Interesting. I would give it a try if I weren't using Sunrise Commander (an Emacs plugin[1]).
On a related note: it's good to see more and more apps include a command line, where you can invoke any function of the program. Menu + icons + hotkeys strategy may be a good UI for normal users, but the command line - especially with good completion, like with Helm[2] - is much more convenient if the program has more than just a couple functions. Emacs (M-x) and Vim (:) worked like that since the beginning, I wonder what happened, what caused even programmers' tools to shed their command lines for more than twenty years?
Yes, I very much agree that a command line with autocomplete like Sublime Text's Ctrl/Cmd+Shift+P should be available in many more applications. I find menus a horrible way of exposing functionality. It's just so tedious to find anything.
Thank you for the suggestions. Implementation of fman's features is prioritised by the number of votes they receive on a public Trello board [1].
- Relative folders in GoTo in Steroids (Cmd+P): I've added a card on the Trello board for this [2].
- Autocomplete when moving a file: likewise [3]
- You're right about deselect. It should be there. I haven't had time to implement it. One user used the Python plugin API [4] to implement deselect [5].
- fman's ancestors in spirit are dual-pane file managers like Norton Commander or Total Commander, which for 20 years use Enter to open folders/files. Of course, you're free to override the default key bindings [6].
Sorry about that. Features are prioritised according to the number of votes they receive on a public Trello board [1]. There's a card [2] for ArchLinux support.
a .deb file is an ar archive containing two .tar.gz files, one of which (data.tar.gz) contains the binary along with required files under the same paths you would install on your system.
This example from tldp.org will help:
------------------------------------
$ ar tv parted_1.4.24-4_i386.deb
rw-r--r-- 0/0 4 Mar 28 13:46 2002 debian-binary
rw-r--r-- 0/0 1386 Mar 28 13:46 2002 control.tar.gz
rw-r--r-- 0/0 39772 Mar 28 13:46 2002 data.tar.gz
The 'data.tar.gz' file contains all the files that will be
installed with their destination paths:
drwxr-xr-x root/root 0 2002-03-28 13:44:57 ./
drwxr-xr-x root/root 0 2002-03-28 13:44:49 ./sbin/
-rwxr-xr-x root/root 31656 2002-03-28 13:44:49 ./sbin/parted
drwxr-xr-x root/root 0 2002-03-28 13:44:38 ./usr/
drwxr-xr-x root/root 0 2002-03-28 13:44:41 ./usr/share/
drwxr-xr-x root/root 0 2002-03-28 13:44:38 ./usr/share/man/
drwxr-xr-x root/root 0 2002-03-28 13:44:52 ./usr/share/man/man8/
-rw-r--r-- root/root 1608 2002-03-28 13:44:37 ./usr/share/man/man8/parted.8.gz
drwxr-xr-x root/root 0 2002-03-28 13:44:41 ./usr/share/doc/
drwxr-xr-x root/root 0 2002-03-28 13:44:52 ./usr/share/doc/parted/
-rw-r--r-- root/root 1880 2002-03-07 14:20:08 ./usr/share/doc/parted/README.Debian
-rw-r--r-- root/root 1347 2002-02-27 01:40:50 ./usr/share/doc/parted/copyright
-rw-r--r-- root/root 6444 2002-03-28 13:37:33 ./usr/share/doc/parted/changelog.Debian.gz
-rw-r--r-- root/root 15523 2002-03-28 02:36:43 ./usr/share/doc/parted/changelog.gz
I see any reason to distribute this as a .deb package for Linux. Why is this not distributed like Sublime Text? As tar.gz or tar.bz2 to extract and run?
Not yet sorry. Features are priorities by the number of votes they receive on a public Trello board [1]. There's a card [2] for search (which is not the highest-voted feature). But it will definitely come.
The only use case I currently still use Finder for is previewing Pictures. But admittedly, my needs aren't that advanced.
The most mainstream missing feature is probably a search functionality (see the card [1] on the feature requests list). I don't miss it because I use the command line.
I'm currently the only person who can add cards to the list. But just email me at [michael] at [herrmann] dot [io] and I'll add your suggestions/bug reports!
This looks like a lovely project but I would also suggest [midnight commander](https://www.gnu.org/software/mc/). It's a console based file manager that is available everywhere.
