I emailed him a question on Saturday and woke up to a response this morning...
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Best Finder alternative
- Thread starter JonL12345
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I wonder...In settings there is an "iCloud" section where you can choose which folders show up under the iCloud bookmark. Have you reviewed that to make sure everything is selected?
I am confused about the difference between Toolbar and the Touch Bar in QSpace.
I understand what the toolbar is, but what is the "touch bar", and where is it displayed? I only found it via the "tutorial" documentation, but I can't get a read on what and where it is.
I understand what the toolbar is, but what is the "touch bar", and where is it displayed? I only found it via the "tutorial" documentation, but I can't get a read on what and where it is.
The touch bar is the section of the keyboard above the physical keys on the old MacBook Pros.
I knew what the Touch Bar was, relative to the older MBP, just didn't make the connection ...This thing:
The fact that the QSpace developer actually went to the trouble to implement this feature in his software is awesome... and as annoying as the Touch Bar could be, we might still have it if more developers coded for it.
Thanks @svenmany and @Janichsan.
well I love the touchbar and the dev didn't make a huge effort for it, just to let you know
When testing QSpace Pro, the developer replied to my email the next day, and in our followups, sometimes he even replied the same day.
How's Forklift's support?
I then tested Forklift and emailed their support. Think it was Monday when I first emailed them, until now (Saturday) there's no reply. Send them 2 more emails, still nothing.
Amongst the stuff I asked, would like to know if they have a roadmap for features. Would hate to buy a subscription (semi) product that just updates minimally to keep up with working on the latest MacOS, for example. Would be good to know if they plan to add features or just keep it the same.
How's Forklift's support?
I then tested Forklift and emailed their support. Think it was Monday when I first emailed them, until now (Saturday) there's no reply. Send them 2 more emails, still nothing.
Amongst the stuff I asked, would like to know if they have a roadmap for features. Would hate to buy a subscription (semi) product that just updates minimally to keep up with working on the latest MacOS, for example. Would be good to know if they plan to add features or just keep it the same.
For QSpace I didn't ask about the roadmap, given that I haven't even finished trying out all its features. I asked him about QSpace's searching function.
As for Forklift, I asked for a roadmap because it felt quite basic. While I'm not against a subscription model, I would like to know it's for getting new features too, not just bugfixes or simple enhancements.
I often use listview but sorted by size or date and then want to select the next file alphabetically, that works in Finder but not in QSpace.
All this sudden QSpace talk was starting to sound a little astroturf-y, so I downloaded the 30-day trial to see for myself, and after a brief poke around, I'm impressed!
If you don't ever need multiple "Finder" windows open simultaneously (4 by default but there are a bunch of different layouts), there might not be much of a hook. For those with simple needs, it's probably just confusing. But it's really efficient if you spend a lot of time organizing files in multiple folders. And with saveable tabbed workspaces, it's easy to set up different workspaces with different window configurations for different organizational needs.
It's got tons of preference settings and fully customizable tool bar, but the UI remains simple and clean. It's got straight-forward cut & paste (a must for me). It's fast and surprisingly polished - I guess after trying so many Finder alternatives that were no more than half-baked curiosities, I was expecting much the same - QSpace really surprised me. I'll be curious to see if it's stable, or if stability/bugs start to become noticeable with use.
If you don't ever need multiple "Finder" windows open simultaneously (4 by default but there are a bunch of different layouts), there might not be much of a hook. For those with simple needs, it's probably just confusing. But it's really efficient if you spend a lot of time organizing files in multiple folders. And with saveable tabbed workspaces, it's easy to set up different workspaces with different window configurations for different organizational needs.
It's got tons of preference settings and fully customizable tool bar, but the UI remains simple and clean. It's got straight-forward cut & paste (a must for me). It's fast and surprisingly polished - I guess after trying so many Finder alternatives that were no more than half-baked curiosities, I was expecting much the same - QSpace really surprised me. I'll be curious to see if it's stable, or if stability/bugs start to become noticeable with use.
Yup. I've been trying to like QSpace -- but, so far, I don't. It's got a ton of advanced features but none of those implementations stands out against that from other specialized apps. For instance: QSpace search is good but HoudahSpot search is better.
I realize today that QSpace probably(?) isn't scriptable -- so if you use osascript so as to grab Finder selections (as part of shell scripts) then QSpace looks all the more limited.
I like it that QSpace provides so many different views/layouts but those views don't really do much good for my own activities.
I realize today that QSpace probably(?) isn't scriptable -- so if you use osascript so as to grab Finder selections (as part of shell scripts) then QSpace looks all the more limited.
I like it that QSpace provides so many different views/layouts but those views don't really do much good for my own activities.
That's a competly different type of software category.
Those are great to store, find and categorize documents. Those are usually saved in a database.
But those are in no way related to managing files in the filesystem.
I've been using QSpace for a while now. I'm a major fan. It has so many features, with many that directly address Finder shortcomings. Some examples that come to mind:
How responsive is that. Nothing like "we'll add it to our list and try to address it".
- When I have a network share mounted, the share appears in the sidebar. It drove me crazy that Finder stopped doing that.
- When I add a new folder and the folder, based on its name, would not be visible in the current scroll position, QSpace automatically scrolls it into view. It drove me crazy that Finder didn't do that.
- Each and every folder can be set individually to remember its state. In particular it can be set to remember its expansion state when in list view. Also, that setting can be made for a workspace as a whole, such that the top level folders always open expanded as you left them. The lack of all this is the main failing of Forklift.
- The find function can show the path for each file in a column. I've always missed that with Finder. I like to sort by that path and it's a real help that QSpace offers that.
- The sidebar items can be renamed; they don't have to match the folder name. Pretty silly that Finder doesn't allow that. Forklift is even more powerful with sidebar handling.
- I can have up to four panes. I never realized how limiting two was.
- It has a completely configurable context menu. Oh my god, how fabulous is that. That is particularly great when combined with their Quick Launch feature, that allows me to create custom executions (e.g. launching an often used program with the selected file). I keep a few Quick Launches in the context menu.
How responsive is that. Nothing like "we'll add it to our list and try to address it".
Are you using MAS version? WWW download? I find the 'featureslist comparison' page confusing.
I'm not using the MAS version. I purchased the Pro version directly from the company.
I reviewed the feature comparison. There are a couple of things in the Pro version that I've yet to take advantage of or even fully understand. For example, there's "Start Command Line Apps" or "Start Hyper & Tabby Terminals". I often select a directory and do "open in terminal" to launch iTerm. But I've never used those other terminals or tried to run a command line thing from QSpace.
QSpace Desktop - that could be nice but I've never used it. Perhaps their replacement desktop has more configurability than Apple's. Certainly, the thing they advertise in settings about it is that double clicking on volume or folder on the desktop would cause it to open in QSpace. That's unrelated to "Open in Finder" using QSpace, which works without using QSPace Desktop. I'll try out QSpace Desktop for a while and report back.
I suppose, if one were worried about the China, the MAS version has been reviewed.
I'm not going to use it. I'm having a hard time getting the grid spacing to work. The font is more bold than normal - a bit unpleasant. On the other hand, I do like the fact that the configurable context menu works on desktop items.
Spacedrive is absolutely incredible! Although it's still in Alpha, it works astonishingly well with its exceptional speed and stability. While it may not have drag and drop functionality yet, it compensates with its remarkable local indexing and indexing per folder. This enables lightning-fast performance, and let's not forget about the cross-platform feature! Seriously, you have to give it a try.