Microsoft have opened a new website called Microsoft Gadgets. They claim to have invented something “innovative” and “super-exciting”. Their own description of what a “gadget” is:

What are Gadgets? Gadgets are a new category of mini-application designed to provide information, useful lookup, or enhance an application or service on your Windows PC or the Web.

And – taken from The Free Dictionary:

Noun 1. gadgetry – appliances collectively; “labor-saving gadgetry”
appliance, contraption, contrivance, gadget, widget, gismo, gizmo, convenience – a device that is very useful for a particular job

“Widget”, eh? Where have I heard that word before? And, before you think Apple is the only entity Microsoft rips off, check out Super Karamba for Linux, and the huge amount of buzz around the KDE desktop’s upcoming Plasma technology

I won’t labour the point – the comments do it in abundance. At the time of writing, there are 91 comments blasting MS out of the water for their blatant rip-off “innovation”, and about 2 fanboi comments saying “we love you, Microsoft!”.