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milhous · May 2, 2005, 06:41 PM

sad but true. after getting tiger today and installing it a short while ago, the CMD + Spacebar (i.e. LaunchBar) combination and the fact that you can search for anything your hearts content (apps included) basically makes LaunchBar redundant just like konfabulator.

jasonsRX7 · May 2, 2005, 07:00 PM

I never really tried Launchbar, but I'm addicted to QuickSilver. I still prefer QS over Spotlight, but maybe I just haven't given Spotlight a chance yet. I just find QS to be faster, more precise, and more versatile.

cybergoober · May 2, 2005, 08:30 PM

Ugh, not this again. No offense to the OP.

Spotlight is for searching for things and is not a very efficient launcher, IMO. Plus it is slow compared to LaunchBar and other dedicated lauching apps.
LaunchBar, Quicksilver and Butler still have a place and, as launcher apps, are better suited for launching things.

BTW - The Command-Space shortcut can be easily changed in Spotlight's System Preferences pane.

nonhuman · May 2, 2005, 08:46 PM

As cybergoober pointed out Spotlight doesn't kill launchbar in the least. I still use QS in Tiger. And I already didn't use command-space for QS because I use that to switch keyboard layouts (which Tiger automatically detected and so changed the keyboard shortcut for Spotlight to ctrl-space).

But even if it did, it's not like this is a new phenomenon. Ever wonder where the menubar clock idea came from? Hint: not Apple. (Heh, how many people here actually used SuperClock? Ooh, or Vremya? Vremya was awesome.)

leperkuhn · May 2, 2005, 08:48 PM

I thought i could give up quicksilver, but I can't. It's just so friggin sweet.

andretan · May 2, 2005, 09:12 PM

Yeah. Spotlight was never meant to be a replacement for a app launcher.

I still use Quicksilver to launch my apps.

bmedina · May 2, 2005, 09:13 PM

I expect Quicksilver and Launchbar to be even better because of Spotlight.

PurpleGiant · May 2, 2005, 09:21 PM

Originally Posted by bmedina

I expect Quicksilver and Launchbar to be even better because of Spotlight.

Me too. Spotlight should (if used properly) be able to eliminate either app from doing it's own hard drive searches and scans, and can be more of a powerful Spotlight filter for launching apps.

typoon · May 2, 2005, 10:07 PM

Launchbar works fine with me. What version are you using? I know that when I re-installed Launchbar it told me there was a conflict and asked which prefs pane I wanted to open. I just change my spotlight searching to option-space instead. It works fine with me. You should be using Version 4.02 in Tiger

MrForgetable · May 2, 2005, 10:14 PM

quicksilver is still in my dock

hardcat1970 · May 2, 2005, 10:22 PM

launchbar is still the best, it can't be replaced by spotlight.

ApeInTheShell · May 2, 2005, 10:51 PM

i threw quicksilver away, but i have launchbar

nforcer · May 2, 2005, 11:52 PM

I personally find Apple's UI to Spotlight to be underpowered for complex queries. It's great for simple and casual content searches, but for real power you have to use the Terminal. I'm expecting a third party app and Apple to provide a better interface in the future (but with Apple it probably won't be until 10.5). Additionally, while it can be used for app-launching, I find Launchbar to be much better than Spotlight for that (quicker results, easier app launching, and a better search algorithm for app names).

Spotlight is more than just a search corner on the screen. The APIs allow any app to use it for content file searching. A Launchbar update that uses it is inevitable.

The only real downside for Launchbar is that Spotlight "stole" Command-Space. But that's not really fair to say since Launchbar users can change Spotlight to something else, and even if they couldn't Apple noted as early as the release of 10.3 and possibly before that Command-Space was reserved for future use.

nonhuman · May 3, 2005, 01:09 AM

Originally Posted by nforcer

The only real downside for Launchbar is that Spotlight "stole" Command-Space. But that's not really fair to say since Launchbar users can change Spotlight to something else, and even if they couldn't Apple noted as early as the release of 10.3 and possibly before that Command-Space was reserved for future use.

Dude, Launchbar stole command-space. command-space has always been for switching keyboard layouts. It's a cross-platform standard (except for the command key bit...).

themexican · May 3, 2005, 01:11 AM

Spotlight is way too slow to be an app launcher. also it doesn't learn from my keystrokes. I tried replacing launch bar with spotlight, but that little experiment lasted about 15 minutes. viva launch bar.

nforcer · May 3, 2005, 04:36 AM

Originally Posted by nonhuman

Dude, Launchbar stole command-space. command-space has always been for switching keyboard layouts. It's a cross-platform standard (except for the command key bit...).

Interesting, that I did not know. I do not recall it ever doing anything for me even when I didn't have Launchbar running, and I remember reading a technote from Apple updated around the time of Panther that said Command-Space was reserved, but I did not know why. I assumed they were going to use it for future use, and they have with Tiger. But that means Command-Space does not switch keyboard layouts on Tiger so it's not really a cross-platform "standard" anymore.

So Alt-Space (or whatever) switches keyboard layouts on Windows?

shortcipher · May 3, 2005, 05:44 AM

Actually, I find that Spotlight does learn from my keystrokes, the first time I searched for a file I had to spell out the filename quite accurately to get the item I was looking for as the top hit, the second time only the first 3 characters of the filename were necessary before getting the same top hit. I like LaunchBar, but the fact that every Mac will soon have Spotlight is the best thing about it IMHO.

Randman · May 3, 2005, 05:53 AM

F10's still my preference.

entrox · May 3, 2005, 06:02 AM

Just think of it like this: Spotlight is for finding stuff and Quicksilver is for acting on the found stuff. One complements the other.

Adolf W. Bush · May 3, 2005, 06:05 AM

I have QS mapped to "cmd+space", and Spotlight to "ctrl+space". Works great.

typoon · May 3, 2005, 09:43 AM

I mapped cmd+Space to Launchbar and option+Space to spotlight.

bbales · May 3, 2005, 09:49 AM

Originally Posted by typoon

I mapped cmd+Space to Launchbar and option+Space to spotlight.

Dumb question -- Like many of you here, I found I could not give up launchbar, so needed to change spotlight. The choices in system preferences were somewhat limited, so I threw it on a function key, which I didn't really want to do.

How'd you map it to option/space, instead? That's not one of the choices -- and excuse the ignorance. I'm sure there's an easy way to do this, but it wasn't immediately apparent.

Thanks.

cybergoober · May 3, 2005, 10:15 AM

Type the key combo you want into the text field...

bbales · May 3, 2005, 10:20 AM

Originally Posted by cybergoober

Type the key combo you want into the text field...

Well, I'm pretty stupid. Worked. Thanks. Should have tried that before asking. I'm just so literal somethimes... Not in the choices, therefore, it isn't a choice!

Thanks again.

nonhuman · May 3, 2005, 04:23 PM

Originally Posted by nforcer

Interesting, that I did not know. I do not recall it ever doing anything for me even when I didn't have Launchbar running, and I remember reading a technote from Apple updated around the time of Panther that said Command-Space was reserved, but I did not know why. I assumed they were going to use it for future use, and they have with Tiger. But that means Command-Space does not switch keyboard layouts on Tiger so it's not really a cross-platform "standard" anymore.

So Alt-Space (or whatever) switches keyboard layouts on Windows?

Actually command-space does switch keyboard layouts in Tiger. If you have multiple keyboard layouts enabled (which I do) it automatically changes the spotlight shortcut to ctrl-space.

On Windows and Linux the standard is ctrl-space to change keyboard layouts.