I once devoted 2 years of my life to developing a file manager called fman [1]. In total, it generated probably 35,000$ in profits, so my income from the project is somewhere around 10 $/h. As software developers, our opportunity costs are high. I use my file manager to this day and love it. But I regret spending so much time on it.
Congratulations on your launch. I wish you more success than I've had. Failing that, I wish you that you will see earlier than I did when it is time to move on.
I once recorded a video about my experiences developing a file manager [2]. Maybe you'll also find some interesting bits and pieces on fman's blog [3]. Incidentally, an article there is what sparked my current venture, which is much more profitable: consulting services around automatic updates.
If you'd like to have a chat, feel free to reach out. My contact info is on my website. :-)
Hey, thanks! Yes, I know about Fman. I’ve tried pretty much all file explorers on Windows, a fair number on Linux, and fewer on macOS. I watched that video a couple of years ago, it had some nice insights. Thanks for sharing that.
I've been talking about File Pilot since the early days of the project, so I managed to build a following on Twitter and Discord, along with a decent number of email subscribers. I'm hoping that'll be enough to spread the word.
I'm sorry Fman didn't work out for you as a business. But truth be told, you need to deliver something exceptional to compete with established players. While I don't see other file explorer alternatives as direct competition, I do think File Pilot will bring a breath of fresh air. We'll see how it goes!
Holy heck! I remember fman, and it was amazing! Literally the only file manager I used that could hold a candle to Total Commander. I remember everyone hating on it on linux forums, because it wasn't open source, despite nothing in the linux world coming close.
Good to know, thanks for the insight. I was playing with the idea of creating a similar app, with more features and faster (in C++). I guess there is no much demand for modern NC clones, orthodox file managers. Btw, are the sales still going on?
Wow, after so many useless bloated Electron based applications over the years, this is like a breath of fresh air. This is so fast, lightweight, portable, and uses only 17 MB of memory with XL icons of over 10k photos. Very impressive. If only more developers would quit their laziness and make such software again.
Totally agree! Let's make a real joy such like this one. I feel a great sense of satisfaction and excitement watching the File Pilot development process.
Between all two-panel clones of the Norton Commander [1] FAR [2] is by far the best of the bunch /rimshot.
Very keyboard-oriented, extremely capable, super fast, open source with a vast plug-in library. A console app on top of that and it looks like the original. What's not to like.
Also still use Total Commander, a software now in development for > 30 years. Even paid way more for continuing my CrossOver subscription than in TC license fees over the years.
If there's a portable version of this I can run on my work computer, I will! (stand-alone version, it's so fast!)
The Windows built-in File Explorer is godawfully slow. Like, slower than I remember it being in the late 90's. Motivation-sappingly slow. But I think it's because my work computer has it's inescapable synchronisation to OneDrive, and so every folder and every file it has to scan for a thumbnail or whatever, waits for it's data from OneDrive like a happy little idiot.
Funnily enough, navigating a remote directory on my NAS from my home Linux desktop is blazingly fast as if the files are local.
Windows or the Corporate Environment, or the combination of the two, is creating so much overhead that it feels like going back in time 25+ years.
Also company computer: Built-in file explorer sometimes takes 3 seconds to display a thumbnail for a 10KB png I saved to a folder from my editor. I just don't get it. We also have OneDrive. Don't shoot the messenger alright but it really makes me want to punch the monitor.
I’m not sure if this is really the right place to ask, but it’s close enough so I’ll ask anyway - why are there no apparent file explorers that allow simultaneous “multi depth” viewing? For example, if Folder A contains only Subfolders B and C which are both empty, why are there no explorers that show eg 2 boxes called ‘B’ and ‘C’ inside A’s icon/view? If a directly has dozens of empty folders, and 2 subfolders have 1 file each, and another subfolder has 20 files and takes 99% of space, why is there no intuitive way to quickly find the large folder?
The closest is probably how windows shows previews on desktop but that is only one level deep, if there are empty subfolders it doesn’t help.
Id imagine someone at Plan9 or WebOS or BeOS or some archaic software/OS developer had surely thought of this and made something. Yet all “top” windows file explorers are completely “flat” and don’t show any depth.
It's not a file explorer so not exactly what you're looking for, but WizTree is good for finding out which folder contains the large files. It's like WinDirStat but much faster.
I still use and can recommend Sequoia (or SequoiaView?) program from early 2000s to map all directories by size. VERY useful to know what to clean.
As for exlorer... The only drawback to your request is, obviously, the need for recursive FS scan, which is expensive. That is why it is not in-built in default file explorer functionality. But XnView, for example, optionally shows brief content of directories (e.g. 4 mini-thumbs over a directory icon).
Sounds interesting, I use to use a tool that showed a drives or folders content by file size. Larger files being larger boxes.
It definitely seems useful to have a view where folders are simply boxes with ---names--- in their top border. A folder could also be a simple outline with its name in front of the file names.