I use FTP or SFTP within mc all the time. It's fantastic - no shortcomings so far. Much easier than command line usage. You're navigating remote directories just as if they were local.
If you are still using Windows then Far Manager [1] is an amazing Norton Commander-like open source file manager with lots of available plug-ins. I miss it in Linux, although Midnight Commander is not bad too (which I'm using now in Linux).
I've just tried it - configuring FTP links is more cumbersome and less reliable than in FAR, so I'll pass on it tight now. After all, what counts is how much time you can save using the right tools.
It's an interesting project, clearly stemming from scratching one's personal itch. Congrats on the Show HN, always an exciting experience :)
A bit of a reality check though if you don't mind - I think you will have very hard time selling this.
Windows chunk of your target audience will undoubtedly be already using Far and its many plugins, and thus have very little reason for switching. Conversely, those not familiar with Far probably won't be that interested in fman either.
Mac - desktop Mac market is exactly 1/10 of that of Windows. Perhaps Mac people are more inclined to pay, but it will still be peanuts compared to what a Windows version could bring.
Linux - I am frankly not familiar with a single Linux user, developer or not, who ever bought anything except for games.
Anecdote, but I am a Linux user and have paid for animation software (the name escapes me, I didn't do much with it). That said I feel like if more quality software existed for Linux, I feel there would be more of a market for it. I would gladly pay for quality CAD software, as well as a decent graphical suite and video editor.
I'm nearly sold out [1] so I don't see a problem selling this. Far manager is command-line only. 24% of my visitors are on Mac, Windows is 34% - hardly 1/10.
Can I ask what your sales goals/expectations are? Being "sold out" on software licenses certainly looks like a marketing trick rather than a meaningful demand quantifier.
> 24% of my visitors are on Mac, Windows is 34% - hardly 1/10
The 1/10 is the actual rate of Mac to Windows desktop shares. The fact that you are getting 24/34 simply means that you are either not reaching Windows audience or the product doesn't resonate with it.
Re "sold out": I explained this in other comments [1], [2].
I believe more and more people are using Macs, especially among my (narrowest) target audience (programmers). That's why I'm seeing ratios different from the average.
Just for some statistics, I just purchased it but the main selling point for me is cross platform. I use Windows/Linux at home and Mac at work, so a tool that works on all of them is a real boon to me. This way I can customize and use a single tool and use it no matter where I am. Same reason I purchased a copy of Sublime Text.
I see the Windows version is a 1MB download and the Mac & Linux are 21MB, so I was surprised to ready Python and Qt are involved. I take it the Windows setup is a downloader?
Sounds like a very Nintendo-esque intential shortage to drive demand. Not saying its true, but it was my first thought, as well as 5 of the people in the slack room i shared the link in... all of which went from "ok, lets give this guy money" to "... nah... this doesnt feel right, now..."
You really haven't answered it, though. It's very nonsensical. If you want to see "who's in" and develop for your paying customers, then should you not let people become paying customers so you can develop for them?
Your logic seems to work if you were not allowing trials, but only paying... THEN you would have only paying customers... its your gig, but I think its been a while since i've seen something this strange in software... and its telling that you're having to post the link to your answer so often in these comments. It simply makes no sense, and seems to be serving to drive people away or make them doubt your intentions.
Sorry you find it so disturbing. Especially since you said in another comment that being able to pay for a piece of software makes it appealing to you. I think that's cool because I'm not a big fan of freeloaders.
I didn't think fman would be so successful here. I believed that if I had told people "buy this whenever you feel like it", then they simply wouldn't have bought. At least that would be what I would do.
Another reason is that I want to provide paying users with great support, want to ask "so what would you like implemented" etc., and I don't have the resources to do that for too many people.
I just think, unfortunately for you and the project... you took a good boost of traffic by getting a near-top HN story and just let it die. You probably won't get a gift like this again...
Speaking for myself, I won't be using the software. I would have paid for it, as I want a GUI side-by-side, but i couldn't. A nag screen I can't even pay to get rid of is all but insulting, so I won't be loading the software, so the whole "out of sight, out of mind" thing is going to take over, and I probably will never open it again...
