For at least a couple of years and Mac OS versions before
[Dashboard][1] came along, there was [Konfabulator][2], a JavaScript
run-time engine for Mac OS X that let you run little files called
Widgets which could do pretty much whatever you want them to.
Widgets can be alarm clocks, calculators, games, stock market tickers,
weather clients, etc etc.

When Dashboard arrived on the Mac it was installed for free along with
Tiger. Dashboard looked and behaved so much like Konfabulator, that it
pretty much killed any need for Konfabulator and the livelihood it
brought these two remarkable software designers, Arlo Rose and Perry
Clarke. With the "writing on the wall", they sold off their interests
in Konfabulator to [Yahoo!][3].

Arlo Rose had once worked for Apple, where he was involved with
designing the [Appearance Manager][4]; he also collaborated on
creating [Kaleidoscope][5] with Greg Landweber. Later, while working
at Sun Microsystems he met up with Perry Clarke, a software engineer
who in the early 1980s had also worked for Apple. Together they came
up with the idea of Konfabulator and then embarked upon its
development and release for Mac OS X.

> A lot of places have been writing up the Konfabulator versus
> Dashboard story, and a lot of them are taking choice sound bites
> from interviews and using them to make me sound like I've... well...
> lost my mind.
>
> First off, I was never fired from Apple. The group I worked for was
> laid off and I was given a chance to go work somewhere else inside
> Apple. I had been there for quite some time and was ready to move
> on, so I took a voluntary layoff package. It was my choice to leave.
>
> Next, we've never said the word widget was our creation. The word
> widget has been around forever and then some, but what we did do is
> coin it as a term for a small user created application that was
> specific in purpose. It's our document type, and we do feel it was
> uncouth of Apple to co-opt it. Also note that I make a habit of
> capitalizing it in the context of a Konfabulator Widget as I feel
> that it's always been a proper noun in this usage.
>
> Regarding the conspiracy theory about Konspos� and prior knowledge
> of Dashboard, here's the scoop. We knew Dashboard was coming, and
> we'd been told by *many* people that it was being developed as a
> "Konfabulator Killer". We never knew the specifics of it other than
> it was rumored to be the exact same thing as Konfabulator integrated
> at the system level. We didn't know that it was going to be touted
> as part of Expos�, and we didn't know that their format was going to
> be closer to a web page than a structured XML file.
>
> As for Apple having Dashboard technology in Copland or Mac OS 9,
> they didn't. My idea for Konfabulator was born from wanting to have
> a really simple run-time environment for people to develop small
> specialized applications that could look and behave however they
> wanted. The key point being that it is up to the user to make the
> cool Widgets. The user would know what they needed, and the user
> could then create that. The concept had nothing in the slightest to
> do with Desk Accessories, and it had absolutely nothing to do with
> Active Desktop. It was about empowering the user to make their own
> little apps that did what they wanted.
>
> ? Excerpt: [Arlo Rose: Clearing Up Some Points][6] (Web Archive)

The downloads above, are of several versions of Konfabulator up until just before it was purchased and distributed by Yahoo! in July, 2005. Konfabulator was then re-branded as [Yahoo! Widgets][3] (Wikipedia) and eventually distributed for free on both Macintosh and Windows platforms. Development of Yahoo! Widgets ended in April, 2012.

The final download (DL #8) is a collection of some 55 third-party
Widgets made by fans, etc, that I managed to find via the Web Archive.
Some may require Konfabulator 1.7.1 but most will run on earlier
versions too.

The included PDF manuals are all I could locate at the WA. They give
instructions on how to roll-your-own Widgets.

See Also: [Yahoo! Widgets][7]

Compatibility
Architecture: PPC

Konfabulator (all versions) will run on Mac OS X 10.2 (Jaguar) and Mac
OS X 10.3 (Panther). It may also run on 10.4 (Tiger) but this
introduces Dashboard and adding Konfabulator to Tiger's desktop may be
overkill.

Konfabulator tho', is pretty cool software. It may be just the excuse
you need to fire up an old Mac.

  [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dashboard_%28macOS%29
  [2]: https://web.archive.org/web/20040804071200/http://konfabulator.com/info/
  [3]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yahoo!_Widgets
  [4]: http://macintoshgarden.org/apps/appearance-manager-mac-os-7x
  [5]: http://macintoshgarden.org/apps/kaleidoscope
  [6]: https://web.archive.org/web/20040723040025/http://www2.konfabulator.com/journal/
  [7]: http://macintoshgarden.org/apps/yahoo-widgets