Rui CarmoAs regular readers will know, I'm not keen on installing stuff just for the fun of it. Or, to put it another way, I only install stuff that I actually need and that actually does more than what the base OS can provide.
So, after clicking around a bit and reading the reviews (of which Merlin Mann's was the most enlightening), I've made my decision based on five factors:
- It doesn't seem to do that much more than Spotlight (no matter if Spotlight tends to be slow as an arthritic dog)
- I don't like "meta-installers" or streaming downloads - they're OK for corporate environments, but I find them an aberration that breaks the fundamental assertion regarding application installation (i.e., that you've already got all you need on hand). A disk image with an application bundle (to drop into my Applications folder) or a standard installer would be a much better Mac-centric experience. If Google wants to have auto-updating software, they could well look at Sparkle or (why not) talk to Apple about opening up Software Update.
- John Gruber put up a list of what the installer does, and, putting aside the controversy regarding input managers, I wasn't too keen on seeing the extent it hooks itself to the system (or that it apparently injects stuff into the browser as well)
- I have absolutely no need to search Gmail from my desktop. Or from any desktop, for that matter.
- Quicksilver does way much more than either Desktop or Spotlight, and installs (and runs) with much less hassle.
Still, there's something to be said where it regards Spotlight. Because, no matter how redundant it seems at first sight and regardless of what else Google can achieve in the future with Desktop, they wouldn't be duplicating Spotlight functionality if it couldn't be improved upon...
Right?