Hacker News Reader

Comment by YawningAngel | Hacker News Reader

To be fair to them, the finder interface for files is absolutely fscking mad and lead to me using a terminal for all file management for more than a year because it was completely opaque to me how to get access to the "real" filesystem.

View on HN

I can't believe how terrible the Finder interface is. I've never understood why they don't fix it. Are there people who like it?

I use Linux on my workstation, Windows at work, and Mac on my laptop. I don't get what's so terrible about the Finder. If anything, it makes you miss column view in other desktop environments (and space to preview!). [An aside, regarding Open/Save file dialogs: dragging a file into an open dialog is great, and neither Windows or Linux have been able to do copy that functionality. The best you can do is to copy and paste a path.]

I've asked this before and I've never received a list of grievances which led me to conclude that people are just not familiar with Finder.

I've always thought Miller columns were underused.

Have you used ranger, Linux's command line visual file manager? You might like it. Navigate directories/files with arrow keys, space to open/view, ton of shortcuts for eg copy/paste/move/rename etc.

I personally love Sunflower on linux because of the columns.

Does Sunflower offer column view like Finder? or is it just 2 panes? I don't see any columns in the screenshots.

You're right that the problem is unfamiliarity rather than a lack of features per se, but since every other GUI file manager 'just works' (I can intuitively tell how to do basic tasks) and finder doesn't I think it's a legitimate complaint.

I keep hearing this, but I've never had even the faintest idea what's wrong with it. Are there obvious deficiencies I'm just… totally missing?

No, it's fine but the idiom for going up a level is unlike every other file manager and it's totally baffling if you don't know how to do it.

As primarily a Windows user, who grew up with an orthodox file manager[1], I am not a fan of either Finder, or Windows Explorer.

Still using FAR in 2018 does tend to make me one of the odder ducks in a room. I very much prefer it to the *nix terminal.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Far_Manager

Note that Linux often has GNU Midnight Commander, a clone of Norton Commander (Far is also a clone of NC.) So, whenever you're in Linux and wishing you had Far, check out MC!

Apparently there's a port of FAR to Linux: https://github.com/elfmz/far2l

I'm the same, someone was using my Macbook recently (which I got primarily for iOS development) and discovered I had never used Spotlight (in 2 years of ownership).

I will say spotlight is ok, but the finder interface can still be quite painful.

I've been on a mac for five years now, and I still sometimes struggle to remember how to show hidden files in finder. In nearly every Linux file manager I've used it's either '<right click> > show hidden files' or 'View > show hidden files', usually both work. In Mojave you either have to know the keyboard shortcut or edit your finder defaults from the command line, but I swear I've seen it as an option in a dropdown menu in previous releases.

> how to get access to the "real" filesystem.

If you click on the icon of your main drive, it will take you to the root folder.

You have to do the same in Windows, click on the C: drive.

How is this opaque?

For starters I think the local drive doesn't even appear in the Finder sidebar by the default - it's the one place where I'd expect it. Of course I can easily change, but most users won't ever change default configurations.

The other thing I'm really missing in Fidner is persistent network drives. Connecting to a network share is often slow, inconsistent and error prone, but I guess macOS' SMB issues are worth a separate discussion.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com