Now, seeing your decisions, and I want to stress that I'm not judging you for making them, its your baby, you do what you want with it, and I don't presume to tell you what you should do - just trying to share a perspective that may not be singular... but those decisions make me question the path the software is going to take, because they fly in the face of what I would consider to be reason.
> Linux - I am frankly not familiar with a single Linux user, developer or not, who ever bought anything except for games.
I beg to differ. Grew up with Windows, but nowadays full-time Linux user. I paid some $40 for Sublime Text and it was worth every cent. Also donated to various services and projects, but maybe that does not count...
And now I also just paid $13 for fman, not because I'm sure about it, but because it's cheap, looks promising, and I sometimes miss Total Commander rather badly.
Linux user here, I'll buy what makes sense (e.g. Sublime Text) and is worth it.
The problem is that "except for games," commercial support around Linux isn't exactly great. I'm just a developer so my needs are covered, but around me are others with different needs - decent CAD tools, Photoshop - they're not sold for Linux.
And now there's probably going to be the "well there aren't enough Linux users to justify it" but then there never could be if the software is unavailable anyway.
I'm aware that there used to be a Photoshop build for Solaris
I like it at first glance, it is a lot more aesthetically pleasing than the other alternatives others have mentioned. I will try it out for a while and buy it if I like it enough.
Why is there a limited number of licenses available?
I want to see "who's in". As a commercial project [1], fman needs to first and foremost appeal to its paying users. Limiting the license sale in both time and quantity lets me select for these people.
Is that Stripe modal asking you to enter your credit card number, without knowing what server is it going to, an official Stripe thing? I would never enter any sensitive data there.
Did the installer for fman just install Opera as well? When I went to uninstall fman using the Windows control panel, I sorted by install date and Opera was shown as being installed after fman was, within just the past few minutes. I don't think I had Opera installed already, but even if I did it's extremely unlikely that an auto-updated just happened to occur during the couple of minutes I had fman installed.
Looks nice and minimal, but a bit too barebones, mouse seems neglected even for basic usage. I'm missing /.. to go up on the top of the folder, for example. Or even better, It'd be nice if I could click anywhere on the path to go there directly.
I'll keep an eye on the project as it is something I would gladly use.
My all time favourite nc clone is Altap Salamander, but sadly it's windows only. https://www.altap.cz
All the others I've tried, FAR, TC, etc. seemed too ugly or clunky.
It's still somewhat early days. There's a card [1] on the feature requests list for making ".." configurable. The reason it's not there by default is that I want to keep the UI as clean as possible. But if you vote on the card (like many others have), then the implementation of this feature will be moved up in priority.
I just did a blind purchase. Partly because I hate osx finder that much, partly because I want to support people who ask the right price for their products, and partly because it was the right time;I like to get up early tomorrow and install something new.
And who knows, it might even replace my xplorer2 (http://zabkat.com/) on Windows..
Can people even explain why they hate Finder, or is it just a fashionable bandwagon to jump on?
While I do prefer Path Finder [1] for file-heavy workflows, Finder is perfectly usable with a few tweaks here and there:
- Get TinkerTool [2] to show hidden and system files, pathname in the window title etc.
- Tweak and create your own keyboard shortcuts for Finder in System Preferences -> Keyboard -> Shortcuts -> App Shortcuts.
- Trim the Finder Sidebar and Toolbar to only show you the most relevant items, or hide them outright.
- Tags are your friends! Use them freely. They can be used to effectively store a file in multiple "folders", and are very handy in combination with Spotlight and even Siri.
- Show the Comments column and use them too if you need to! (Comments are applied from the Get Info panel.)
- You can customize icons for files and folders by Get Info -> Drag an .icns file to the icon in the Info panel. To delete a custom icon, click the icon in the Info panel and press Backspace.
All these things are possible via the keyboard in Finder/Explorer. But Finder/Explorer aren't as optimised for keyboard usage as dual-pane file managers (of which fman is an example).
Eg. to copy a file in a dual pane file manager, you usually use some shortcut to jump to the source directory in the left pane, then some shortcut to jump to the destination directory in the right pane, then press F5 to copy from left to right.
In Finder, what you'd do (with keyboard only) is most likely [home directory] down-down-down to source directory, Cmd+C, up-up-up-down-down-down-down to destination directory, Cmd+V. It's hard to describe, but it just takes a lot more time.
