Changing your OSX experience
JimD (2617 points) | Mon, 2005-05-23 14:05Two of the new features of Mac OSX Tiger, Dashboard and Spotlight, are not only the features Apple advertises the most. But the also happen to be the two features that most people want to get rid of for various reasons such as being memory hogs, useless or just plain slow.
I happen to agree with those people. While Dashboard is "cute," it falls into the same category as Konfabulator, which is "gadgetware." If I had to guess, 90% of Mac users will try it, and within two weeks 90% of those people will never use it again. Spotlight is a little more useful, but just barely?
Spotlight is too slow to be used as an application launcher, and quite frankly, it isn't very accurate in that department anyway. So that leaves it as a search engine for your Mac. Well, um, we already had a search engine. Sure, it didn't drop down out of the menu, but so what. Yes, Spotlight will find things inside of files, but do most Mac users really NEED that feature? Are you really that unorganized that naming a file "Resume2005.indd" doesn't tell you what the file is? And putting Resume2005.indd inside a folder called "Resumes" doesn't tell you where you might find a resume file on your computer?
See where I'm going with all this? Well just incase you don't, download DisableTigerFeatures 1.0 so you can, you know, disable those features! It's quick, easy and Free.
This tip brought to you by: CreativeGuy
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I don't seem to have a problem with these features... afaik Dashboard is the only place I can find the calculator, and if I want to see what the weather's like, I just hit F12 and *poof* there's the weather. I think the fact that the widget are hidden until you tap a key is one of the features about Dashboard that I really like... having them on the desktop like in Konfabulator was too kitschy and obtrusive.
I totally disagree!
I monitor my processor and memory usage and they don't seem to be adversely affected by either Spotlight or Dashboard.
I find both to be very useful, and I think others will too. I like to keep local copies of articles I find on the web. I try to name those articles in a way that indicates what they are, but often they may contain smaller sub-story type content that won't be represented in the title. Spotlight is perfect for finding this type of content.
No offense, but I think you missed the point of Spotlight. It was never intended to be an “application launcher”, nor is it really even intended to be a file finder, at least not in the traditional sense, although it does do that. Spotlight, is an INFORMATION finder. It essentially creates a relational database for everything on your computer, allowing you to have one central location to search for everything that pertains to a given subject, whether it be an email message, calendar, text within a document, photo, or a file.
You seem to be thinking of it strictly as a file finder for the unorganized. That is a farily limited approach to information management, don’t you think? Imagine if Google searched the internet strictly based on file names… it wouldn’t be a very useful tool, at least not for finding information.
As for Dashboard, I personally find some of the Widgets extremely handy. Among the preinstalled Widgets I like...
Address Book
Phone Book
Weather
Dictionary
Calculator
I've also found some others that have been very useful...
HTML color picker - http://homepage.mac.com/superpixel/
Package Tracker - http://www.monkeybusinesslabs.com/
TV Tracker - http://www.monkeybusinesslabs.com/
Transmit FTP - http://panic.com/transmit/
iRate - www.widgetdeveloper.com
I agree that we are in the midst of a lot of hype about these two features, and there are a lot of useless widgets out there, but these are both still good technologies, and will only get better.
_________________________________________________
paul burd \\ multimedia designer
portfolio - www.paulburddesign.com
weblog - www.onedigitallife.com
paul burd \\ multimedia designer
portfolio \\ weblog
While I agree with you saying the new features being way too slow, I still find both of them useful. Like Korteenea said, Dashboard is worth it even if I just use it for the calculator. I seem to need a calculator at the most annoying times and it is such a hassle to navigate all the way to the Applications directory and open it. Maybe I am just lazy. Spotlight also helped me a couple of weeks ago when I was looking for a paper I had wrote about XML for a class I took in college. I named it "Paper 4/05/04" (not very helpful,) but a simple search for "XQuery" brought it up in Spotlight in about 2 seconds. Still pretty slick if you ask me.
I use Dashboard all the time. Sorry, I think you missed the boat on this one!
I guess since you use it, the thousands of downloads of software to disable Spotlight, Dashboard or both must just be the developer checking to make sure the link works! ;-)
I don't know where anyone got the idea that I think they're useless, because I never said that. But what I do believe (and the point of the blog post) is that they are features for which many many people will have absolutely no use for – and to provide a way to turn them off permanently. This is an option that Apple *should* have given us to begin with, but as per usual, Steve Jobs has decided that he knows best.
And for those that don't think Dashboard is stealing CPU cycles & RAM, you obviously don't understand how to read the Activity Monitor, because many/most widgets are using RAM even when Dashboard isn't being used. In the picture below, you can clearly see that I don't have Dashboard active, and just the 6 widgets I have open use 49+ megs of REAL RAM. The cpu cycles also go up when you have Dashboard active.
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Wow, your posts are always bitter and angry. Good Job.
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Graphic, Web and Logo Designer from Pittsburgh, PA http://www.davidpcrawford.com
I'm neither bitter nor angry. You however are mighty accusatory and instigative. If you don't like my posts, feel free not to read them.
