8 ms·

QuickSilver for Mac Lives

191 points by GeneralMaximus 15y ago

justinchen 15y ago
I've moved on to Alfred. http://www.alfredapp.com/ http://www.alfredapp.com/
- jacabado 15y ago
  Me too, 5 days ago. Maybe it's time to switch back? Alfred hasn't surprise me in any way, maybe QS set the bar too high.
  - jbverschoor 15y ago
    Me too. for a couple of months now already.. Bought the powerpack, which I don't use.. :-)
  - jlongster 15y ago
    This update fixes proxy objects, which is huge. I haven't seen any other program come close to QS's flexibility. I can do "Current Selection > Search/Email/etc.", "Current Application > Show Menu", all kinds of cool stuff. The last example shows all the menu items for the app in quicksilver, so I can search through it. Kind of like the search box in the app's help menu, but faster and easier (just make sure to bind that action to a key).
    - hmottestad 15y ago
      Yes, gotta love proxies. Select an item in finder, press [alt-cmd-space] and type "email", [tab], then type the name of the person (QS searches your address book) and then hit enter to send off. EDIT: Not very stable though...crashed it just now when trying to use the proxy select to append to file.
      - navs 15y ago
        I experienced a few crashes after applying the update. It's a lot more stable now that I trashed the associated .plist and reinstalled.
- klinquist 15y ago
  Same. While QS is clearly more powerful, there seems to be speed advantages to using Spotlight's database (which is what Alfred does).
- greattypo 15y ago
  I installed Alfred on Sunday, and am trying to adjust. For all of the Alfred-switchers in here - does anyone else find the folder navigation pretty unintuitive? Or am I doing it wrong? LaunchBar / QS's approach: Type "Documents" to bring up folder, use up & down to select things, and left or right arrows to drill into them. Typing anything searches everything within the current folder. So intuitive to me! Alfred: "Documents" brings up folder, Command+Down(?) to open it. Then use up & down to select things, and Command+Down to drill in. If you want to say, open a folder in Finder, you have to hit Command+O or "Enter" and "Enter". You can search but only by the first letters in the filename (not "pdf") . So for your converts - what's the deal, do you prefer this style, am I doing it wrong, or do you just get used to it..?
  - vpepperrell 15y ago
    Have you tried using the right arrow to go into your Documents folder? E.g. Type "docu", Documents shows up as top results, right arrow, then pick your action either by arrow down or cmd + number. If all you want to do is open a folder, prefix your search term by "open" or hit the spacebar first (shortcut for "open"). If you want to reveal it in Finder, just type "find" first, and if you want to search inside files, just type "in" first. If you give Alfred a chance (and accept that it isn't trying to be Quicksilver), you'll really get into a groove with it.
  - msbarnett 15y ago
    I couldn't adjust. Alfred may not be trying to be Quicksilver, but where it does go its own way it feels actively worse. Everything in QS is very regular, Object-Verb style interaction with fuzzy completion of both. Alfred has a wartier, more irregular interaction model: it's Verb-Object if you want to type the verb, but it seems to push you into command key combos, which operate on a Object-Verb basis, and there doesn't feel like much logic as to what's available as what.
    - carterschonwald 15y ago
      the object then verb description precisely describes what is nice and uniform about QS, thanks for articulating it so clearly!
- FiZ 15y ago
  I like Alfred quite a bit, but if this is a serious attempt to develop quicksilver back into relevance, I'm going to have to give the new version a try. Just to tinker, if nothing else. To me, QS was more powerful, but Alfred was more polished.
beck5 15y ago
I have found Alfred a very polished alternative and a little more robust than quicksilver has been over the past couple of years.
- msbarnett 15y ago
