Number 1: A New Finder
Apple’s Spotlight is great for launching apps. Really great. It’s world’s better than the Windows Start button.
However, for managing files and contributing to productivity, Apple’s Finder is just miserable. Windows File Explorer is the Gold standard, but Gnome Nautilus is more flexible. Both are tremendously more usable than Finder.
Here’s my list of peeved reasons why I do not like Apple’s Finder:
Usability
You must be able to navigate with the keyboard. It’s more efficient, faster, better, stronger, etc. If you can type, there are 104 reasons why the keyboard is a more efficient data-entry and command interface to the computer. Windows understands this concept and has included it throughout the operating system. Excellent. Finder – well, you’re a slave to the mouse.
Windows Explorer – Near Perfect
All the common features you want in a file navigator and manager are awkward in Finder. Enter equals select and open, right? Nope. That’s Rename! Retrain yourself to use Open-Apple Down Arrow. You can delete a file by pressing Delete, right? Nope. Drag & drop or use Open-Apple Backspace. You get the picture. It’s non-intuitive and awkward.
Difference for it’s own sake doesn’t always equal better. Mirroring the Windows key bindings in Finder would go a long way for OS X. At least give me the option to change them!
Previews and Thumbnails
Nautilus does this feature spot-on. In both list and icon view you can scale the image size up and down to accommodate the task at hand. Managing files? Small print. Managing pictures or movies? Large icons. Easy.
Gnome Nautilus – Very nice
Explorer has the best list-view. Compact and efficient, with small type. All the items are consistently sorted as you would expect – folders, then files, all by type.
Flexibility & Expandability
Nautilus and Explorer are expandable via scripting. Nautilus is more approachable, and the scripts can be context sensitive and can be C, Python, shell, whatever works for you. Explorer requires VBasic or VisualC or other MS tool nonsense.
One feature I really like about Nautilus is related to the rant above about key-bindings. Nautilus will let you map any event or function to any key binding you wish. The defaults are as you would expect (following the Windows examples) but you can add any new combinations you want.
Consistency:
Explorer wins here. It will set my preferred view to all folders and not bother me with the details. Nautilus and Finder remember how I viewed each folder and automatically adjust, a feature that’s just plain annoying. If the task I’m working on changes, I’ll change how I want Finder to behave. This concept of anticipating what I want is actually a loss of control: both counter-intuitive and just annoying.
Design:
Finder’s launch bar is a very convenient feature for accessing commonly used locations, directories and applications. However, Nautilus’s take on the two column file manager is by far the best implementation I’ve seen yet. What do I like about it. Simple: I can select what the left column shows depending upon what I need to do.
Navigating directories and managing files? Great. Use the tree view. Working with network drives, which you need to automount or re-mount? Easy, use the locations view?
So which do I prefer to use?
For sorting and organizing files? Explorer by far.
For general working with files? Nautilus is the most flexible.
For using as little as possible? Finder. It finds files fine, but is a lousy tool to manage them.
Apple Finder – Yuck!