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LOL!
Your response about "not being negative and bitter" was negative and bitter.
http://www.davidpcrawford.com - http://www.vomit76.com
Graphic, Web and Logo Designer from Pittsburgh, PA http://www.davidpcrawford.com
Id probably agree with you about dashboard, but for me, spotlight has been invaluable - Ive found emails I thought id lost years ago. It saves me at least half an hour a day Id guestimate. I tend use it for contacts too. I always chuckled at the archetypical spotlight demo of finding 'Yosemite Park' on the map - i thought, humm, but would you ever want to do that? Well. the other day, i wanted to know what zone a tube stop was in - just typed it into spotlight, up pops the tube map, with the place centered in view! Most impressed.
Saying that though, a friend of mine has no joy - it blatantly doesnt like searching in certain non-descript folders on his computer.. for no apparent reason!
Keep up the good work :) creative bits is always a good daily read..
cheers,
Tom
Both of those main features, though over-hyped, are useful, and it would be a loss to get rid of them, and no they have not contributed to the slowing of the machine.
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Graphic, Web and Logo Designer from Pittsburgh, PA http://www.davidpcrawford.com
and I still think it is :)
Even if Spotlight and Dashboard were not included with Tiger it would be worth to upgrade. Here are some main features I just love about Tiger:
Nevertheless thanks for posting the utility. I may use it for my slower PowerBook G3 and see if it helps savings some CPU cycles for more important functions.
I disagree that Tiger is rock solid. I have had so many more problems with this OS than I have ever had before. I have had to hold down command option and the power button to turn off my computer for the past several days. I need to call apple to see whats up, but I am not very satisfied with this OS.
http://www.davidpcrawford.com - http://www.vomit76.com
Graphic, Web and Logo Designer from Pittsburgh, PA http://www.davidpcrawford.com
I think spotlight is very cool. I used it in several occasions already and find it very usefull. Most of the things in dashboard are also in the applications folder, like calculator.app and yes! grapher.app! Even that tiny weather widget was eating 28MB when not even active! And I find that a lot in my 640MB iBook with very slow harddrive. If I want to see what wheather it will be like I fire a button in the bookmark toolbar in the forever open safari and the doppler radar shows up.
Originally, I thought "Why would I need Spotlight? I keep everything organized." But now I'm starting to realize how handy it is. And in a work environment, it would pay off very well. I still have Panther at work, and find myself thinking, "Ugh. Tiger would have found that file by now."
But, Dashboard isn't really that useful to me. I use it occasionally, but I only activate the widgets when I need them (calculator, weather). The rest of the time, my dashboard is completely empty.
However, I do agree with the original post that these elements should be something that can be turned off, should the user not need them or prefer another widget or search application. But, what about all the save/open dialogs, and other places where Spotlight is available? Seems iffy to me.
I'll be dashed by Dan Miller
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Uh, can't you just not launch dashboard if you don't want to use it?
(Note: I have XP and therfor don't know...)
Unfortunately, Dashboard is a "child" service of OSX's Dock. The only way to quit Dashboard (without using the Terminal to "hack" the service) is to Quit the Dock (which would be similar to not having the Start Menu in Windows).
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OHhhhh. I see. Now I understand what everyone's problem is. I can see how that would be bothersome if you don't use dashboard. Personally, I can't wait to get a PB to try it out myself. :c)
dashboard and the widgets launch the first time you use dashboard... if you kill the dock ("killall Dock" in terminal... it restarts itself) you'll see dashboard doesn't restart.
I'm one of those who have almost no use at all for Spotlight and Dashboard. Spotlight is like another application I'm forced to learn - no patience from this old curmudgeon! And Dashboard is just a toy I can live without.
Tiger offers the least improvements of all the OS X upgrades. None of my clients are performing the upgrade until there's "more to it", upon my suggestion.
Alec
I don't agree with you JimD! Both Spotlight and Dashboard has made life easier and funnier to use Mac OS X.. I wouldn't switch back to Panther what so ever, Tiger is an excellent OS.
Now to my wondering about you JimD..
This article is the same piece you've posted on your own site, the only difference is that you added this line "This tip brought to you by: CreativeGuy" Why write it on Creativebits if you have written it on your own site? Commercial for your site? Missing out on Creativebits?
It just doesn't make sense to me why.. It makes me really sceptical what your main purpose is? Do commercial or writing interesting articles?
Just "my" 2 cents..
... maybe not everyone from here visits over there?
my2sense ;-)
Alec
As to your first question about Spotlight & Dashboard being useless. I never said they were useless, I'm not sure where everyone got that assumption. I simply said that they are the two features that people want disabled the most. This is fact. Look on any forum or tech support site and you'll see it. (Actually, I think Brushed Metal is the #1 thing most people wish they could remove/turn off).
I happen to agree with many users in that I wish I could completely quit Dashboard - since I don't use it. I found that application that would do what I want, and shared it with you. Spotlight at least allows you to disable the key commands, but to my knowledge there is no way to disable it completely since it's more or less "hard-wired" into the system and apps.