  I've tried to make myself love Alfred, and it's admittedly very polished for what it is, but to me it seems to miss the entire thing that makes Quicksilver just so productive to use: the [object][verb] syntax. Alfred kind of bizarrely stops half-way there: you type anything to find the object you want to manipulate, and then... pick a verb by hitting the appropriate command key or arrowing through a list. My hands are already in the middle of the keyboard, just let me type the verb name!
  - beck5 15y ago
    I think its fair to say quicksilver is more powerful, you can really do almost anything in it. I however didn't use many of the power features (resizing images or composing e-mails). Alfred is really just a launcher with a few nice bonus features (clipboard history & spell are my favourite) where as quicksilver is more like a command line power house.
  - dtwwtd 15y ago
    For things like files Alfred does have verbs. examples: open report.pdf - opens in default pdf application find report.pdf - opens directory in finder Take a look around in the preferences, while it doesn't have all the features of Quicksiver, you'll be surprised. (Edited formatting)
    - msbarnett 15y ago
      Yeah, I'm not wild about the verb first syntax, personally. It doesn't seem to fit the mental models I've formed over the years.
- phren0logy 15y ago
  I have enjoyed the fact that Alfred doesn't crash, but it seems much worse at interpreting abbreviations. For example, with no training QuickSilver took me to TextMate by typing "tm," where Alfred still has trouble with this. I also considered LaunchBar. It looks very nice, but I cannot justify the price for my use given the alternatives.
ionfish 15y ago
I just switched back to Quicksilver after trying Alfred for a bit. The basic reason was that Quicksilver's search is better and more easily customised: it finds the things I'm looking for, and given that the whole point of using such things is to improve one's productivity (by cutting out the whole "Open Finder, dig down through the file hierarchy, finally manage to open the file, directory or application being searched for" process), it doesn't really matter to me how well its competitors do in other areas.
jh3 15y ago
It's been "living." This is just an update, correct?
- stevejohnson 15y ago
  From what I understand, the last official update was several years ago, so this really is news.
snewe 15y ago
Download link: http://qsapp.com/download.php http://qsapp.com/download.php
- deleted 15y ago
  [deleted]
- patrickod 15y ago
  thank you! I couldn't find a download link on the page. Doesn't seem to be listed which is weird.
p0ppe 15y ago
I changed to LaunchBar (http://www.obdev.at/products/launchbar/ http://www.obdev.at/products/launchbar/) about a year ago. No complaints so far and I also like supporting an independent developer.
- guns 15y ago
  I was hesitant to move to LaunchBar because it didn't support Quicksilver's Triggers feature. Then I found Spark Daemon: http://www.shadowlab.org/Software/spark.php http://www.shadowlab.org/Software/spark.php It's an excellent free (but not open source) and complete Triggers replacement that has none of the bugs of Quicksilver's implementation. Once I had a keyboard shortcut manager, I was happy to switch to LaunchBar, whose author, among other things, is also the creator of Little Snitch, an amazing interactive outbound firewall.
  - lukifer 15y ago
    Thanks for the tip, LaunchBar's inability to handle snippets has been my only complaint. I loved me some QuickSilver in days of yore, but I'll never switch back; LaunchBar is too excellent, and it's burned into my brain at this point. :)
krosaen 15y ago
too bad the spinoff project within google, Quick Search Box (same guy who started quick silver was involved), didn't really ever gain traction and has not been actively developed in a while, it had promise: http://code.google.com/p/qsb-mac http://code.google.com/p/qsb-mac
- krosaen 15y ago
  though I think a lot of the sensibilities from QSB have landed in the iphone google search app and the search box for android
- navs 15y ago
  I had high hopes for QSB. I especially loved its ability to grab menu items and use quicklook on files. Unfortunately, QSB was a major memory hog on my system when compared to Quicksilver and Alfred.
- narkee 15y ago
  Actually the Quick Search Box maintainer (dmaclach) posted on Google Groups that Quick Search Box is basically dead in the water, and no longer funded by Google. Apparently most of the former team are now working on Chrome: http://groups.google.com/group/qsb-mac-discuss/msg/ded590b8b6a89375 http://groups.google.com/group/qsb-mac-discuss/msg/ded590b8b...
