Ok, so just this past week I started using QS and like most, really enjoy its feature set. Let me also give my appreciation to the volunteers that keep the application alive and moving forward. Cheers!
This is my second go around with QS, the first being about a year ago when my OS X skills where still pretty new. The actions of that first round though almost kept me from trying it again. Being a typical feature junkie I started installing all the plug-ins available on the plug-ins panel, then QS crashed and never ran again. Thus literally getting less than 10 minutes of my attention before being tossed to the trash bin and moving on. About a week ago there was lots of media coverage about QSB and comparisons with QS which got me interested again. So after downloading the latest version I was once again greeted with a crash because of downloading a plug-in, and like the last time tossed QS to the trash bin. LB and QSB don't have the features I need, so I tried QS again and figured out how to keep it from crashing. So, QS is running and I've learned which plug-ins not to install, but QS usefulness is severely diminished. Searching for tutorials on how to do actions that I need suggest certain plug-ins, and one of those is not compatible with the current release of QS. Once again I was tempted to toss QS, but instead decided to try and fix problem plug-in (SMM). Here are 5 key points to improving the user's QS experience, especially during those critical first 15 minutes after downloading QS. 1. Eliminate or fix plugins that crash QS, especially plug-ins' that keep QS from starting. It's too difficult for the typical user to figure out the problem. Remember, most people coming to the Mac believe "It Just Works!" 2. Take over the plug-in repository to accomplish step 1. 3. Add a start-up feature that checks if QS crashed during a plug-in load. If so then offer an option to remove the busted plug-in prior to continuing start-up. 4. Add a direct link to the FAQ on the "guide panel", right above the "Documentation" link. An FAQ link could also be added to display of step 3. 5. Offer more frequent program updates. Most people don't now how to compile source code to get the latest bug fixes. I think fixing just these issues will greatly improve QS public image and get new users past that magical first 15 minutes of use. ;-)
