Filed under: Software, Freeware, Universal Binary
Quicksilver alpha builds, B50 Bulldog
HawkWings brings us two quick notes about everyones favorite OS X do-everything app, Quicksilver. According to a thread in the QS forums, contrary to many a users' expectations, setting QS to check for pre-release versions does not get you the very latest bleeding edge super Xtreme sub-alpha builds of the application. Instead, if you feel you are Xtreme enough to handle pre-pre-release builds of Quicksilver, head on over to the GetQS.com developer page. Speaking of ultra-alpha versions, Quicksilver B50 Bulldog was recently released, and although it doesn't sport much in the way of new features, it does have a sexy new menu bar icon.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Randy said 5:22PM on 8-10-2006
...Everybody's favorite? I was just writing on my blog last night how I prefer Launchbar.
http://www.macseven.com/files/3bd30f0b8aca5dc9b6f256f84da0ebb8-11.html
Randy
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michel said 5:48PM on 8-10-2006
Randy : but Quicksilver is MY favorite :)
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Don Parr said 6:33PM on 8-10-2006
This is obviously another personal preference issue (in my opinion). I started with LaunchBar 4, and since I paid for it, I resisted even trying others, like Quicksilver, Butler, etc.. I kept reading good things about Quicksilver and decided, since it was free, I'd give it a go - I haven't looked back since! Another word for Quicksilver is "Awesome," and the fact that it's currently free makes it an unbeatable value. I will read Randy's views on why he prefers Launchbar, but I honestly cannot see giving up Quicksilver without a fight. I've been assimilated (by Quicksilver) and, in this case, that's a good thing :)!
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artist-illustrator said 7:08PM on 8-10-2006
once you go QS you never go back! end of story.
'Email dragged items' is one of my personal fave features of QS
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Nik Fletcher said 7:32PM on 8-10-2006
Whether or not it's the best is clearly subjective. However, QS is still one of the most amazing apps. If Apple were to have QS instead of Spotlight in Tiger, I can't imagine many (if any) users who would complain. I'd be dancing for joy as Spotlight has become too slow for use and means I'm likely to going to re-format and re-load Mac OS X and my apps.
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Joshua said 9:08PM on 8-10-2006
i'll agree, QS is one of the best mac apps there is, and after switching my personal machines from PCs to Macs QS is one of the reasons I find it hard to use my PC at work. I now use QS to launch everything and perform just about every action there is. It is the best kGTD interface and has replaced my dock, spotlight and even the finder (for the most part)
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Dan said 9:08PM on 8-10-2006
Randy, your blog comment about Quicksilver not updating its index can be remedied by setting the update time to 10 minutes. Also, Quicksilver has a number of interfaces, which may feel more "like a part of OS X." (In particular the Flashlight and Menu interfaces, although I'm partial to Bezel myself.
QS is infinitely customizable, and even if you only use a subset of its large featureset it doesn't complain.
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Allan White said 9:24PM on 8-10-2006
I use QS to pipe text strings *into* Spotlight, so you don't have this silly search-as-you-type nonsense. It makes for very fast queries.
I really detest the way the Spotlight search results box is 'modeless' and isn't attached to the finder (or anything else). It makes it impossible to tab back to, AFAIK.
I've said it before, but I'll say it again: Spotlight is for searching. QS is for *doing* stuff. There is overlap, sure, but they complement each other.
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Stridey said 9:43PM on 8-10-2006
The new icon is designed by Adam Betts, if I'm not mistaken:
http://www.artofadambetts.com/
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Alex said 1:08AM on 8-11-2006
I cannot download Quicksilver! I download the .dmg, then Stuffit wants to extract 2 images that it can't mount.
It's so weird.
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drivebybiped said 1:16AM on 8-11-2006
I use QS and everyone I've showed it too after they've used it for a day or so can't go back to not using it. I'd love to see this integrated rather than have spotlight. I've removed it from the menubar. I do still use it for searching however as QS loves to suck up resources if your catalog is large (having the developer documentation plugin for example).
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John Russell said 4:20AM on 8-11-2006
I must say, I'm not really a fan of the new menu bar icon. Is there a way to change it back without going back to the old version?
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Allan White said 11:43AM on 8-11-2006
I've hacked QS's internal icons before (like the onerous 'rocket' icon for go - I made a nice green "go!" icon that looks cool). Hunt around inside the QS.app package; maybe it's in there.
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Allan White said 11:46AM on 8-11-2006
^^ Confirmed: there's a png called, "QuickSilverMenu.png" inside the package in /Contents/Resources/. Just for fun.
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Nate said 5:13PM on 8-11-2006
Alex: why on earth are you opening a .dmg with Stuffit? All .dmg files should open (by default) with /System/Library/CoreServices/DiskImageMounter.app
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Alex said 10:09PM on 8-12-2006
Yeah, and every single other dmg mounts just fine, but for some reason, the Quicksilver DMG fires up Stuffit!
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