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Finder is so frustrating and has been since day one

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

#211

Post by tonyedgecombe »

tonyedgecombe wrote: post #181
pan69 wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 Merg…

That has changed. I'm not sure when but it definitely asks me if I want to replace or merge.

Just checked and this behaviour came with Lion in 2011.

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

#212

Post by sho_hn »

ktpsns wrote: post #210
sho_hn wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Our KDE development motto (and a contrast explained in our HIG) is "Simple by default, powerful when needed". It's nice to see someone re-state it so naturally and eloquently in the wild!

Thank you so much for Dolphin! I have been a hardcore Konqueror user back in the days. Early dolphin felt like a back step. Nowadays, thought, it easily outshines Konqueror. I still miss a few KIOs which were showcased in Konqueror. I guess they were discontinued.

Which ones are you missing? Perhaps I can solve the mystery :-)

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

#213

Post by sho_hn »

brnt wrote: post #152
sho_hn wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Our KDE development motto (and a contrast explained in our HIG) is "Simple by default, powerful when needed". It's nice to see someone re-state it so naturally and eloquently in the wild!

I can't thank KDE devs enough, so thanks :) Not just Dolphin is among the best in class.

Thank you!

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

#214

Post by muppetman »

hotdog1492 wrote: post #183
muppetman wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem I've been having is that in Word "Recents" is selected by default. So I pull down that menu and it's useless (full of random Recent folders) The comment above made me realise if I pick "Documents" in the left hand side, that top menu changes from having a bunch of useless "Recents" in it and exposes the filesystem. No I've never thought to Google how to use the Finder - it seems like that one thing that s…

“Recents” is not Finder. That’s actually Microsoft’s useleas UI. It would be far more usable if they did just open the real system file picker. (Msft messed this up on Windows too.)

Yea so it seems my frustrations come from not understanding the file picker isn't the finder. Anyway I've learnt a few things, so thanks everyone. I feel less powerless now.

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

#215

Post by mitxela »

everyone wrote: post #54
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

Imo tech companies want people to be as tech-illiterate as possible. Tech illiterate people will not realise how the tech company did extra work to make their product less capable and less empowering to the user in favour of being more beneficial and empowering to the tech company itself. Obfuscating the file system has been a popular move in this regard. A file system is so elegant and empowering and useful for so m…

Computers don't have to have file systems. The history of personal computing has had more time with file systems being hidden, than with them being visible, and if you weight by the number of users, over 90%.

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

#216

Post by eviks »

> files the way you see your camera roll.

How is that any better let alone any good? It somewhat works for images because you can identify the content easily. But that's not the case for most of the other files, you don't get much of memory/recognition of one paragraph off text vs the other!

> 1,000 files. One year later a person knows almost nothing about a file, but they still have to find it

So you'd spend hours of scrolling reading everything instead of using those bits of knowledge to search???

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

#217

Post by eviks »

klodolph wrote: post #201
NinjaTrance wrote: post #195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> As a Mac user since the 1980s, I feel feel like Finder is easily best in class Once internal muscle memory is established, the usability problems can be easily dismissed; but for the rest of us, who got used to better file managers, Finder is atrocious. As a Windows user in the 90s, Linux user in the 2000s, and Mac user since the 2010s, I dread the moments when I have to use Finder.

What do you like about the other file managers over the Finder? Finder has column view and quicklook. If there’s something that I’m missing out on from, say, Explorer or Thunar or whatever, I’d love to hear it. Whenever I have to sort through a lot of files on Linux or Windows, I get a better experience by exporting a SMB share and sorting on a Mac. The only file managers that I’ve used that felt competitive with the…

Ability to open a file on Enter, for starters!

But also I can use JK to navigate down/up instead of moving my hand of their resting positions to the cursor.

And NM you jump faster by 5 files.

And the ability to change shortcuts easily

And the ability to use double tap C to copy file name, and tap C then tap F to copy full file path.

And turn column view into a flat list of all files at or below the current dir for easier search

And instant search (with the help of Everything) limited to the current dir+children, shown in the same file manager list with the same navigation option

And the ability to tap Cmd-R multiple files to select rename file full name/name/extension

And the ability to autoreplace illegal filesystem file chars with my own alternative to preserve those Divide/Rule common document names

And the ability to automatically control how much space a column is wasting.

Etc., a million of other things that differentiate a real pro file manager from the toy of Finder

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

#218

Post by eviks »

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 single letter G

A single modifier Cmd-G

Clicking is bad/slow

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

#219

Post by eviks »

tonyedgecombe wrote: post #181
pan69 wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 Merg…

That has changed. I'm not sure when but it definitely asks me if I want to replace or merge.

But not changed enough, I can't merge everything from the top, I can only do that whenever the first Mergeable conflict appears, but there could be a bunch more of conflicts with Replace option only
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