Finder is the best file manager that I've ever used.
If anything, because it's the only one with column view that also sorts files in a rational manner (to me, at least): every element inside the parent directory is sorted alphabetically.
It's got a minimalistic design versus Windows Explorer having a button for every operation you can perform, and it's easy to use via keyboard shortcuts.
Its only defects is that it replaces directories instead of merging them in case of conflicts, but at least they finally implemented cut and paste a few macOS versions ago.
I'm not a Finder power user, but when I use it I always run into the same problem: I can't ever open Finder and make my way to a specific directory (e.g. ~). I work around it by opening a terminal and navigating there and doing `open .`. Is there something I'm missing? TL;DR: How can I open Finder and go to any specific directory I want?
> It's got a minimalistic design versus Windows Explorer
I recently installed Windows 10 to play a few games, the latest version available from Microsoft, hoping that it would have improved since the last time I saw Windows over a year ago, and I wish I could describe this without hyperbole, but the user interface remains a veritable nightmare.
There are many. I use https://github.com/clvv/fasd which is quite simple an unintrusive. I often type things like "z s" and end up in the right place =P
Even if it was perfect in every other way, littering .DS_Store files all over the place would still make Finder an abomination. And thanks to the joys of version control, users on other platforms can enjoy some of the pain if you forget to add a Mac-specific .gitignore entry. And the frustrating part is that per-directory view settings are a feature I wish didn't exist in the first place...I would prefer that when I changed those settings, it applied to all directories.
I have other annoyances, but that's the reason I hate Finder.
I can never remember how to open a file; it should be easy, like Enter (rename?!) or Space (open a window with the icon made huge?) or maybe even desperately Shift+Space (same as Space, but animate it much more slowly and don't let you kill it until it's done animating many rage-inducing seconds later!) (It's Cmd+O.)
Navigate to? (I don't think it exists.)
Copy works, but move doesn't.
There's no delete. Trash doesn't count.
Instead of just dropping a "+" in the sidebar, it's completely non-apparent how to modify the favorites. Not on the list? The user's home folder. (It's configurable, but it's buried in the preferences, and even then, it's a set list. If your favorite isn't on the list, tough.)
I've used many file managers on Windows and Linux and Finder is the only one I still (after a couple of years of use) have trouble doing things I would consider basic. Usually I just give up and use the commandline instead.
I Googled the open shortcut prior to writing the post; I'll admit I didn't Google them all.
It seems that move is possible, it's ⌘+C, ⌥+⌘+V, but that really doesn't feel intuitive (though you might argue I'm too used to Win/Linux keyboard commands). Finder's own context menu only denotes ⌘+X, unless you hold ⌥, which I just learned after wondering how the search box was able to find this item in the menu that I'd never seen.
Found some other ones. I didn't think moving or opening a file was an "advanced" feature. Opening in particular seems like such a prominent, common operation that it should have a more prominent place on the keyboard than ⌘+O
> RTFM
Is there a manual? The Help's search was a bit useful in pointing out some menu items I'd missed, but the menu really just has "Mac Help", which appears to be about the entire OS, not Finder.
It's a menu command; ⌘O for Open, or ⌘+DownArrow for Navigate Into (as opposed to ⌘+UpArrow for Navigate Out/Enclosing Folder). You can search for menu commands in any app's Help menu (try it!)
Other than "That's how it works in Windows so it should be like that in every OS" people don't really give a reason for WHY Enter should be used for launching apps and files from a file manager. To me using Enter to enter text editing (rename) feels more intuitive and personally, I appreciate that you cannot accidentally start processes with a single keypress.
As for modifying favorites, drag items into the Sidebar. How is that not intuitive? Common locations are in the Go menu.
"Delete Immediately" is Alt+Option+Backspace, which shows up when searching for "Delete" in the Help search box, but again, when working in the GUI the Trash is supposed to remain a default safeguard against accidental deletion.
You can change most shortcuts for any app from System Preferences -> Keyboard.
I dont come from a osx background and when it was forced on to me for half a year i found finder to not really be very intuitive.
Gnome shells super key magic, which is way less than finder, is working way more intuitive for me. Finder always appeared to me like a tool i have to build my workflows for and not a tool that helps me with my existing workflows.
