is that mere recognition by Apple of the contributions of their loyal developers would probably solve the problem. I don’t know if there are legal issues involved with such ethical actions as acknowledging your inspirations, but it would seem like a win-win solution for Apple.

Here’s a sincere question: have there ever been instances where Apple has acknowledged and/or paid for innovations made by third party developers?