Minimal Mac

Minimalism: More Than Just a Desktop ‘Theme’

Pat Dryburgh said it best in a recent tweet to our faithful curator:

To be honest, seeing more “minimalist desktops” doesn’t excite me very much. Turning off icons doesn’t make one “minimalist”.

Hear, hear. Thinking this over recently, I agree completely. I have enjoyed reading all the entries here on Minimal Mac over the past weeks, but I’ve often thought, “Isn’t minimalism more than just removing icons from your Dock and your desktop?”

In that vein, I submit my interpretation of the concept: to me, minimalism in the computing context is simply using only what you need to do what you do. Don’t overcomplicate. And the truth of that statement is that the implementation of minimlism will be varied from person to person.</rant>

Now that I’ve got that off my chest, I would say that there is one tool (or type of tool) that allows me to work minimally. And that is Quicksilver (or other options in this category such as LaunchBar).

With QS, I do not need a Dock so I don’t have to take time thinking how to make my Dock minimal. With QS, I can get by without using the Finder to move files, an image editor to scale or convert images, or a text editor to add text to a text file. When I can use one tool to perform so many functions, I feel like I’m closer to being a minimalist.

So there’s my take on this concept. For OS X, using one of the tools like Quicksilver—and really taking the time to learn how to use it—is the best step a user can take to be a true minimalist. Keep up the great work Mr. Curator.

(Submitted by Chris Bowler)

I agree with chris one hundred percent. I have said as much in the past and I will keep repeating it. My goal here is to ask questions, make suggestions, and pull together ideas around the concept of “enough”. That term will mean different things to different people. It may, in fact, mean installing something as much as it means unistalling something. The point is to use only what you need to make your day more productive and nothing more.

Let’s take the example at hand. In the case of Mr. Bowler, it means installing Quicksilver and using it for far more than just an app launcher. I’m in the same boal as he is, I can barely use a Mac without Quicksilver installed. That said, if all you ever use Quicksilver for is an app launcher then you do not need it. Uninstall it and use Spotlight instead.

The point is that only you can decide what is “enough” for you. My goal is to provide the guidance, suggestions and recomendations to help you do just that.

Posted August 4, 2009 at 8:17am || home