greattypo 15y ago
Really glad to see this picked up! I know Quicksilver has had some false starts before.. http://lipidity.com/apple/cleaning-up-quicksilver/ http://lipidity.com/apple/cleaning-up-quicksilver/ http://code.google.com/p/blacktree-alchemy/updates/list http://code.google.com/p/blacktree-alchemy/updates/list http://www.43folders.com/2008/07/08/quicksilver-update http://www.43folders.com/2008/07/08/quicksilver-update I'm curious - are these efforts building on each other, or is everyone starting from scratch each time?
glenjamin 15y ago
For the uninitiated, what does this do that spotlight doesn't? The mac is the only platform where I haven't felt the need for a decent launcher app!
- wlesieutre 15y ago
  Spotlight opens files, does math, and gives definitions. Quicksilver does everything. It's based on an object/action system where you pick an object and do something to/with it. There are all sorts of actions, from relaunching apps, deleting, emailing, or moving files, running scripts (I use get ip frequently), reading text, etc. It also gives fast access to some non-file things, like address book cards (right arrow to drill in to contact information, which let's you make new emails). There are addons for a lot of things like bookmarks for various browsers, mouse gesture triggers, Cyberduck bookmarks, etc. It's fantastic if you prefer a keyboard over mousing.
- hyperbovine 15y ago
  You can't do the <object> <verb> thing. I agree though, the "death" of Quiksilver for me was when Apple introduced Spotlight in 10.5. 90% of what I used QS for was opening files, folders and apps.
  - alanh 15y ago
    For clarity, Spotlight was not new in 10.5, but rather was optimized to list applications first & fastest.
- snth 15y ago
  Quicksilver also seems faster
mambodog 15y ago
For me, cmd+space (Spotlight) has been quite sufficient, and it's right there out of the box.
- bostonvaulter2 15y ago
  Personally I don't like the delay while spotlight is searching before I get to actually launch something. It's pretty decent though.
  - strmpnk 15y ago
    These days I can't tell the difference in speed between QS and Spotlight. Lion will also make that a bit faster and each entry a little nicer. I do miss the "verb" concept in QS, but I'd rather than it'd do a spotlight search and then overlay on that instead of implement it's own index.
lovskogen 15y ago
I'm just doing QS for the global shortcuts, anyone know of a native way of launching apps from keyboard shortcuts?
- evilduck 15y ago
  Besides Spotlight (Cmd-Space, start typing the app name), System Preferences->Keyboard->Keyboard Shortcuts. You can define key combos to launch apps.
  - lovskogen 15y ago
    To launch apps, not adding shortcuts inside apps? How?
shubhamgoel 15y ago
great.. but I have switched to alfred and love it
dedward 15y ago
That's good news - does anyone else know what to do about the problem with the Shelf plugin and the Shelf popping up unwanted all the time? (whenever windows or apps are closed, perhaps even when they are opened sometimes, sometimes when quicksilver is invoked - very flaky)
- dedward 15y ago
  Note this wasn't unique to this version - it's been going on for, err, years.
blaenk 15y ago
Anyone know if I have to have a plugin installed to use the "Latest Download" and other proxy objects? Nothing seems to come up for me when I type that.
angusgr 15y ago
If anyone's looking for alternatives on other platforms, I find "GNOME Do" quite good on GNOME/Linux and "Launchy" is decent for Windows.
- rtaycher 15y ago
  It doesn't work quite the same way but krunner is also quite nice.
  - navs 15y ago
    Don't forget Kupfer http://kaizer.se/wiki/kupfer/ http://kaizer.se/wiki/kupfer/
amanuel 15y ago
Glad to see QS getting updates. The new plugins are welcome...well they are new to me (QRCode and Viscosity)
fjw 15y ago
I've stuck with QuickSilver throughout, just because it's what I am used to and most comfortable using. Compared to the other apps that I have tried (Alfred, Spotlight), QuickSilver seems to get the most done with the least amount of effort -- it's simple to learn, harder to master, yet still extremely intuitive.