May does not help that i am not used to using file explorers other than ls and cd at all.
I love it. 1) you're charging 2) it's OSS-ish 3) and you seem to have a business model that'll work long-term. Don't listen to me because I'm not a paying client, but keep up the good work!
Another idea for how to charge people: "enterprisey" usage, e.g. 2000+ files in one folder or anything that normal file managers choke on.
I think the "open source promise" link on the homepage made me think it was already OSS. As you know, people on the internet can't be depended upon to read :)
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works for me... :/ Can you try again?
On a related note: it's good to see more and more apps include a command line, where you can invoke any function of the program. Menu + icons + hotkeys strategy may be a good UI for normal users, but the command line - especially with good completion, like with Helm[2] - is much more convenient if the program has more than just a couple functions. Emacs (M-x) and Vim (:) worked like that since the beginning, I wonder what happened, what caused even programmers' tools to shed their command lines for more than twenty years?
[1] https://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/Sunrise_Commander Screenshot: https://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/SunriseCommanderScreenshotOn...
[2] Screenshot: https://github.com/emacs-helm/helm/blob/master/images/helm-b...
- Autocomplete when moving a file.
- There's 'select' but not 'unselect'. It's easy to work around but it was tedious to use.
- I like having some visual shortcuts or spatial information about he dirs. Now I go into a dir and the top one is kinda lost. Just my opinion.
- Maybe let me use CMD+O to open folder/file instead of Enter, which should rename it. At least it would follow macOS pattern.
Seems fine but not sure if I'll be using it. Maybe.
- Relative folders in GoTo in Steroids (Cmd+P): I've added a card on the Trello board for this [2].
- Autocomplete when moving a file: likewise [3]
- You're right about deselect. It should be there. I haven't had time to implement it. One user used the Python plugin API [4] to implement deselect [5].
- fman's ancestors in spirit are dual-pane file managers like Norton Commander or Total Commander, which for 20 years use Enter to open folders/files. Of course, you're free to override the default key bindings [6].
[1]: https://trello.com/b/WpIUiPAd/fman
[2]: https://trello.com/c/TEIdHUjH/142-goto-on-steroids-should-al...
[3]: https://trello.com/c/uavERPwD/143-auto-complete-paths-in-cop...
[4]: https://fman.io/docs/plugins-introduction
[5]: https://github.com/raguay/DeSelect
[6]: https://fman.io/docs/customizing-fman
[1]: https://trello.com/b/WpIUiPAd/fman
[2]: https://trello.com/c/sOyQA73P/80-create-a-packaged-version-o...
This example from tldp.org will help:
[1]: https://trello.com/b/WpIUiPAd/fman
[2]: https://trello.com/c/ZtBmsZtA/98-file-search
The most mainstream missing feature is probably a search functionality (see the card [1] on the feature requests list). I don't miss it because I use the command line.
[1]: https://trello.com/c/ZtBmsZtA/98-file-search
I saw the feature requests on trello, but couldn't find "Create a new file"
I use FTP or SFTP within mc all the time. It's fantastic - no shortcomings so far. Much easier than command line usage. You're navigating remote directories just as if they were local.
What did you find problematic with it?
Happy that people bring it into our century
[1]: http://www.abandonwaredos.com/public/aban_img_screens/norton...
[1] https://farmanager.com/
Recommended!
The licensing seems bit curious, whats the rationale in limiting the amount and time?
A bit of a reality check though if you don't mind - I think you will have very hard time selling this.
Windows chunk of your target audience will undoubtedly be already using Far and its many plugins, and thus have very little reason for switching. Conversely, those not familiar with Far probably won't be that interested in fman either.
Mac - desktop Mac market is exactly 1/10 of that of Windows. Perhaps Mac people are more inclined to pay, but it will still be peanuts compared to what a Windows version could bring.
Linux - I am frankly not familiar with a single Linux user, developer or not, who ever bought anything except for games.
[1] http://www.farmanager.com
[1]: https://fman.io/buy
Can I ask what your sales goals/expectations are? Being "sold out" on software licenses certainly looks like a marketing trick rather than a meaningful demand quantifier.
