4 ms·

I must admit, one thing I've become absolutely dependent on in Windows 7 is when you press Start you can do a quick lookup of the program you're after by typing

by cletus 16y ago

I must admit, one thing I've become absolutely dependent on in Windows 7 is when you press Start you can do a quick lookup of the program you're after by typing a few characters. Sure OSX has the Finder and Spotlight but it's not quite as quick and convenient, in my experience. But my big request is this: implement the TRIM command in the OS to open up the SSD choices. This is long overdue.

randallsquared 16y ago
According to http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/apple/2010/07/01/mac-ssd-performance-trim-in-osx/7 http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/apple/2010/07/01/mac-ssd-pe... : "We started off this article making it intentionally limited in scope as we weren't expecting, in a OS that doesn't support TRIM, to find anything all that interesting. What we found was the exact opposite: an OS that doesn't appear to be affected by SSD performance degradation [...]"
- pornel 16y ago
  They've only benchmarked 3 systems that don't support TRIM. That doesn't seem like a good way to prove that TRIM won't improve performance.
- wmf 16y ago
  an OS that doesn't appear to be affected by SSD performance degradation That may be true, but there isn't enough information in that article to tell. I think their other theory — that the Samsung SSD is essentially pre-degraded — is more likely to be correct.
pohl 16y ago
"Two thumbs down." I'm not rating your comment or spotlight or the start button. Rather, that's my mnemonic for Command-Spacebar, which brings focus to the spotlight search field. I can launch Terminal in 5 keystrokes: CMD-Space t e ENTER. Is the Start button really significantly better?
- slantyyz 16y ago
  I use the same keystrokes to trigger Quicksilver, which some may prefer over Spotlight.
  - lukifer 16y ago
    And I use the same to trigger LaunchBar, Quicksilver's super-fast (and non-free) competitor. :) http://obdev.at/products/launchbar http://obdev.at/products/launchbar
aarongough 16y ago
I'm actually using an OCZ Vertex II SSD with my Macbook Pro right now and I have nothing but good things to say. Don't worry about trim, just get a drive that supports on-board garbage collection and dive in!
steveklabnik 16y ago
> not as quick and convenient Do you press ⌘-Space to open Spotlight? I'm not sure how it can get more convenient...
- kenjackson 16y ago
  Well on Windows 7 it is just one button (the Windows button), so I guess the Spotlight equivalent is twice as inconvenient. ;-)
  - wtallis 16y ago
    The two buttons needed to trigger spotlight are right next to each other, so you can bring it up by rolling your thumb from one to the other, which is at most 50% more inconvenient than just pressing the first button.
    - kenjackson 16y ago
      Can you press them both at the same time if you have a fat thumb?
      - randallsquared 16y ago
        After extensive testing (that is, a quick test), the answer is definitely "yes, you can". :)
        wtallis 16y ago
        The command key does need to register first, though. How easy that is depends a bit on what style of keyboard you have. With the old full-travel desktop keyboards, it's a bit awkward. With the pre-"chiclet" laptop keyboards, where there is no significant gap between the keys and the edges are simply beveled, it's pretty easy and smooth. I don't have a chiclet keyboard handy at the moment to test, but it probably isn't any more awkward than the full-travel keyboards.
brownleej 16y ago
I use Quiksilver for this purpose. It's as easy as Spotlight, but I've found it to be faster for the specific purpose of launching apps.
dolinsky 16y ago
There is nothing quicker than Quicksilver http://blacktree.com/?quicksilver http://blacktree.com/?quicksilver, which the developer of has now continued work at Google with Quick Search Box http://www.google.com/quicksearchbox/ http://www.google.com/quicksearchbox/ .
GHFigs 16y ago
You might try this: From the Finder, Cmd-Shift-A, which opens the Applications folder, then your first few characters, then Cmd-Down to open. It seems like a lot of keystrokes, I know, and you have to switch to the Finder and it only works on initial characters (e.g. LIghtroom, not LightRoom) -- but since there's no search involved it "feels" extremely fast, which is often the thing that trumps all else.
cletus 16y ago
To reply to the point raised by several people: yes I know about CMD-Space (this is what I meant by Spotlight but I guess that can mean more). Somehow it just doesn't seem as good. Maybe it's the single keypress. Maybe it's that Start also has pinned and commonly used items on it (CMD-Space is just a box you can type in so really it's half the functionality of Win7's Start button).

