I have long been a devotee of SSDS, written by our own Doug Pedersen, a.k.a "SpectateSwamp." SSDS - or "Spectate Swamp Desktop Search" - is an enterprise app designed to facilitate knowledge sharing.
I use SSDS as a sort of quasi-OS. Like any other sane man, I boot my machine to Windows ME, a robust, POSIX-compliant OS from Microsoft Corporation. But, on most mornings, I am soon doing most of my actual work using the high-tech SSDS user interface.
The SSDS user interface injects a layer of sanity into my otherwise-disorganized collection of family photos, scanned documents from old jobs, Arena Football box scores, and granny porn. All of this has been placed into SSDS's preferred format, i.e. MPEG movies of me holding up a hard copy of the relevant data item and giving context information in my own inimitable spoken word format.
Typically, I do this while wearing my deceased great aunt's favorite latex tankini, and standing on a bearskin rug. Then, I can add relevant tags to each MPEG, using the SSDS user interface. Later, I can use these tags for fast retrieval.
As high-tech as this all sounds, a friend recently brought an alternative to my attention: the "Everything" search engine from Voidtools (http://www.voidtools.com/). Begrudgingly, I told my friend I'd give it a try.
"Everything" installs in less than a minute. The setup process is remarkably streamlined. In comparison with the SSDS setup process, its setup program is remarkably devoid of ALL CAPS message boxes, ominous COM errors, and the like. Notably, the "Everything" readme file avoids many of the pitfalls of the equivalent SSDS file, e.g. long screeds about local government and the unnecessary glossary of terms in Tosk Albanian.
Once installed, "Everything" operates in remarkably transparent fashion. Just type a phrase or snippet into the single text box in the "Everything" program, and files begin appearing beneath the text box with remarkable rapidity.
This is done based on file name. There's no need to tag items with keywords, or to engage in incestuous transvestitism. Best of all, "Everything" somehow hooks into the file system code, so that everything happens quickly and optimally.
So, I'm seriously contemplating a move from SSDS to "Everything."
Like thousands of computer enthusiasts over the years, though, I'm also sentimental in the face of progress. I'm gonna miss that bearskin rug, Swampy Swampzors. And something tells me that perhaps we have not heard the last of SpectateSwamp... no doubt an engineer of his caliber is furiously pursuing the addition of similar features to his own magnum opus, SSDS.