UPDATE:
I’ve noticed this post getting a lot of play lately. Glad to see it’s viewed as useful to so many! Look for a Quicksilver & Tiger piece with new and exciting Quicksilver goodness in the coming days, here on The Apple Blog.
Quicksilver is one of the most innovative applications to be found on OS X. That may be my opinion, but there hasn’t been a person I’ve introduced to it that hasn’t said [in some form], “It’s changed the way I use my computer!” That’s awfully telling I’d say.
To be fair, LaunchBar and Butler are two more popular alternatives to Quicksilver – LaunchBar is $30 for a 5 computer license and Butler is Donation-ware. In contrast, the founding developer of Quicksilver (known as Alcor on his forums – look for an interview with Alcor in the coming weeks) seems to spend more of his time working on QS than getting around to creating a donation section on blacktree.com.
Why is it better? Alcor is one of the most responsive developers I’ve come across. Beta updates seem to come – on average – about every couple weeks. He is constantly answering questions and listening to the multitude of fans on his forums. I’ve not seen a similar, consistent practice by a developer…in my memory. So not only is Quicksilver fully featured and powerful as all get-out, but it’s always evolving.
OK, what does it do?!
Short answer: It’s a launcher. It allows you to open files from a keystroke instead of clicking through the Finder for them.
Long answer: What doesn’t it do? QS indexes your hard drive into a Catalog. That Catalog is available at a single keystroke and then allows you access to everything on your computer. Not only can you open applications, but using QS, you can move files around, append text to files, locate a file and attach it to an email…The list goes on and on and on and…
But to really appreciate Quicksilver, you’ve got to dive in. Nothing I could write would explain it nearly well enough (you’re probably saying to yourself, “Yeah, that’s painfully obvious…”). Seeing absolutely is believing. And as it says on the Quicksilver Preview page:
In the end, Quicksilver has one very important effect. , The effort associated with frequent tasks fades into the background and you are able to act without thinking. After an adaptation period, Quicksilver becomes an extension of yourself; the process fades away leaving only the results.
So let’s get started! Read more »
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