October 23, 2007
The casualties of Leopard: The apps that will be replaced
Posted Oct. 23, ’07, 4:28 PM PT by Aaron Freedman
Category | Software
While I’m as excited about Leopard as any other Mac devotee, there is one thing (besides the annoying upgrade process) that I don’t look forward to in moving to the new OS — the obseletion of some of my favorite apps. These programs, which have served me well through Tiger, are now going to become replaced, if not entirely than to a great extent, by many new features in Leopard. Here’s a homage to some of these great applications:
SuperDuper!: SuperDuper! has been my backup-app of choice for more than a year now, ever since a near-hard-drive-death-experience with my Powerbook. It works great — I plug in my external drive, click a button, and I have a bootable clone of my hard disk. Plus, it can even make Smart Backups by only backing up changes to my drive. But, I will no longer need SuperDuper! come Leopard thanks to Time Machine. Sure, bootable backups are great, but Time Machine’s intelligent, hourly backups of my changes and an amazing graphical interface makes poor SuperDuper! pale in comparison. Unfortunately, this means good ol’ SuperDuper! will have to be retired to the Trash bin in the sky. It’s been fun while its lasted, but its time to move on to a better backup solution.
VirtueDesktops: There’s no doubt that I am a messy person — in real life and the virtual world. So, I cannot be organized with just one desktop, I must have four! But, with my budget, that just ain’t possible. Thankfully, VirtueDesktops came to the rescue, providing me with four (and more if I choose) virtual desktops for my applications. Since I first installed the app, I don’t think I could ever live without it. But, with the new Spaces feature in Leopard, that may just happen. Touting tight OS and Exposé integration, Spaces seems to be the de facto virtual desktop solution in Leopard. And I’m not the only one that knows it; VirtueDesktops announced a while back that development for the app would stop thanks to Spaces.
Adium: A favorite among us at MacUser, Adium has provided me with tabbed chatting, a slew of different account types, slick themes, and more for a while now. But with the new version of iChat in Leopard, I may return to OS X’s default instant messaging app. With tabbed browsing, PhotoBooth effects and backdrops, and screen sharing and file viewing, iChat blasts away the still A/V-less Adium. Still, I’m not sure if iChat will replace Adium for day-to-day chatting, but it’ll definitely create a great deal more competition for the best Mac IM client.
Quicksilver: It’s no secret that I love Quicksilver (and by “no secret” I mean that it’s listed as my favorite Mac app on my MacUser bio). The application functions as an app launcher, file browser and search tool, and so, so much more. While I’ve thought of Quicksilver as irreplaceable, that may turn out not to be true, thanks to Leopard. The combination of the new Finder, Spotlight, and Dock in the new OS could definitely give Quicksilver a run for its money. The redesigned Finder features a new sidebar, Cover Flow, and Quick Look, making browsing files using it a more enjoyable, faster, and productive experience. The new Spotlight search engine features Boolean search parameters, mathematical calculations, and quicker app and file launching, making Quicksilver seem less amazing. Finally, the Stacks feature of the Leopard Dock means that Quicksilver’s application launching and file searching will be less needed. Together, these three new Leopard features could drive Quicksilver out of its day-to-day use for me.
These are only a few of the apps that I use that Leopard may replace. Others may include Path Finder, Thunderbird, and more. But, all in all, just remember that while Leopard offers some amazing new features, try not to forget the old apps that pulled us through Tiger.
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I too am looking forward to Time Machine, Spaces and the new Finder that Leopard will bring this Friday. However, I don't think that Butler and Adium will be replaced by the Finder and iChat, respectively. I'm just so used to the Butler workflow and all the customizations I've made to it that I can't change now. If iChat included MSN and Google Talk support, maybe iChat would become my IM app of choice, but until then, Adium will retain its place in my dock.
I have to disagree about Quicksilver even being given a run for its money. Unless Spotlight's been given a complete overhaul that I'm not aware of, it's still years slower than Quicksilver for launching applications and bookmarks. True, the dock and Finder might look snazzier, but you still have to use the mouse - exactly what Quicksilver is trying to get away from.
Actually, you can use Google Talk with iChat. Go to the Google Talk home page, click on the help link in the upper right hand corner, select other IM clients in the Additional Resources box, then choose iChat.
A little hint, it works through Jabber.
Actually, you can use Google Talk with iChat. Go to the Google Talk home page, click on the help link in the upper right hand corner, select other IM clients in the Additional Resources box, then choose iChat.
A little hint, it works through Jabber.
