3rd party replacement for Spotlight on old computer?

[johannnn]

I'm trying hard to stick with my PPC G4 running 10.5.8.
But Spotlight is painfully slow. For each character typed, it takes several seconds to update the dropdown list. So writing a filename takes almost 10 sec, and then there are a few secs before I get my result.
I also have the sense that the background indexing slows down my system a little.

(New drive, upgraded ram. New OS X install. So nothing funky there. Just an old computer being old. And I know 10.4 is faster but I have to run 10.5 for software compability)

So my idea was to disable Spotlight and run a 3rd party replacement app. I don't want the replacement app to index files 24/7, only when I search files or when the app is open. And I'd prefer if it unlike Spotlight only started to search after I press enter, so I don't get the same problem as I get with Spotlight.

I know of Find Any File and EasyFind (both works on PPC). But I don't know if there are better apps for me.

Does anyone have any tip for me?

I never want this old lady to fade away

THANKS

 

[robgendreau]

Maybe you need to nuke your Spotlight database and re-index. Spotlight finding works quicker than that for me on my G4 MDD with 10.5.8.

You could also try HoudahSpot. You can fill in multiple criteria and it doesn't start searching until you tell it to.

You could also use Terminal and locate, but I dunno whether that would be faster.

Or Foxtrot; I think that uses a different indexing method.

 

[johannnn]

Thanks for the response.

Well I've even done a OS X reinstall so I don't think it's a database problem.
I tried to disable Spotlight and install EasyFind and it works perfect so far.
Foxtrot was Intel Only and HoudahSpot uses the spotlight database which I'm afraid to use again.

So anyone in my situation, I recommend EasyFind.

 

[musty345]

What about the Alfred Powerpack?

 

[mac65]

What more do you expect?

If you want to search just for file names, what could be better than EasyFind and Find Any File? They're fast, and especially FAF with its "root search" mode (hold down the Alt key before clicking the Find button) nothing gets hidden from its search.

If you want to look for content, besides EasyFind, there's also BBEdit, which can search for text within a folder hierarchy. Its smaller and free sibling TextWrangler may be able to do that as well, not sure.

What else do you hope a differwnt search tool could do better?

 

[johannnn]

For some reason Alfred (latest PPC version) doesn't even start for me. Oh well.

Find any File seems similar to EasyFind. Neither uses the spotlight index and they are both extremely fast, and since they don't use background indexing they don't slow down the computer (really makes a difference on my old computer). EasyFind can search in files, but only in text files in my small test. BBEdit blows it away as it can search in any file type, even excel files etc (but not PDF, I guess only spotlight can do that). I have the feeling that Find any File is updated much more often than EasyFind. Also Find any File has much more preferences than EasyFind(that has none), e.g. hotkey.

I think I will go with Find any File and BBEdit!