LaunchBar is first to be installed on my new Mac

When I got a new MacBook Pro when I started at VMware (back in August 2008) I thought it would be a good idea to keep notes on the apps I installed on it (as I transitioned to it from my PowerBook Pro). I intended to turn those notes into a blog post, but got caught up in learning the ropes at my new job and never got to it. I kept the same notes when I started at Netflix (and transitioned to the new MacBook Pro they provided), and once again failed to make time to write them up amidst the demands of climbing the steep learning curve at work.

This time, I've got a new 13" MacBook Air (MBA) that will become my primary computer, and I thought about taking the same notes. But I'm not a believer in third-time's-the-charm. It's likely I'll just make the same mistake again, since I'm going to be busy tying up loose ends during my remaining days at Netflix, and I'm sure I'll want to quickly get started climbing the learning curve at my new employer, and it's likely to be steep. So instead, each time I install a new application on my MBA, I'm going to create a blog post. So be prepared to see a lot of posts here over the next few days.

The first app I installed was LaunchBar. I prefer to remove everything possible from my Dock, and open apps, do searches, open web pages and (as much as possible) manipulate files using LaunchBar. I used to use QuickSilver, but I was never a power user, so the transition to LaunchBar was easy for me. I find it easy to use, powerful, and bug-free.

I've seen a lot of buzz on Twitter over Alfred. It sounds good, but no one has (yet) given me an example of something I can do in Alfred that I can't do with LaunchBar, or that I can do better with Alfred.

After installing LaunchBar (and entering my license code, which I have conveniently archived in Gmail), I changed the Spotlight keyboard shortcuts (in the Spotlight System Preferences panel) to ^⌘ Space for the Spotlight menu and ^⌥⌘ Space for the Spotlight window. Then I could set LaunchBar's Search keyboard shortcut (in the LaunchBar preferences) to ^ Space and Search in Spotlight to ⌘ Space. (And I noticed I had never used the Calculator keyboard shortcut—I've always just opened LaunchBar and started typing numbers. For now I've set it to ^⌘C.)