I've tried some clones for mac os, but they all missed some important (at least to me) functions. Like typing not going to the command line editor, or not having a command line at all.
So it's midnight commander from macports for most complex file operations for me.
I miss Finder's tree view in Explorer so much.
Explorer has its thumbnail processor on the same thread as the UI so if you have a lot of pictures in a directory it'll just hang indefinitely. Sometimes if you have too many files it won't display any at all.
If explorer crashes, it's the same process as your desktop and taskbar, so that disappears too.
The things I miss the most when I accidentically open a Finder window: Cut files wit CMD+X to move them (never understood this when coming from Windows), cycle the files in a folder (start on top if you reach bottom and vice versa) and the comprehensive info bar on the right for files and folders. Give it a try :)
(Command-X is nice, even for a long time Mac user)
Right-click on directory > Services > New Terminal at Folder.
> viewing or copying a files path
Right-click on directory or file and press Option > Copy "<filename>" as path name.
> navigating a deep file system
Not sure what you mean.
> column width in the column view
Option + click & Drag. Or do you want them to adjust to files/folders name length?
> searching for files
What's wrong with Command + F?
> finding file info
Do you want more than what is shown by Command + I or in the "details" column?
Note that you can also bind a hotkey to this! And in general in macOS, you can a bind to a hotkey to any menu item in any application.
Search "keyboard shortcuts" in settings, then under Services -> Files and Folders.
cdf: aliased to cd "$(pfd)"
Doesn't really open a new Terminal, but usually, that's not what I want to happen anyway.
Erm, what ?
I use Mac, Windows, Linux and BSD daily.
Of all four, searching for files on a Mac is a dream.
Apple Spotlight is and always has been lightyears ahead of whatever garbage Microsoft use on Windows.
And don't get me started on the inconvenience of searching for files on Linux or BSD, I mean, for starters you have to download a non-default tool like `fd` if you want to search at any reasonable speed.
I certainly agree on that, and I also find it more convenient than the desktop search options I’ve tried on Linux (there I usually drop to the command line to search).
But despite really wanting to like Spotlight, e.g. its integration with Apple Mail with email previews is great, I find it unusable for heavy work. I’ve tried customizing it to disable lots of search backends that I don’t need, but still for reasons I don’t understand, it sometimes takes 5+ seconds to process my search results before showing anything, and even the average search often takes a second and is not well-sorted.
In comparison, Alfred is always instant at searching on my computer, and I really prefer how you can explicitly tell it what you are searching for (e.g. `'filename`, `in file contents`, `=math`, etc.) whereas Spotlight tries to guess this and often guesses wrong. It’s also easier to customize if you want to integrate e.g. specific web searches in it.
I’ve tried Raycast since lots of people praise it, but I still find Alfred to have a nicer and more responsive interface, but perhaps it’s just what I’m used to.
I haven't come across issues with ordering, but my use cases are usually pretty simple, so that might be down to a difference in our workflows.
I was going to say Everything was awesome as a file searcher except for its non-easily searchable name.
But when I checked in a raw Edge instance it was in fact the first result. Ho hum.
It's produced by Voidtools in case YMMV: https://www.voidtools.com/downloads/
Things got much better when I moved from Spotlight to Raycast.
Searching on my SMB network share doesn't work. At all. It's not just that Spotlight won't index it. It's that you can't even search by filename within the current folder you're viewing.
A workaround for this (especially if you have a terminal always open) is to drag the file/folder you want to operate on into an open terminal window, which will paste in its path.
(There is a system setting to always show this in the title bar without hovering, which was the old default behavior before Big Sur if I recall correctly. I’m a bit annoyed that it’s now hidden away by default.)
- Does not snap files to a grid by default on icon view, leaving some folders looking like a mess
- Not possible to figure out what's the exact path of the open folder - I just want a full path in the header/title bar. Or let me copy the full path without having to open "get info"
Apart from the Path bar in the bottom, there is also an old school title bar method:
defaults write com.apple.finder _FXShowPosixPathInTitle -bool true
killall Finder
It doesn’t work for great for tabs, though, because tabs are short and paths are long.
> Or let me copy the full path …
There are some alternative fun and old methods:
* If you're hovering over the title bar of a finder window there is a little folder icon, the so-called proxy icon which gives access to the current folder. One can drag and drop it and it moves the folder. Dragging a folder or the proxy icon on the Dock icon of Terminal or iTerm opens a new window with the working directory directly set to the folder. But dragged into a text field you're getting the text path. Right click gives you a dropdown for navigation in the current folders path.