by cletus 16y ago

randallsquared 16y ago

According to http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/apple/2010/07/01/mac-ssd-performance-trim-in-osx/7 http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/apple/2010/07/01/mac-ssd-pe... : "We started off this article making it intentionally limited in scope as we weren't expecting, in a OS that doesn't support TRIM, to find anything all that interesting. What we found was the exact opposite: an OS that doesn't appear to be affected by SSD performance degradation [...]"

pornel 16y ago
They've only benchmarked 3 systems that don't support TRIM. That doesn't seem like a good way to prove that TRIM won't improve performance.
wmf 16y ago
an OS that doesn't appear to be affected by SSD performance degradation That may be true, but there isn't enough information in that article to tell. I think their other theory — that the Samsung SSD is essentially pre-degraded — is more likely to be correct.

pohl 16y ago

"Two thumbs down." I'm not rating your comment or spotlight or the start button. Rather, that's my mnemonic for Command-Spacebar, which brings focus to the spotlight search field. I can launch Terminal in 5 keystrokes: CMD-Space t e ENTER. Is the Start button really significantly better?

slantyyz 16y ago
I use the same keystrokes to trigger Quicksilver, which some may prefer over Spotlight.
- lukifer 16y ago
  And I use the same to trigger LaunchBar, Quicksilver's super-fast (and non-free) competitor. :) http://obdev.at/products/launchbar http://obdev.at/products/launchbar

aarongough 16y ago

I'm actually using an OCZ Vertex II SSD with my Macbook Pro right now and I have nothing but good things to say. Don't worry about trim, just get a drive that supports on-board garbage collection and dive in!

steveklabnik 16y ago

> not as quick and convenient Do you press ⌘-Space to open Spotlight? I'm not sure how it can get more convenient...

kenjackson 16y ago
Well on Windows 7 it is just one button (the Windows button), so I guess the Spotlight equivalent is twice as inconvenient. ;-)
- wtallis 16y ago
  The two buttons needed to trigger spotlight are right next to each other, so you can bring it up by rolling your thumb from one to the other, which is at most 50% more inconvenient than just pressing the first button.
  - kenjackson 16y ago
    Can you press them both at the same time if you have a fat thumb?
    - randallsquared 16y ago
      After extensive testing (that is, a quick test), the answer is definitely "yes, you can". :)
      - wtallis 16y ago
        The command key does need to register first, though. How easy that is depends a bit on what style of keyboard you have. With the old full-travel desktop keyboards, it's a bit awkward. With the pre-"chiclet" laptop keyboards, where there is no significant gap between the keys and the edges are simply beveled, it's pretty easy and smooth. I don't have a chiclet keyboard handy at the moment to test, but it probably isn't any more awkward than the full-travel keyboards.

brownleej 16y ago

I use Quiksilver for this purpose. It's as easy as Spotlight, but I've found it to be faster for the specific purpose of launching apps.

dolinsky 16y ago

There is nothing quicker than Quicksilver http://blacktree.com/?quicksilver http://blacktree.com/?quicksilver, which the developer of has now continued work at Google with Quick Search Box http://www.google.com/quicksearchbox/ http://www.google.com/quicksearchbox/ .

GHFigs 16y ago

You might try this: From the Finder, Cmd-Shift-A, which opens the Applications folder, then your first few characters, then Cmd-Down to open. It seems like a lot of keystrokes, I know, and you have to switch to the Finder and it only works on initial characters (e.g. LIghtroom, not LightRoom) -- but since there's no search involved it "feels" extremely fast, which is often the thing that trumps all else.

cletus 16y ago

To reply to the point raised by several people: yes I know about CMD-Space (this is what I meant by Spotlight but I guess that can mean more). Somehow it just doesn't seem as good. Maybe it's the single keypress. Maybe it's that Start also has pinned and commonly used items on it (CMD-Space is just a box you can type in so really it's half the functionality of Win7's Start button).