There were some issues with Apple’s Dashboard like auto-installation and the absence of controls for deinstallation and management. EGO Systems, Inc released a Widgets Preference Pane for Mac OS X. This Preference Pane enables you to see and deactivate all Widgets on the system as well as set ACL permissions on the Widget folders in order to prevent installation. You can also change the Dashboard self graphic and completely disable Dashboard.
You can download it here. The software software is donationware and is provided without license or warranty of any kind.
Apple should have shipped something like this in Tiger.
UPDATE:
It seems like Build 8C40 (10.4.2) now includes a Widget Manager accourding to thinksecret.com.