Directory Opus can also calculate & display the sizes of folders including all child content. (The calculation is nearly instant if Everything integration is enabled.)
Does it integrate with Everything allowing for instant search results for any file anywhere? Plans to have extensions?
A detailed comparison with Directory Opus would be welcome
It does not integrate with Everything. It's already blazingly fast with the regular WinAPI for indexing. However, MFT indexing (which Everything uses) will be added as built-in support in the near future. It will be an opt-in option for users.
There are a couple of reasons why I didn't want to make MFT the default.
a) It requires admin access.
b) It's NTFS specific, which means you need to write different logic for other file systems anyway.
c) It's not officially documented or supported by Microsoft. It was reverse-engineered.
That's exactly what I've been asking myself and I wish I could. I index our huge, nested network drives every night with Everything and can search & find within seconds.
Wow that TortoiseSVN in context menu is a blast from the past!
Looks like it's still under active development. Is SVN still being used in some industries? I know it used to be big in gamedev but I would have expected everyone to have moved on by now.
TortoiseSVN (+Winmerge as diff tool) still is my go-to for non-programmers.
If the person groks the windows explorer, TortoiseSVN just makes everything better and nothing worse. Log/History, Blame, Add, Update, ..: everything of importance is in the context menu. Also the trunk/stable model is more intuitive then "everybody has a branch and then there are merges, and merges of merges....".
It's still used with Unreal Engine when people don't want to pay the Perforce tax. Although most of the "hip young kids" waste their time with git+lfs the people actually getting work done on LARGE projects still rely on Subversion... and probably tortoise.
This is SO much better than Windows explorer! And I'm more than happy to pay for it.
The only issue I have noticed is that the context menu takes a while to open, and it is made worse because of the opening and closing animation. It keeps bugging me because I feel like the context menu of Windows explorer is a bit snappier than this.
That's FP waiting for Windows. When it takes longer, it's usually a third-party plugin initializing.
I have some things to try to mitigate these issues, but unfortunately, this whole architecture is broken. MS should not have allowed extensions to take over.
The best part of this is the typing for a system command once you right click a file, helps a lot to quickly get to items I need to run on the file. Microsoft should done something like this in W11 instead of the shitty extra menu nonsense and many other annoyances on W11.
Microsoft, watch out for "garage" people like vjekoslav here.
If anyone doesn't know, Windows PowerToys has some of these features built in, like bulk renaming. I particularly like their FancyZones feature, although that's unrelated to the file explorer.
Especially working in cloud environments is so cumbersome... Sync to the cloud is great, but we lost these kind of tools that just make life so much easier when handling many files and such
Looks great. I ran a test browsing a folder of pdfs but it does not look like File Pilot likes previwing pdfs with Acrobat set as default pdf viewer; no preview/thumbnail shown for pdfs.
I love it. Love how snappy it is, love the thought that went into it, love the dark design. Awesome. I'll keep using the beta at work as long as I can but unfortunately I won't get funds to buy it for work. It's too bad that you can get updates only for one year with the normal license. Would have considered buying it for the price for private use but 200 is just too much for a file explorer.
[+] [-] mherrmann|1 year ago|reply
Congratulations on your launch. I wish you more success than I've had. Failing that, I wish you that you will see earlier than I did when it is time to move on.
I once recorded a video about my experiences developing a file manager [2]. Maybe you'll also find some interesting bits and pieces on fman's blog [3]. Incidentally, an article there is what sparked my current venture, which is much more profitable: consulting services around automatic updates.
If you'd like to have a chat, feel free to reach out. My contact info is on my website. :-)
Good luck!
[1]: https://fman.io
[2]: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=I1K3IkOlaVw
[3]: https://fman.io/blog/
[+] [-] vjekoslav|1 year ago|reply
I've been talking about File Pilot since the early days of the project, so I managed to build a following on Twitter and Discord, along with a decent number of email subscribers. I'm hoping that'll be enough to spread the word.
I'm sorry Fman didn't work out for you as a business. But truth be told, you need to deliver something exceptional to compete with established players. While I don't see other file explorer alternatives as direct competition, I do think File Pilot will bring a breath of fresh air. We'll see how it goes!
[+] [-] deramboss|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] torginus|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] zerr|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] nop_slide|1 year ago|reply
Just curious, what aspects do you regret?
[+] [-] nipperkinfeet|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] quyleanh|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] qingcharles|1 year ago|reply
Only thing I'd love is to be able to go bigger on the preview thumbnails. It's limited itself to the Windows sizes.
[+] [-] stavros|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] fakebizprez|1 year ago|reply
I am probably repeating your comment in my sleep, word for word.
[+] [-] semantecture|1 year ago|reply
I have been entrenched in the https://www.ghisler.com/ camp for 20+ years for three main reasons:
1. function keys for copy/move etc. like in mc, norton etc.
2. navigate (even larger) archive files in every format under the sun as if it were an extension of the file system. Blazingly fast and seamless.
