Abandon QuickSilver for LaunchBar?

Durbrow · #1 December 14th, 2007, 11:58 PM

The developer of QuickSilver seems to recommend that people buy LaunchBar because development on QS MIGHT halt. I am curious whether anyone is switching to LaunchBar....

**fryke** · #2 December 15th, 2007, 01:37 AM

I've been using LaunchBar for a long, long time and have been very happy with it ever since. It costs money, but it's the original –*and it works well. Don't expect the fancy looks and effects, though. LB is about the works.

Mikuro · #3 December 15th, 2007, 02:38 AM

I've never used QuickSilver myself, but I think Butler is more equivalent. LaunchBar is just an application launcher (or at least it was the last time I used it). While I admit that LaunchBar is probably the best such application launcher, Butler is perfectly good as an app launcher, and it does a whole lot of other things too. And it's free.

The only thing I miss about LaunchBar is the ability to drag files onto the app in the app-launching window, just like in the Dock. With Butler you can't do that, which makes using some drag-n-drop-only apps a bit harder to use.

**fryke** · #4 December 15th, 2007, 03:56 AM

LaunchBar hasn't been a launcher only for years. Search string stuff, calculations, files/folders,

and to quote their page about the newest version:

Much improved Address Book support
Improved Web Browser support (Firefox History, Camino History)
Multiple selection items
Append Text
Text File Content Browsing
Fast User Switching
Cyberduck support
iTerm support
Lots of new built-in AppleScripts
Extended list of factory search templates
URL commands via x-launchbar URL scheme
More versatile options for opening items
Show in Google Maps
New browsing features
Assign Abbreviation command for assigning custom abbreviations

...

Just get an overview here: http://www.obdev.at/products/launchbar/features-en.html

(One of the most important features, for me, is that Cmd-H and Cmd-Opt-H actually work for all applications if you install and run LaunchBar (and configure it correctly for that specific feature). Whenever I work on a Mac without LaunchBar, I always hate how certain apps try to take over those basic Mac OS X keyboard shortcuts.)

Yellowbeard · #5 December 15th, 2007, 09:37 AM

I abandoned LaunchBar for Quicksilver some time ago. This was do to the fact that I was told that QS could so SO MUCH MORE. Back in my LB days I only used it as a launcher. With QS I have branched out to using the proxy Objects, append file functions, triggers. There also seems pluggin support for all of the silly little apps that I like to use.

The application has become indispensable to me in the way that I work, if I can think it I can make QS do it.

Check out this link to read more about the future of QS, because development had not ceased. Hell I just downloaded an update last night.