The fact that they are all built on OSS libraries (except transmission, I don't think thats OSS and I have no clue what it is built on.  I hate it anyways) is actually the reason I chose those programs.  They take the backend of all these programs, and have a massively improved user interface and inner workings (IMO).  It's nothing that couldn't be done on linux -- it just hasn't yet.  That's what pretty much exemplifies the way OS X works in my mind.  It takes great ideas that may just not be easy, and makes them easy.  It says "What does this program do that isn't necessary 95% of the time" and hides them, while takeing the stuff that *is* needed and making it easier and more obvious; all the functionality remains, but it is hidden so that you only find about about it when you need it.

 For example, at any time on an OS X machine you can press control and use the scroll wheel, and it will zoom in on the screen.  I have been using OS X for 2 years now and I first found it out about 2 weeks ago.  And I keep finding those kinds of features!  Added functionality that most people will never need; but it is there and easily accessible for those who do need it.  And *that* functionality is what I am talking about being present in OS X development but not really anywhere else (although it is present in linux development... I think Compiz does this well). 

The thing is, I can have Linux (Ubuntu 7.10) perfectly emulate a Mac desktop almost natively with the dock, windows and menubar-at-the-top, and I can have it emulate a Vista desktop perfectly with the window borders and everything almost natively, but I can't have Vista or Mac OS X have the features of the other environment as if native.

On Linux, there is little distinction between "OS" and "Applications".

Wish i knew what a widget was.

So wait, I never got an answer to my original question. Does Microsoft XP have a widget equivalent? or is it only Vista with it's "gadgets"?

Widgets or gadgets as they are called in Vista were in the 2002 Longhorne Beta as was Live search or spotlight as it is known in OSX. this was a full 2 years earlier before they were introduced and Tiger and a year earlier before tehy were even announced by Apple. Also widgets and gadgets are both rip offs of Konfubalator.

Personally I dislike widgets/gadgets as they just seem pointless I always turn them off or remove the hotkeys for them in the case of OSX where they are obtrusive especially if you use a mighty mouse.

Nope XP does not have native support for gadget/widgets.

@ TWRoO widgets are just a really small application.... i think they were originally used when computers had problems multitasking

also true that they showed up in longhorn preview first but BeOS had them before that, it also had a version of spotlight, indexing, and pretty much every other major osx upgrade, that was not already in NExtstep. and if you want to go really far back windowss v1 had clock as a widget equivelent... it was a key featre talked about by balmer in their promotional material 

Yup it was on BeOS and it was also a program available for linux before the Longhorn preview. I only mention it when people go on and on about how Vista "copied" those features from OS X. Personally I don't care as I can't really think of anything truly innovative that has come directly from Apple or MS in a longtime...without them buying up a company or patent.

Personally I am dieing to see if Amiga 5.0 is going to retain any of its former greatness. I have my fingers crossed but am pretty wary(not the same team). the only question now is did PARC have any widget equivilents? Anybody here actually own a STAR?

 Widgets are a great little application. At any time, no matter what applications I'm running, I can move my mouse to the lower right corner, press f12 or click the "dashboard" icon to bring up the dashboard. And when I do, a tinted see through screen comes over top of everything else with a series of small applications in it. You can chose what applicatino you want from ones made by apple or created by users. 

Right now when I go to my dashboard I have applications to check the weather, time, date, a calculator, universal converter(set to currency), posted notes with costume ideas, my itunes player, some Toronto Traffic webcams, a google search, address book, wikipedia serch, dictionary, Rotten Tomatoes rating finder (halloween got 90%, Halloween 2 got 19!) and a spedometer telling me how much processing power I'm using (not many). So I can access all this info within half of a second, and then flick back to my other programs.

And now, as soon as Leapord comes out and I get Safari 3.0, I'll now be able to check VG chartz numbers just as easily.

It's quite nice.

So you agree with me! =) And yes desktop zoom has been present in Linux for quite some time, of course screen magnifiers were present for even longer (as they don't need compositing support). But essentially you're saying exactly the same thing I did, that someone else comes up with the idea, and Apple just implements it well.