The proxy icon was stable in Finder until recently, now you need to hover. But you can re-activate the permanent display of the proxy icon under System Settings → Accessibility → Display, I think.
* MacOS has, since the Next days, the concept of Services. Services are little actions which the System and (good) Apps can provide to do something with with something. Services are found in the context menu or the App menu. If you're right clicking on a folder (sadly not the proxy icon), there are Service Actions by Terminal and iTerm for opening a window or tab for a selected folder.
* AppleScript:
tell application "Finder"
if exists window 1 then
set currentDir to POSIX path of ((target of front Finder window) as text)
else
set currentDir to POSIX path of (path to desktop folder)
end if
set the clipboard to currentDir
end tell
But you can use AppleScript everywhere in MacOS. The Script-Menu, as an own App, as an Automator action or a Shortcut, you can give those hotkeys, possible use them in Alfred or Raycast, etc.
Apart from the syntax it will be a sad day, if Apple retires the AppleScript architecture.
The modern equivalent is "Run Shell Script" in Shortcuts or maybe Automator. Shortcuts has the advantage that you can use your shortcut directly in Quick Actions in Finder's context menu.
I played around a minute and created this but I'm not a Shortcuts expert.
https://www.icloud.com/shortcuts/5898ff4c3f2e49ff8ec6bff4013...
One insane caveat: For this to work you'll need to grant Finder Full Disc Access in System Settings → Security. Yes, it sounds insane. It is. But it works.
The sorting by name criticism is a weird one to me though. You want it to not sort by name when you tell it to sort by name, and instead sort by file vs folder and then within those two groups sort by name?
For sorting I want it to sort like File Explorer or Dophin. So folders on top (sorted by name), then files (sorted by name). It works if I change Settings > Advanced > Keep folders on top.
I’d support this being an option in the View menu or View Options palette, but I think I would lose my mind if this behavior were made default with no way to turn it off.
I can use it as an orthodox file manager (with the f keys I remember from Norton Commander). I also like using it to access remote filesystems over nfs and sftp, and also S3 buckets. It also works well with Dropbox and iCloud. There is a great sync feature to keep source and target directories synchronised. It's also good for diffing directories at a glance. It's good at managing archive files too. Plus the regex file rename feature is often handy for me - I have a few presets saved for various purposes. It's also my go-to MacOS uninstaller, as it gathers the related files.
This combination has served me well for many years.
Nonsense default behavior, slow as heck, search barely works, keybindings are totally illogical.
It's totally unacceptable.
In fact, nearly all the complaints I see in this and similar threads come down to people expecting macOS to behave like their previous OS did, and being surprised that it doesn't.
OS-X is surprising because there is a lot of marketing pretending that it is the most ergonomic when it is in fact the worst, and mostly it does not really improve other time.
That's very subjective. As a near 40-year user of Mac's, the consistency is quite remarkable. Mac OS 9 -> X was the biggest change, and even that was pretty consistent given just how different it actually was. After using Linux on and off for the last 20 or so years, I still prefer macOS when it comes to the crunch. It's not perfect, but to me at least, the best of a bad bunch.
Here's the thing; GNOME and KDE copied some bits from Mac OS, some bits from CDE/Motif, and a whole lot from Windows. The reason is obvious - familiarity and that IBM AT was largely the hardware people were installing these desktops on to. The "grandma test" (i.e. I taught my Gradma/Mum to use ${desktop}) is pointless. Instead, observe young children who have never seen a desktop computer interact with them. None of them fair well. IOS and to a very slight lesser degree, Adroid fair much better. All anecdotal, but do try it out - opens you're eye to just how bad the desktop is.
Real men prefer IRIX...
currently have a weird situation where a bunch of folders are arranged horizontally and go beyond the right border of the window. but there is no horizontal scroll bar indicating that.
the windows xp/nt/2000 file explorer is the pinnacle of file exploring experience. basically every linux file explorer just more or less copied it - for good reason. but no - apple has to reinvent the wheel and came up with a messed up hexagon.
Switch the view mode. View > as List (Or Cmd-1, 2, 3)
Alternatively if this is happening in icon mode, select all (Cmd-A), and sort with View > Sort by. You can also make folders always sorted. View > Show View Options (Cmd-J) and change it as you want, then click "Use as Defaults" at bottom.