191 points by GeneralMaximus 15y ago

justinchen 15y ago

I've moved on to Alfred. http://www.alfredapp.com/ http://www.alfredapp.com/

jacabado 15y ago
Me too, 5 days ago. Maybe it's time to switch back? Alfred hasn't surprise me in any way, maybe QS set the bar too high.
- jbverschoor 15y ago
  Me too. for a couple of months now already.. Bought the powerpack, which I don't use.. :-)
- jlongster 15y ago
  This update fixes proxy objects, which is huge. I haven't seen any other program come close to QS's flexibility. I can do "Current Selection > Search/Email/etc.", "Current Application > Show Menu", all kinds of cool stuff. The last example shows all the menu items for the app in quicksilver, so I can search through it. Kind of like the search box in the app's help menu, but faster and easier (just make sure to bind that action to a key).
  - hmottestad 15y ago
    Yes, gotta love proxies. Select an item in finder, press [alt-cmd-space] and type "email", [tab], then type the name of the person (QS searches your address book) and then hit enter to send off. EDIT: Not very stable though...crashed it just now when trying to use the proxy select to append to file.
    - navs 15y ago
      I experienced a few crashes after applying the update. It's a lot more stable now that I trashed the associated .plist and reinstalled.
klinquist 15y ago
Same. While QS is clearly more powerful, there seems to be speed advantages to using Spotlight's database (which is what Alfred does).
greattypo 15y ago
I installed Alfred on Sunday, and am trying to adjust. For all of the Alfred-switchers in here - does anyone else find the folder navigation pretty unintuitive? Or am I doing it wrong? LaunchBar / QS's approach: Type "Documents" to bring up folder, use up & down to select things, and left or right arrows to drill into them. Typing anything searches everything within the current folder. So intuitive to me! Alfred: "Documents" brings up folder, Command+Down(?) to open it. Then use up & down to select things, and Command+Down to drill in. If you want to say, open a folder in Finder, you have to hit Command+O or "Enter" and "Enter". You can search but only by the first letters in the filename (not "pdf") . So for your converts - what's the deal, do you prefer this style, am I doing it wrong, or do you just get used to it..?
- vpepperrell 15y ago
  Have you tried using the right arrow to go into your Documents folder? E.g. Type "docu", Documents shows up as top results, right arrow, then pick your action either by arrow down or cmd + number. If all you want to do is open a folder, prefix your search term by "open" or hit the spacebar first (shortcut for "open"). If you want to reveal it in Finder, just type "find" first, and if you want to search inside files, just type "in" first. If you give Alfred a chance (and accept that it isn't trying to be Quicksilver), you'll really get into a groove with it.
- msbarnett 15y ago
  I couldn't adjust. Alfred may not be trying to be Quicksilver, but where it does go its own way it feels actively worse. Everything in QS is very regular, Object-Verb style interaction with fuzzy completion of both. Alfred has a wartier, more irregular interaction model: it's Verb-Object if you want to type the verb, but it seems to push you into command key combos, which operate on a Object-Verb basis, and there doesn't feel like much logic as to what's available as what.
  - carterschonwald 15y ago
    the object then verb description precisely describes what is nice and uniform about QS, thanks for articulating it so clearly!
FiZ 15y ago
I like Alfred quite a bit, but if this is a serious attempt to develop quicksilver back into relevance, I'm going to have to give the new version a try. Just to tinker, if nothing else. To me, QS was more powerful, but Alfred was more polished.

beck5 15y ago

I have found Alfred a very polished alternative and a little more robust than quicksilver has been over the past couple of years.

