Our friends over at Liveside reported today that the Gadget Gallery for Windows is no more. If you browse to that old address at http://gallery.live.com you are going to be greeted with a message from Microsoft that talks about why it is gone:
The Windows Live Gallery has been retired. In order to focus support on the much richer set of opportunities available for the newest version of Windows, Microsoft is no longer supporting development or uploading of new Gadgets.
In other words, they are talking about the Windows Store that is expected to become a reality for the release of Windows 8. Now they have opted to keep some of these gadgets online for you to use but it is a limited collection of 29 gadgets. However, they are not shutting down development because they do mention some resources that are available if your interested in still developing these gadgets.
Still interested in building gadgets for the Windows 7 Gadget Platform (or the Windows Vista Sidebar)? We recommend that you have a look through the developer documentation at Gadgets.
Want to share a gadget that you’ve already created? CodePlex is a great option for hosting your gadgets.
You see that last line? You can still develop and share your gadgets on somewhere like CodePlex or use your own resources but I think the writing is on the wall that the future for apps on the Windows platform is the Windows Store I mentioned earlier.
I will miss some of these gadgets and I am glad a couple of my favorite developers still host their gadgets on their own and still work on them. I think there will be a large Windows 7 installed base when Windows 8 comes out so the market is still there for some creative gadgets.
I did an extensive gadget series on this site last year and had a blast mining that gallery for some real treats.
Fare Thee Well Live Gallery!
