Released in June, Google Gadgets for Linux provides about the same functionality of Vista sidebar or Mac OS X dashboard. While other solutions like ‘gdesklets’ are pretty popular within the linux crowd, Google’s’ platform provides compatibility with both gadgets written for the Windows version and the huge repository of web-centered gadgets (Universal Gadgets on iGoogle). Let’s take it for a spin and see if it’s worth installing.

They UI remains pretty much unchanged from the Windows version, and requires a compositioning engine like Compiz for the effects. There’s nothing really ground-breaking here – the same black transparent sidebar we all know.

More Here