'Quicksilver' Launch Utility Comes Out of Beta 10 Years Later
Monday March 25, 2013 3:27 pm PDT by Jordan Golson
After more than 10 years in beta, the open source launch utility Quicksilver has finally reached version 1.0.
The utility is a Spotlight-on-steroids type utility, that allows power users to open and manipulate files quickly from the keyboard.
The utility is a Spotlight-on-steroids type utility, that allows power users to open and manipulate files quickly from the keyboard.
After almost 10 years of testing, Quicksilver lays the beta tag to rest. (If the lack of an eszett brings a tear to your eye, you can always reminisce by hitting S on your keyboard). What does this release mean? It means more than just a change in the version numbering system - it signifies a maturity of Quicksilver and a sign of what's to come.Quicksilver is a free download, but the developers welcome donations from users who find it useful.
For more info on this historic release day, you can read an interview with the lead developers where they discuss their thoughts on Quicksilver, but now it's time to dive right in and see what Quicksilver's getting on its release birthday.
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Top Rated Comments
(View all)I'm a Spotlight user, I've never seen the use in installing an application to do what Spotlight already does. If anyone could educate me on this, I've been googling on this matter for about about 2 weeks since I "discovered" Alfred but never seen why I should download it or Quicksilver.
I've heard a lot about Quicksilver and Alfred though, guess Alfred is getting some competition!
If all you are looking for is something to launch apps and search for files, your intuition here is correct... you don't need any of these launcher apps like Alfred.
The big plus for me with these apps is the ability to add functionality through the use of addons. With Quicksilver it was plugins, and now Alfred calls them "Workflows". Just about anything you can think of that you might regularly do on your computer can be attached to a KB shortcut and automated.
For example, every damn time Skitch or Pixelmator come out with an update in the App Store the "Open with..." dialogue on my Mac ends up with duplicate entries for those apps. The fix is to run a long Terminal command that rebuilds OS X launch services. I have that Terminal command linked to an Alfred Workflow now so all I do is bring up Alfred and start typing r e b and hit enter. Done. The command runs and restarts the Finder and the problem is fixed.
I just uploaded this screen shot using another workflow that uploads a screen shot from my desktop to an image host and puts the link in clipboard to paste in here. I typed u p and hit enter.
You can also setup custom web searches. For example I have a custom Google search that only searches MacRumours forums. So I type m r space and type the search term, then enter.
Here (http://www.alfredworkflow.com) is a nice list of workflows an Alfred user has put together.
I am not affiliated with the Alfred folks, I just really like the app. :)
Said nobody... ever.
The utility is a Spotlight-on-steroids type utility
Isn't the idea behind Quicksilver what Spotlight was based on? So, really, "Spotlight is a Quicksilver on Valium" moniker may be more fitting.
But either way, good for them for coming out of beta.
Been using Alfred for almost 8 years now.
A full five years before alfredapp.com was registered?
They're right actually. The lack of an esszet will be a big change. And I think I might even rename the app to have it for nostalgic reasons when I download the new version today on my MacBook.
It still never fails to baffle me why Apple never thought of this for Mac OS X itself. It would've been a KILLER feature to advertise.
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