As to your "wondering about me":
Ivan started CreativeBits several months back. About 3 months after that he asked me to join him as a partner in the site, which I accepted. Ivan and I then built this site to what it is. I'm very proud of the work I did while I was partnered with Ivan. Back then, he and I were the only people posting, and it was an incredible amount of work for both of us. Much of the reason that others can post to the main blog with CB v2 is that it's simply too hard to come up with new content on a daily basis without help. It also gives everyone the ability to be a part of the site.
Back in March, I decided that I really wanted to focus on tips, while Ivan focuses more on the "creative process" type of posts you see here at CB. While both sites offer some of the same type of content simply by coincidence and the nature of the business, we believe both have something to offer to the same people.
After speaking about it with Ivan, we thought it would be good to periodically cross-post articles on both sites in order to "promote" each other. This was my first cross-post, and Ivan knows that he is more than welcome to submit anything he wishes for me to post on CreativeGuy as well. Sure, it's shameless plugging... but any extra exposure we can get for each other is much appreciated on both ends.
I have a lot of respect for Ivan, his work and his friendship, and I'm fairly certain the feeling is mutual. We aren't "competing" for anything, we just both happened to want to express ourselves creatively and provide a place for people to get the content they want.
Does that answer any question you had about why I'm here and what my intentions are?
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I understand now Jim..
Well.. I know ppl like brush and some don't..
There is a small thing about Tiger with the interface that made me a happy man and that's is that the stripes in the upper menu (dunno what it's called) is gone..
Yeah, I was also quite happy to see them go. As far as brushed metal, I guess it's not so much that I don't like brushed metal, I just don't like that it's one of 2 GUI elements in OSX. I would much rather have ALL Aqua because it's clean and easy on the eyes. If Apple can't do that, than I would rather have ALL brushed metal. The mix of the two seems to be what most people despise. But then again, Shapeshifter with a nice theme fixes all of these issues for you, if you're willing to part with $20 or so bucks.
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Tigerstorm, I appreciate your care for the content on cb. Thanks to you and other members who point out spam, we rarely have any on cb.
At the same time I want to confirm what Jim wrote. He had posted great tips here on cb in the past and nowadays of CreativeGuy.
If there is any competition, it's only friendly. I should've communicated this to authors of cb. Sorry for the confusion guys! My bad.
I think that dashboard and spotlight are the biggest innovations in Tiger and if you find these useless, well then there is no point in getting Tiger.
I find dashboard not all that attractive because I can already do many things that Dashboard offers. Dictionary? Try using Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary. Calculator? The calculator isn't scientific, so it isn't all that useful for me anyway. Besides I have speech recognition, and if I direly need a calculator and feel lazy about going to applications folder, I just speak outloud "Switch to Calculator." For directions and stuff, you can use Google Maps if you live in the US and so on...
I don't really need spotlight either since I don't usually need to search the contents of the documents - just searching the name doest the work.
And for other futures such as Automator... I am cracking on C++ and Java, so I don't see why I can't for fun get cracking on AppleScript.
For my personal needs, Tiger and Panther aren't all that different. (Ivan says that it restarts much faster, but I rarely shut down my iBook. Usually, it's just sleeping when I don't use it.) As I said, it's my PERSONAL needs though. You might be some sort of a journalist who deals with gazillion word documents - so spotlight might be THE tool for you.
However, to get Tiger and then disable Spotlight and Dashboard seem to defeat the point of getting Tiger.
--
Every conception is an equation of unequal things. - Nietzsche
I think a lot of people's resistance to Spotlight is the fact that it interrupts the typical workflow of most professionals on a machine. I know for myself that it's hardwired into my mouse hand to move to finder>click on design folder in sidebar and drill into the required project folder. Spotlight is disruptive in that finding a folder in the same location takes a bit more consideration...what did I call that PSD..is there any files I haven't placed Spotlight comments on etc...
I have found it immensely useful for finding information in email but as for an application launcher and file navigator, it takes a bit of time to learn this new model. I regularly have to remind myself to use it instead of driving everything through the finder. Old habits die hard.
I have found that the Spotlight window can be searched easily using the Tab key and Spacebar to switch between information filters. Helpful in some cases searching through a large pile of documents.
Dashboard is good for my daily Garfield comic and currency conversion but is pretty much fluff otherwise.
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afterglow.ie - Icons, interfaces, illustration
I don't get it, if you dislike Tiger, why not just stick with Panther? Or buy more ram?
I for one LOVE tiger so far. Its stable and fast. I find Dashboard to be very useful for many things such as weather (it rains now and then in Seattle), and I love the calculator for quick pixel measurements or for coding purposes. Its nice not to have to apple-tab to it or find it among all my other windows...f12 and its there-Bam!
- Jeff Yamada
www.suborior.com
Been running Tiger for about 2 weeks now, and I love it for spotlight alone. It's really nice to be able to search for something, and get all the files involved, all the emails and all the ICQ conversations even. It's indispensible for someone like me who's having to juggle a million and one jobs and projects all at once.
Dashboard? I don't really use it, except for the calculator.