Welcome to the MacNN Forums.

larrinski · 12:37 AM

Don't mean to open a can of worms here...

I have been using Quicksilver for about 2 years now, but with this recent article, I am considering the switch to Launchbar. As I haven't used Launchbar before, I have a couple of questions...

1) Will it let me use quick abbreviations for web searches, (g for google search, vt for versiontracker are the obvious ones), but also be able to make customized ones from my saved omniweb searches?
2) Will it run itunes apple scripts like play/pause, next song, previous song?
3) Will it do text manipulations like append and prepend to a text file?

There are probably more that are just part of my routine I am not aware of...

If so, then it may be my time. I hear it is more stable than Quicksilver(currently running B53 and it crashes every couple of days)...I really have loved it and consider it my favourite Mac app. Very sad to see it heading in the wrong direction...

I guess it would be the place to ask if anyone here feels that now that Quicksilver is opensource, it will improve? I am not so hopeful...

larrinski · Dec 8, 2007, 06:19 PM

Wow! Nothing...?? Have we debated and discussed Quicksilver and Launchbar so much that we don't care anymore?

Here is another article on the AppleBlog, with the same sad sentiments on Quicksilver's slow death...

iMan G5 · Dec 8, 2007, 11:13 PM

How did you make Quicksilver crash? It hasn't crashed at all for me. Plus, why pay for something like Launchbar or Trampoline?

larrinski · Dec 9, 2007, 11:25 PM

Originally Posted by iMan G5

How did you make Quicksilver crash? It hasn't crashed at all for me. Plus, why pay for something like Launchbar or Trampoline?

I haven't pinned down what has been making it crash. On my desktop machine, it seems to hang up for about 3-4 seconds before acknowledging my typing. I should clarify that it only seems to be a problem on the desktop. I had a ton of plugins installed as well, and noticed that the menu interface, and the primer interface seemed to be causing me the most crash problems. I haven't done a fresh install of Quicksilver on it in over a year, and I did upgrade to Leopard. I upgraded Quicksilver right after that. I have been thinking of doing a fresh install of it, but almost solely use my Macbook, and haven't got around to it...

I feel the same about using Quicksilver instead of other alternatives, but would be willing to pay for a license if it would help the cause. I am most concerned as the newest Leopard patches come out, that Quicksilver will not keep pace, and become more unstable.

CharlesS · Dec 10, 2007, 02:30 AM

QuickSilver used to crash for me a lot, but with the latest versions it's been pretty stable. YMMV, but I'd check to make sure you're running the latest version.

King Bob On The Cob · Dec 10, 2007, 03:03 AM

Not sure if you should nix QuickSilver yet.

Cleaning up Quicksilver › Vacuous Virtuoso

Other devs are picking up the slack (The code is a monstrosity right now)

markponcelet · Dec 12, 2007, 05:42 PM

I'm a fan of Launchbar, having used it now for about 2.5 years. I'll do my best to answer your questions.

1) Will it let me use quick abbreviations for web searches, (g for google search, vt for versiontracker are the obvious ones), but also be able to make customized ones from my saved omniweb searches?

Yes. I use goog<space><search term> to run a google search; wiki<space><search term> to look something up on wikipedia (god, I love that one); and a custom one that I made for myself: <def><search term> to get a google definition of a word.

2) Will it run itunes apple scripts like play/pause, next song, previous song?

Yes. It has built-in scripts for all iTunes commands. (I didn't actually know this, since I've trained launchbar to do an itunes store search when I type "IT." You've forced me to learn something!

)

3) Will it do text manipulations like append and prepend to a text file?

It will append. Apparently the command is "shift-space" once the file is selected in launchbar. Interesting. I don't see anything for prepending, though.

As far as crashing, LaunchBar has never crashed on me.

Some other reasons you might want to switch:

[ul]
[li]LaunchBar is Path Finder-friendly (and vice-versa)[/li]
[li]Scripts can call/control launchbar. (Not sure if QS can do this.[/li]
[/ul]

...aaaand, that's all I can think of. Hard to give you information when I haven't used quicksilver.

larrinski · Dec 12, 2007, 07:02 PM

Good posts. Thanks! I will probably stick with Quicksilver and wait it out, as it works almost flawlessly on my Macbook(except a kernel panic when I invoked the itunes play/pause script yesterday, but that could also be a leopard issue...) Maybe I will uninstall it on the imac, and start again. It has been through a lot of changes on that machine. If the Launchbar demo gave me full access for 30 days, I may give it a go, but it seems to limit the amount of commands daily in the demo, and I used up my limit in 10 minutes...

King Bob On The Cob · Dec 12, 2007, 07:15 PM

Originally Posted by markponcelet

I'm a fan of Launchbar, having used it now for about 2.5 years. I'll do my best to answer your questions.

1) Will it let me use quick abbreviations for web searches, (g for google search, vt for versiontracker are the obvious ones), but also be able to make customized ones from my saved omniweb searches?

Yes. I use goog<space><search term> to run a google search; wiki<space><search term> to look something up on wikipedia (god, I love that one); and a custom one that I made for myself: <def><search term> to get a google definition of a word.

2) Will it run itunes apple scripts like play/pause, next song, previous song?

Yes. It has built-in scripts for all iTunes commands. (I didn't actually know this, since I've trained launchbar to do an itunes store search when I type "IT." You've forced me to learn something!

)

3) Will it do text manipulations like append and prepend to a text file?

It will append. Apparently the command is "shift-space" once the file is selected in launchbar. Interesting. I don't see anything for prepending, though.

As far as crashing, LaunchBar has never crashed on me.

Some other reasons you might want to switch:

[ul]
[li]LaunchBar is Path Finder-friendly (and vice-versa)[/li]
[li]Scripts can call/control launchbar. (Not sure if QS can do this.[/li]
[/ul]

...aaaand, that's all I can think of. Hard to give you information when I haven't used quicksilver.

1. Yes, Quicksilver supports this, and with the OmniWeb plugin, it gets all the information straight from OmniWeb without any interaction.

2. Quicksilver has better support for iTunes than LaunchBar. If I'm not mistaken, iTunes support was added to LaunchBar in response to Quicksilver having it.

3. Quicksilver has plugins that do just about every kind of image, file, and process manipulation that you could imagine.

4. Quicksilver has a Path Finder plugin. You can't get more integrated than that.

Don't discount something before you use it. Quicksilver supports just about everything that LaunchBar does, and is WAY more feature filled. It's just not as fast or polished.

*uses LaunchBar*