> 24% of my visitors are on Mac, Windows is 34% - hardly 1/10
The 1/10 is the actual rate of Mac to Windows desktop shares. The fact that you are getting 24/34 simply means that you are either not reaching Windows audience or the product doesn't resonate with it.
I believe more and more people are using Macs, especially among my (narrowest) target audience (programmers). That's why I'm seeing ratios different from the average.
[1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13777696
[2]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13778808
Sounds like a very Nintendo-esque intential shortage to drive demand. Not saying its true, but it was my first thought, as well as 5 of the people in the slack room i shared the link in... all of which went from "ok, lets give this guy money" to "... nah... this doesnt feel right, now..."
Your logic seems to work if you were not allowing trials, but only paying... THEN you would have only paying customers... its your gig, but I think its been a while since i've seen something this strange in software... and its telling that you're having to post the link to your answer so often in these comments. It simply makes no sense, and seems to be serving to drive people away or make them doubt your intentions.
I didn't think fman would be so successful here. I believed that if I had told people "buy this whenever you feel like it", then they simply wouldn't have bought. At least that would be what I would do.
Another reason is that I want to provide paying users with great support, want to ask "so what would you like implemented" etc., and I don't have the resources to do that for too many people.
I hope it makes more sense now... :/
Speaking for myself, I won't be using the software. I would have paid for it, as I want a GUI side-by-side, but i couldn't. A nag screen I can't even pay to get rid of is all but insulting, so I won't be loading the software, so the whole "out of sight, out of mind" thing is going to take over, and I probably will never open it again...
Now, seeing your decisions, and I want to stress that I'm not judging you for making them, its your baby, you do what you want with it, and I don't presume to tell you what you should do - just trying to share a perspective that may not be singular... but those decisions make me question the path the software is going to take, because they fly in the face of what I would consider to be reason.
[1]: https://fman.io/blog/introducing-fman/
I beg to differ. Grew up with Windows, but nowadays full-time Linux user. I paid some $40 for Sublime Text and it was worth every cent. Also donated to various services and projects, but maybe that does not count...
And now I also just paid $13 for fman, not because I'm sure about it, but because it's cheap, looks promising, and I sometimes miss Total Commander rather badly.
The problem is that "except for games," commercial support around Linux isn't exactly great. I'm just a developer so my needs are covered, but around me are others with different needs - decent CAD tools, Photoshop - they're not sold for Linux.
And now there's probably going to be the "well there aren't enough Linux users to justify it" but then there never could be if the software is unavailable anyway.
I'm aware that there used to be a Photoshop build for Solaris
Can't afford to buy GNU Parallel yet though.
Why is there a limited number of licenses available?
[1]: https://fman.io/blog/fmans-business-strategy/
I can speak, as a paid user of many software products, that actually being able to PAY for something, makes it far more appealing to me...
My obvious question: Why use fman when I can use Midnight Commander (for Linux) and Far Manager for Windows? Both are very powerful and mature.
One reason I ask: fman requires a paid license for business use, whereas the other two do not.
(Wrote a Midnight Commander guide once: http://nawaz.org/media/docs/mc/mc.pdf )
I use Windows at work. All I have to do is click on the Far icon and it pops up in a window.
You can do something similar with mc in Linux.
Far even does drag and drop between panels, and context menus (and it uses the standard Shell context menu, just rendered in text mode).
[1]: https://stripe.com/docs/checkout/tutorial
PS. Great app, BTW!
I'll keep an eye on the project as it is something I would gladly use.
My all time favourite nc clone is Altap Salamander, but sadly it's windows only. https://www.altap.cz All the others I've tried, FAR, TC, etc. seemed too ugly or clunky.
[1]: https://trello.com/c/i3iA6BFZ/2-entry-in-folders
And who knows, it might even replace my xplorer2 (http://zabkat.com/) on Windows..
While I do prefer Path Finder [1] for file-heavy workflows, Finder is perfectly usable with a few tweaks here and there:
- Get TinkerTool [2] to show hidden and system files, pathname in the window title etc.
- Tweak and create your own keyboard shortcuts for Finder in System Preferences -> Keyboard -> Shortcuts -> App Shortcuts.
- Trim the Finder Sidebar and Toolbar to only show you the most relevant items, or hide them outright.