msbarnett 15y ago
I've tried to make myself love Alfred, and it's admittedly very polished for what it is, but to me it seems to miss the entire thing that makes Quicksilver just so productive to use: the [object][verb] syntax. Alfred kind of bizarrely stops half-way there: you type anything to find the object you want to manipulate, and then... pick a verb by hitting the appropriate command key or arrowing through a list. My hands are already in the middle of the keyboard, just let me type the verb name!
- beck5 15y ago
  I think its fair to say quicksilver is more powerful, you can really do almost anything in it. I however didn't use many of the power features (resizing images or composing e-mails). Alfred is really just a launcher with a few nice bonus features (clipboard history & spell are my favourite) where as quicksilver is more like a command line power house.
- dtwwtd 15y ago
  For things like files Alfred does have verbs. examples: open report.pdf - opens in default pdf application find report.pdf - opens directory in finder Take a look around in the preferences, while it doesn't have all the features of Quicksiver, you'll be surprised. (Edited formatting)
  - msbarnett 15y ago
    Yeah, I'm not wild about the verb first syntax, personally. It doesn't seem to fit the mental models I've formed over the years.
phren0logy 15y ago
I have enjoyed the fact that Alfred doesn't crash, but it seems much worse at interpreting abbreviations. For example, with no training QuickSilver took me to TextMate by typing "tm," where Alfred still has trouble with this. I also considered LaunchBar. It looks very nice, but I cannot justify the price for my use given the alternatives.

ionfish 15y ago

I just switched back to Quicksilver after trying Alfred for a bit. The basic reason was that Quicksilver's search is better and more easily customised: it finds the things I'm looking for, and given that the whole point of using such things is to improve one's productivity (by cutting out the whole "Open Finder, dig down through the file hierarchy, finally manage to open the file, directory or application being searched for" process), it doesn't really matter to me how well its competitors do in other areas.

jh3 15y ago

It's been "living." This is just an update, correct?

stevejohnson 15y ago
From what I understand, the last official update was several years ago, so this really is news.

snewe 15y ago

Download link: http://qsapp.com/download.php http://qsapp.com/download.php

deleted 15y ago
[deleted]
patrickod 15y ago
thank you! I couldn't find a download link on the page. Doesn't seem to be listed which is weird.

p0ppe 15y ago

I changed to LaunchBar (http://www.obdev.at/products/launchbar/ http://www.obdev.at/products/launchbar/) about a year ago. No complaints so far and I also like supporting an independent developer.

guns 15y ago
I was hesitant to move to LaunchBar because it didn't support Quicksilver's Triggers feature. Then I found Spark Daemon: http://www.shadowlab.org/Software/spark.php http://www.shadowlab.org/Software/spark.php It's an excellent free (but not open source) and complete Triggers replacement that has none of the bugs of Quicksilver's implementation. Once I had a keyboard shortcut manager, I was happy to switch to LaunchBar, whose author, among other things, is also the creator of Little Snitch, an amazing interactive outbound firewall.
- lukifer 15y ago
  Thanks for the tip, LaunchBar's inability to handle snippets has been my only complaint. I loved me some QuickSilver in days of yore, but I'll never switch back; LaunchBar is too excellent, and it's burned into my brain at this point. :)

krosaen 15y ago

too bad the spinoff project within google, Quick Search Box (same guy who started quick silver was involved), didn't really ever gain traction and has not been actively developed in a while, it had promise: http://code.google.com/p/qsb-mac http://code.google.com/p/qsb-mac

krosaen 15y ago
though I think a lot of the sensibilities from QSB have landed in the iphone google search app and the search box for android
navs 15y ago
I had high hopes for QSB. I especially loved its ability to grab menu items and use quicklook on files. Unfortunately, QSB was a major memory hog on my system when compared to Quicksilver and Alfred.
narkee 15y ago
Actually the Quick Search Box maintainer (dmaclach) posted on Google Groups that Quick Search Box is basically dead in the water, and no longer funded by Google. Apparently most of the former team are now working on Chrome: http://groups.google.com/group/qsb-mac-discuss/msg/ded590b8b6a89375 http://groups.google.com/group/qsb-mac-discuss/msg/ded590b8b...

