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Finder is so frustrating and has been since day one

kepter.app

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Re: Finder is so frustrating and has been since day one

#91

Post by pan69 »

muppetman wrote: post #28

As a Windows user for years until 2 years ago, I can’t believe how unusable finder is. It’s just terrible. I feel like it actively hides the filesystem from you at every turn. Windows was bad but at least Explorer (windows 10 version anyway) let you easily SEE the file system I’m sure as hell not buying a subscription project to fix that though lololol

When I started using a Mac many years ago, I also could not believe how terrible Finder is. This is software from the "design" company.

One of the biggest pitfalls I ran into at the time (and remember from the top of my head) was that when you copy a folder, and a folder with the same name already exists at the destination, it will quietly replace it, rather than giving me a dialog asking if I want to Replace or Merge.

Oh, that I can't switch on/off show hidden files, I have to run some command line command to do that...

Re: Finder is so frustrating and has been since day one

#93

Post by hn_throw2025 »

SwellJoe wrote: post #24

My most recent laptop purchase was a Macbook Pro, because the price/performance is just so lopsided with the price of memory pushing everything up to Apple-like prices, it didn't make sense to buy an x86 laptop. But, coming from Linux it's a miserable user experience. I genuinely hate macOS. Every time I use it, I'm surprised by some weird thing about it, some limitation, some annoyance, some weird bug. Installing so…

I went through similar feelings switching to the Mac ecosystem (from Linux) in 2012... But I quickly settled on some tools I wouldn't be without now.

Finder is terrible, but I switched for Forklift early on. I think it's amazing, so much better than the Gnome and KDE file managers I used before. It covers so many bases, from being a twin-pane orthodox manager, directory comparer and synchroniser, bulk regex renamer, etc. Handles local directories as well as remote ones via SFTP, WebDAV, S3, Google Drive, SMB, NFS, etc. And switching to Alfred was a real pleasure. I could see where Gnome Do took inspiration from, but it's a pale imitation. I also installed iTerm2 early on, and I use it to this day. Easily the best fit terminal for my purposes.

Re: Finder is so frustrating and has been since day one

#94

Post by maltch »

kqp wrote: post #89

I’d like to propose a rule that all the Finder bashers in this thread accompany their complaint with at least one concrete example. I’m no Apple fanboy, but blind hate is just as bad as blind love, and so far 100% of the specifics brought up have turned out to be people who just don’t have a basic familiarity with the software. I genuinely don’t begrudge a person sticking to what they know, but it’s a point towards w…

I think frustrating is the most appropriate word. Finder is great if my files are organized and I know exactly where something is. My concrete one... The save dialog opens where it was last, so files land in places I didn’t choose, and nothing in Finder or Spotlight helps me later unless I remember the name or the contents.

Re: Finder is so frustrating and has been since day one

#95

Post by etrautmann »

monkey_monkey wrote: post #78
zug_zug wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree 100%. Been using macs for 15 years now, but the windows XP explorer in particular was fundamentally objectively better than finder, and it's nuts they haven't figured it out. One of the things I find most baffling is that in order to "go to a folder by path" (e.g. ~) you have to hit command-shift-G ? What kind of hidden witchcraft is this? It feels like it was designed for people who cannot understand a direc…

or you click on "Go" in the menu bar. What key combo did you want that would be less 'magical'?

A path bar anywhere in the interface?

I also want this to be able to copy a file’s path. Right now I’m not even sure how to do that aside from cmd-i to get info and then clunkily drag select the parent dir to copy. Repeat for the file name. Am I insane or is there a better way? Just use terminal? For a time I used pathfinder which had a feature to copy the full path but I ended up hating the subscription and constant feature churn.

Re: Finder is so frustrating and has been since day one

#96

Post by alsetmusic »

muppetman wrote: post #74
classichasclass wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Click on the drop down at the top of the Open window (where the name of the current folder is displayed) and you get the whole path to choose from.

Thank you!!

This suggests that you were genuine in not knowing. But had you never done a quick web search? It's the kind of thing that I'd feel compelled to find whether I could change the behavior to fit what I would prefer.

Anyway, if you're unaware, here are a couple useful shortcuts for kbd-driven navigation: Command-Down (arrow) to dig one level down the file tree and Command-Up (arrow) to move to the enclosing directory / folder. I use it many times a day all day long.

Re: Finder is so frustrating and has been since day one

#97

Post by rbanffy »

maltch wrote: post #14
Lt_Riza_Hawkeye wrote: post #6

Finder is frustrating but this guy is just complaining about the fact that he's unable to organize his own files into directories in a way that lets him find them later. He then calls himself a power user. Finder even has tags to help with this, which is more than most operating systems get

So true, so true. Every time I think I've got my structure set up properly, I then do something in haste, and can't find it later. Power user and file manager are two totally different things.

Not all data fits neatly into a hierarchy of boxes.

But, if the person doesn’t know where the file is, Finder has a “Recent” virtual folder right a the top that’ll list all files the person worked on most recent on the top. I often use it to get to screenshots. There’s also a lot of basic operations that are there since the 1990s any power user would know.

Re: Finder is so frustrating and has been since day one

#98

Post by bbg2401 »

maltch wrote: post #85
lapcat wrote: post #71

This submission appears to be a self-promotional advertisement by the developer, who created a HN account literally an hour ago. "Please don't use HN primarily for promotion. It's ok to post your own stuff part of the time, but the primary use of the site should be for curiosity." https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html If anything, this should be a Show HN.

Fair, and I should have posted it as a Show HN. It's my app and my essay, and I said so in the thread as soon as it came up. New account because I've read here for years without commenting. Happy for a mod to relabel it.

At least respond to comments yourself.

Re: Finder is so frustrating and has been since day one

#99

Post by [deleted] »

gkoberger wrote: post #79
re wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know where you get "really difficult" and "fighting against macOS" from. You only have to hit the disclosure arrow next to "Where" in the save dialog one time and it remembers it and shows it by default from then on. (Okay, maybe it's once per app? I don't remember for sure, but I can't remember the last time the save panel didn't show me the folder browser by default.)

If you read the article, it talks from the perspective of "I help lots of friends and family with IT stuff". For most users, they wouldn't know how to get to the larger menu or that Cmd+Shft+G lets them type in a path.

[deleted]

Re: Finder is so frustrating and has been since day one

#100

Post by hkpack »

Computer files are very unintuitive concept for humans. That’s why iOS / ipadOS were trying so hard to get rid of files completely. Because any research shows that whatever your solution is - users don’t get it.

Professionals came up with their own ways navigating through that complexity.

Most people prefer the first solution there were introduced to. So people preferring Windows Explorer were using it before Finder and vice versa.

People also don’t spend time learning their tools - that’s why you see a lot of complains in this thread for things that are right in the menu, you don’t even need to read help or ask google, just open the damn menu. And this is HN - a forum for “power” users who spend immense time using their computers.

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