3. the rich ecosystem of viewers , add-ons that has been added by the community at https://totalcmd.net/ over decades and is supported by the open source alternative implementation https://doublecmd.sourceforge.io/
Any roadmap that has some of this on the list? [edited spelling]
Thanks for the cool work!
[+] [-] vjekoslav|1 year ago|reply
I was a long-time TC user too.
1) Those are not assigned by default, but all hotkeys in FP are reassignable, so you can create a setup very similar to TC.
2) This is a planned feature.
3) Not currently on the roadmap, but it's a possibility.
[+] [-] huhtenberg|1 year ago|reply
Very keyboard-oriented, extremely capable, super fast, open source with a vast plug-in library. A console app on top of that and it looks like the original. What's not to like.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norton_Commander
[2] https://www.farmanager.com/
[+] [-] throwaway_20357|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] BLKNSLVR|1 year ago|reply
The Windows built-in File Explorer is godawfully slow. Like, slower than I remember it being in the late 90's. Motivation-sappingly slow. But I think it's because my work computer has it's inescapable synchronisation to OneDrive, and so every folder and every file it has to scan for a thumbnail or whatever, waits for it's data from OneDrive like a happy little idiot.
Funnily enough, navigating a remote directory on my NAS from my home Linux desktop is blazingly fast as if the files are local.
Windows or the Corporate Environment, or the combination of the two, is creating so much overhead that it feels like going back in time 25+ years.
[+] [-] egeozcan|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] Sweepi|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] hermitcrab|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] guilamu|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] user_7832|1 year ago|reply
The closest is probably how windows shows previews on desktop but that is only one level deep, if there are empty subfolders it doesn’t help.
Id imagine someone at Plan9 or WebOS or BeOS or some archaic software/OS developer had surely thought of this and made something. Yet all “top” windows file explorers are completely “flat” and don’t show any depth.
[+] [-] sorenjan|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] IYasha|1 year ago|reply
As for exlorer... The only drawback to your request is, obviously, the need for recursive FS scan, which is expensive. That is why it is not in-built in default file explorer functionality. But XnView, for example, optionally shows brief content of directories (e.g. 4 mini-thumbs over a directory icon).
[+] [-] 6510|1 year ago|reply
It definitely seems useful to have a view where folders are simply boxes with ---names--- in their top border. A folder could also be a simple outline with its name in front of the file names.
Something like this
https://img.go-here.nl/folder-view.png
[+] [-] Leftium|1 year ago|reply
Directory Opus can also calculate & display the sizes of folders including all child content. (The calculation is nearly instant if Everything integration is enabled.)
[+] [-] idyllrain|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] willaaam|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] eviks|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] vjekoslav|1 year ago|reply
There are a couple of reasons why I didn't want to make MFT the default.
a) It requires admin access.
b) It's NTFS specific, which means you need to write different logic for other file systems anyway.
c) It's not officially documented or supported by Microsoft. It was reverse-engineered.
[+] [-] tobwen|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] troffed|1 year ago|reply
I tested it with a bit of skepticism, but it left me open-mouthed at the speed with which it does everything.
I will test it for a few days and if it is confirmed, I will not hesitate to purchase a license.
[+] [-] progbits|1 year ago|reply
Looks like it's still under active development. Is SVN still being used in some industries? I know it used to be big in gamedev but I would have expected everyone to have moved on by now.
[+] [-] Sweepi|1 year ago|reply
Did show it to lawyer and he got it in an hour.
[+] [-] hermitcrab|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] dazzawazza|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] mrcomplicated|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] usmanmehmood55|1 year ago|reply
The only issue I have noticed is that the context menu takes a while to open, and it is made worse because of the opening and closing animation. It keeps bugging me because I feel like the context menu of Windows explorer is a bit snappier than this.
I might be wrong but that's what it feels like.
[+] [-] vjekoslav|1 year ago|reply
I have some things to try to mitigate these issues, but unfortunately, this whole architecture is broken. MS should not have allowed extensions to take over.
[+] [-] yarone|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] rkagerer|1 year ago|reply
Is there a forum, or something non-Discord where you can see community-answered tech questions previously asked (without having to log into anything)?
[+] [-] sorenjan|1 year ago|reply
[0] https://files.community/
[+] [-] vim-guru|1 year ago|reply
It really makes you wonder what kind of bloat is slowing down Explorer and whether it's lurking elsewhere too.
[+] [-] deburo|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] vjekoslav|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] AlexDragusin|1 year ago|reply
Microsoft, watch out for "garage" people like vjekoslav here.
[+] [-] nanna|1 year ago|reply
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMWwM8QJAtU&t=1s
[+] [-] satvikpendem|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] martin_henk|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] L0th4r|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] RNAlfons|1 year ago|reply
I love it. Love how snappy it is, love the thought that went into it, love the dark design. Awesome. I'll keep using the beta at work as long as I can but unfortunately I won't get funds to buy it for work. It's too bad that you can get updates only for one year with the normal license. Would have considered buying it for the price for private use but 200 is just too much for a file explorer.