greattypo 15y ago

Really glad to see this picked up! I know Quicksilver has had some false starts before.. http://lipidity.com/apple/cleaning-up-quicksilver/ http://lipidity.com/apple/cleaning-up-quicksilver/ http://code.google.com/p/blacktree-alchemy/updates/list http://code.google.com/p/blacktree-alchemy/updates/list http://www.43folders.com/2008/07/08/quicksilver-update http://www.43folders.com/2008/07/08/quicksilver-update I'm curious - are these efforts building on each other, or is everyone starting from scratch each time?

glenjamin 15y ago

For the uninitiated, what does this do that spotlight doesn't? The mac is the only platform where I haven't felt the need for a decent launcher app!

wlesieutre 15y ago
Spotlight opens files, does math, and gives definitions. Quicksilver does everything. It's based on an object/action system where you pick an object and do something to/with it. There are all sorts of actions, from relaunching apps, deleting, emailing, or moving files, running scripts (I use get ip frequently), reading text, etc. It also gives fast access to some non-file things, like address book cards (right arrow to drill in to contact information, which let's you make new emails). There are addons for a lot of things like bookmarks for various browsers, mouse gesture triggers, Cyberduck bookmarks, etc. It's fantastic if you prefer a keyboard over mousing.
hyperbovine 15y ago
You can't do the <object> <verb> thing. I agree though, the "death" of Quiksilver for me was when Apple introduced Spotlight in 10.5. 90% of what I used QS for was opening files, folders and apps.
- alanh 15y ago
  For clarity, Spotlight was not new in 10.5, but rather was optimized to list applications first & fastest.
snth 15y ago
Quicksilver also seems faster

mambodog 15y ago

For me, cmd+space (Spotlight) has been quite sufficient, and it's right there out of the box.

bostonvaulter2 15y ago
Personally I don't like the delay while spotlight is searching before I get to actually launch something. It's pretty decent though.
- strmpnk 15y ago
  These days I can't tell the difference in speed between QS and Spotlight. Lion will also make that a bit faster and each entry a little nicer. I do miss the "verb" concept in QS, but I'd rather than it'd do a spotlight search and then overlay on that instead of implement it's own index.

lovskogen 15y ago

I'm just doing QS for the global shortcuts, anyone know of a native way of launching apps from keyboard shortcuts?

evilduck 15y ago
Besides Spotlight (Cmd-Space, start typing the app name), System Preferences->Keyboard->Keyboard Shortcuts. You can define key combos to launch apps.
- lovskogen 15y ago
  To launch apps, not adding shortcuts inside apps? How?

shubhamgoel 15y ago

great.. but I have switched to alfred and love it

dedward 15y ago

That's good news - does anyone else know what to do about the problem with the Shelf plugin and the Shelf popping up unwanted all the time? (whenever windows or apps are closed, perhaps even when they are opened sometimes, sometimes when quicksilver is invoked - very flaky)

dedward 15y ago
Note this wasn't unique to this version - it's been going on for, err, years.

blaenk 15y ago

Anyone know if I have to have a plugin installed to use the "Latest Download" and other proxy objects? Nothing seems to come up for me when I type that.

angusgr 15y ago

If anyone's looking for alternatives on other platforms, I find "GNOME Do" quite good on GNOME/Linux and "Launchy" is decent for Windows.

rtaycher 15y ago
It doesn't work quite the same way but krunner is also quite nice.
- navs 15y ago
  Don't forget Kupfer http://kaizer.se/wiki/kupfer/ http://kaizer.se/wiki/kupfer/

amanuel 15y ago

Glad to see QS getting updates. The new plugins are welcome...well they are new to me (QRCode and Viscosity)

fjw 15y ago

I've stuck with QuickSilver throughout, just because it's what I am used to and most comfortable using. Compared to the other apps that I have tried (Alfred, Spotlight), QuickSilver seems to get the most done with the least amount of effort -- it's simple to learn, harder to master, yet still extremely intuitive.