I'm going to miss Chicken of the VNC, if only for the icon!
But I still may use Adium, I don't think the new iChat looks as good...
It looks like Spaces has no features though, as basic as can be. It's a far cry from Virtue, that will be missed.
I'll be leaving behind NetNewsWire Lite in favour of Mail.app's built-in RSS capabilities. While NNW has been an excellent tool over the past couple of years, having my feeds an mail next to each other in the same application will be very welcome.
I'll still need SuperDuper!, as my iTunes library is located on an external 500G drive, that I back up to another 500G drive. I'm guessing Time Machine won't handle networked drives, even if they are used by Apple applications. I also think I'll keep a full back up for a while until I really understand how TM handles old files as it runs out of space on the back up drive...
Aaron, keep in mind that SuperDuper (or Carbon Copy Cloner) and Time Machine are quite different beasts. Time Machine is great for keeping a traditional backup of all your data, and should be especially useful for easy-to-navigate-and-restore incremental backups of personal data. But if your drive ever bites the dust, you can't boot from the Time Machine backup; you have to restore your drive, which can take quite a while. SuperDuper creates a complete, bootable clone of your hard drive; if your drive dies, you can immediately boot from the clone and be up and running in a matter of minutes.
Me, I plan on using both. That way I'll have a bootable clone for disasters, as well as a Time Machine archive of past versions of all my files.
Does Time Machine replace Apple's own Backup application from .Mac?
@stwf
No Chicken of the VNC? What's your source? I really hope there is a Leopard version.
VIrtueDesktops isn't going to be much of a loss. It was functionally pretty good but I found it to be too unreliable. Often I'd find that the app had crashed leaving applications that had been running on now non-existent desktops stranded. I'm sure that Spaces won't let me do stuff like switch desktops by tapping the side of my MacBook Pro but I'm not expecting it to crash either. Simple and reliable will keep me very happy.
I agree with Dan, having just read some details about Time Machine on Macintouch, then to have a bootable clone is still in my essential list of safety mechanisms. TM will not create bootable drives, whereas SD does. So I'll probably do both - and continue to use .Mac and Mozy for smaller more particular backups. using .mac and Mozy mean that they are off-site.
Quicksilver eliminates the need for a Dock. Changes to the dock are therefore irrelevant.
I too agree that Time machine is going to be very nice, and I also use Super Duper. However, I don't think that I will give up Super Duper just for the fact that it can make COMPRESSED full disk backups! I have my HD partitioned into two partitions, one for OS and the rest for Data. Super Duper is used to create a compressed back of my OS drive, since it doesn't really change that much. I store my 3rd party apps and all docs on my Data drive which is perfect for Time Machine backups. I love the fact that Apple can take 3rd party apps, keep (almost) the same functionality, but make them much easier to use and put a little more "shine" on them.
To Dan... so now I need TWO firewire drives attached to each Mac?
@wesg, I believe his source is the built-in screen sharing in the Leopard finder.
I've been using Leopard for quite a few weeks now, and I still use Quicksilver every day. While the new finder is nice and pretty quick to get to things, and a smart use of stacks in the dock can also offer near instant access to files and apps, I think that the real strength to Quicksilver it's flexibility. Sure I can open an app a little quicker from the dock in Leopard then I could in Tiger, but that doesn't replace all the instant emailing, and instant google searches I get out of quicksilver. I don't see me getting rid or it anytime soon.
"To Dan... so now I need TWO firewire drives attached to each Mac?"
You don't *need* it, but using SuperDuper and Time Machine together gives you great flexibility for recovering data and getting up and running as quickly as possible.
You know, I have been quite consistent with redundant backups and am eagerly looking forward to Leopard. Um, er... that's an understatement. I notice there will be, as usual, 3 ways to upgrade (Upgrade, Archive and Install, and Erase and Install). Wouldn't the best way to upgrade be to back up your entire drive using SuperDuper!, use Erase and Install, and then use the Migration Assistant to move all your applications, files and preferences over?
You know, I have been quite consistent with redundant backups and am eagerly looking forward to Leopard. Um, er... that's an understatement. I notice there will be, as usual, 3 ways to upgrade (Upgrade, Archive and Install, and Erase and Install). Wouldn't the best way to upgrade be to back up your entire drive using SuperDuper!, use Erase and Install, and then use the Migration Assistant to move all your applications, files and preferences over?
I would imagine that I won't be using Pathfinder all that much due to all the changes in Finder. Chicken of the VNC probably won't make the cut either. They've both served me well over the past year.