- Tags are your friends! Use them freely. They can be used to effectively store a file in multiple "folders", and are very handy in combination with Spotlight and even Siri.
- Show the Comments column and use them too if you need to! (Comments are applied from the Get Info panel.)
- You can customize icons for files and folders by Get Info -> Drag an .icns file to the icon in the Info panel. To delete a custom icon, click the icon in the Info panel and press Backspace.
[1] http://cocoatech.com/pathfinder/
[2] http://www.bresink.com/osx/TinkerTool.html
Eg. to copy a file in a dual pane file manager, you usually use some shortcut to jump to the source directory in the left pane, then some shortcut to jump to the destination directory in the right pane, then press F5 to copy from left to right.
In Finder, what you'd do (with keyboard only) is most likely [home directory] down-down-down to source directory, Cmd+C, up-up-up-down-down-down-down to destination directory, Cmd+V. It's hard to describe, but it just takes a lot more time.
I tend to start with spotlight rather than with a home finder pane.
If anything, because it's the only one with column view that also sorts files in a rational manner (to me, at least): every element inside the parent directory is sorted alphabetically.
It's got a minimalistic design versus Windows Explorer having a button for every operation you can perform, and it's easy to use via keyboard shortcuts.
Its only defects is that it replaces directories instead of merging them in case of conflicts, but at least they finally implemented cut and paste a few macOS versions ago.
I just open it up, type whatever folder name I need, hit enter and I'm where I'm at.
I recently installed Windows 10 to play a few games, the latest version available from Microsoft, hoping that it would have improved since the last time I saw Windows over a year ago, and I wish I could describe this without hyperbole, but the user interface remains a veritable nightmare.
There's also https://github.com/junegunn/fzf/ for a more "graphical" method.
I have other annoyances, but that's the reason I hate Finder.
You probably already know this, but just in case - starting from Sierra, you can display/hide hidden files in Finder with Shift+Ctrl+. (dot)
I can never remember how to open a file; it should be easy, like Enter (rename?!) or Space (open a window with the icon made huge?) or maybe even desperately Shift+Space (same as Space, but animate it much more slowly and don't let you kill it until it's done animating many rage-inducing seconds later!) (It's Cmd+O.)
Navigate to? (I don't think it exists.)
Copy works, but move doesn't.
There's no delete. Trash doesn't count.
Instead of just dropping a "+" in the sidebar, it's completely non-apparent how to modify the favorites. Not on the list? The user's home folder. (It's configurable, but it's buried in the preferences, and even then, it's a set list. If your favorite isn't on the list, tough.)
It seems that move is possible, it's ⌘+C, ⌥+⌘+V, but that really doesn't feel intuitive (though you might argue I'm too used to Win/Linux keyboard commands). Finder's own context menu only denotes ⌘+X, unless you hold ⌥, which I just learned after wondering how the search box was able to find this item in the menu that I'd never seen.
Found some other ones. I didn't think moving or opening a file was an "advanced" feature. Opening in particular seems like such a prominent, common operation that it should have a more prominent place on the keyboard than ⌘+O
> RTFM
Is there a manual? The Help's search was a bit useful in pointing out some menu items I'd missed, but the menu really just has "Mac Help", which appears to be about the entire OS, not Finder.
Other than "That's how it works in Windows so it should be like that in every OS" people don't really give a reason for WHY Enter should be used for launching apps and files from a file manager. To me using Enter to enter text editing (rename) feels more intuitive and personally, I appreciate that you cannot accidentally start processes with a single keypress.
As for modifying favorites, drag items into the Sidebar. How is that not intuitive? Common locations are in the Go menu.
"Delete Immediately" is Alt+Option+Backspace, which shows up when searching for "Delete" in the Help search box, but again, when working in the GUI the Trash is supposed to remain a default safeguard against accidental deletion.
You can change most shortcuts for any app from System Preferences -> Keyboard.
Gnome shells super key magic, which is way less than finder, is working way more intuitive for me. Finder always appeared to me like a tool i have to build my workflows for and not a tool that helps me with my existing workflows.
May does not help that i am not used to using file explorers other than ls and cd at all.
Another idea for how to charge people: "enterprisey" usage, e.g. 2000+ files in one folder or anything that normal file managers choke on.
[1]: https://fman.io/blog/fmans-business-strategy/