Cosmil - In-development Finder Alternative

[cosmil]

After a full rewrite and various other changes, Cosmil has reached a full release and is now available for purchase. It looks, feels, and functions far better than it did before, and includes new features (such as Bulk Renaming).

For the next week or so it's on a 42% Off launch sale:
1 Mac: $16.95 -> $9.83
4 Macs: $25.95 -> $15.05

You can buy Cosmil at cosmil.app. All payments are processed via Stripe and you will have a receipt and your license key emailed to you after purchase.

Thank you all for the feedback you guys have provided, this has been a long time in the making. Feel free to reply to this thread with any questions you might have and I'll respond as soon as I can.

 

[dbrewood]

Deleted

 

[Apple_Robert]

I purchased a license. I would like to see an IOS offering as well.

 

[Janichsan]

No trial version?

 

[cosmil]

No trial version?

Unfortunately not, it's a bit of a pain to implement and forces me to add some additional security measures. In lieu of a free trial Cosmil is pretty cheap ($9.83 is the minimum right now) and full refunds are offered for the first 2 weeks after you purchase, so I didn't see a big reason to go through the pain of adding a free trial version.

If it ends up being highly requested, then I will make a free trial version of Cosmil available.

 

[Apple_Robert]

No trial version?

No. The website linked to by the Developer post states such.

 

[cosmil]

I purchased a license. I would like to see an IOS offering as well.

Thank you for purchasing! Let me know if you have any issues or questions.

Could you elaborate a little more on what you mean by an IOS offering?

As far as I know IOS doesn't really have any native file management besides iCloud Files, correct me if I'm wrong.

 

[Apple_Robert]

Could you elaborate a little more on what you mean by an IOS offering?

As far as I know IOS doesn't really have any native file management besides iCloud Files, correct me if I'm wrong.

It was in regards to remote connections ability (IE. being able to connect to folders and files from my iPad to Mac, making transfers etc. )

 

[cosmil]

It was in regards to remote connections ability (IE. being able to connect to folders and files from my iPad to Mac, making transfers etc. )

I see. Honestly, right now I can't see myself developing an IOS version of Cosmil. Cosmil was always designed to be run on a laptop/desktop so it would be a whole new animal targeting mobile. I'll do some research to see how difficult it might be, but just know for now, it's not in the plans. That being said, if it becomes highly requested down the line that could change.

For now, I suggest you check out Spacedrive as they are developing a mobile app already and their main focus is remote files.

 

[cosmil]

Anyone that purchased and downloaded Cosmil recently, please redownload. There was a minor issue with authentication and prior to this latest update automatic update checking was only enabled after authentication (a nice catch 22).

I apologize if this caused any confusion or frustration, everything should be good to go now.

 

[cosmil]

I am working on rewriting the frontend of Cosmil in a far superior and faster (~20%) framework. This rewrite will also include Dual/Tri/Nth pane support as well as remote locations among other things.

Once I am further along with it I will make a blog post but if things go smoothly and my time permits it should be out mid August.

 

[ixxx69]

Unfortunately not, it's a bit of a pain to implement and forces me to add some additional security measures. In lieu of a free trial Cosmil is pretty cheap ($9.83 is the minimum right now) and full refunds are offered for the first 2 weeks after you purchase, so I didn't see a big reason to go through the pain of adding a free trial version.

If it ends up being highly requested, then I will make a free trial version of Cosmil available.

Frankly, I've been burned too many times paying for what turns out to be essentially junk on the premise it's inexpensive. It ends up feeling scammy.

Unless reviews and word of mouth are so overwhelming positive to convince me otherwise, I'm not going to consider Cosmil without a trial version of some type.

But maybe that's just me - best of luck on your software endeavor.

 

[cosmil]

Frankly, I've been burned too many times paying for what turns out to be essentially junk on the premise it's inexpensive. It ends up feeling scammy.

Unless reviews and word of mouth are so overwhelming positive to convince me otherwise, I'm not going to consider Cosmil without a trial version of some type.

But maybe that's just me - best of luck on your software endeavor.

I completely understand, there are lots of reasons to look out for scams these days. However, I can guarantee you Cosmil is most definitely not junk.

I am considering making a free trial option available for a period of 2 to 3 weeks for people like you and all the people on Reddit that complained about the lack of a free trial. If I do decide to go forward with this it will be after I finish the rewrite, so sometime in mid to late August, I'll post about it here when it comes.

Thanks for your feedback!

 

[cosmil]

Tri/Variable Pane from the Rewrite:

Things might look a little strange because this is on a 13 inch Macbook Air screen where there's really not enough screen real-estate for tri pane, but hey, it works! Also, the sidebar and all the content panes are resizable.

I'm also working on getting remote locations working as you might see in the sidebar.

 

[cosmil]

Five panes on a Macbook Air!

 

[cosmil]

Also working on a quick navigate menu

 

[andrew_salfinger]

Oh this looks epic! Will check it out. Been wanting to try an finder alt!

 

[I WAS the one]

Forklift has been working great so far. Cosmil seems too premature still.

 

[cosmil]

Forklift has been working great so far. Cosmil seems too premature still.

Could you elaborate on what you mean by this?

 

[I WAS the one]

Could you elaborate

I tried Cosmil and found a few frustrating issues. First, I couldn't access the Finder's right-click quick actions menu, which defeats the purpose of avoiding Finder. I also couldn't pin tabs to stay open the next time I launched a window. The double color tag feature was inconsistent, drag and drop was glitchy, and I often had to reload a window to see updated content. Additionally, dragging files from external drives was slow and sometimes the files would snap back like a rubber band, requiring me to reopen the windows. Do you want me to continue?

 

[cosmil]

I couldn't access the Finder's right-click quick actions menu, which defeats the purpose of avoiding Finder.

I'm not quite sure what you mean by this.

^If you mean this, no, Finder's quick action menu was not implemented in Cosmil, but I don't see how it completely defeats the purpose of avoiding Finder.

I also couldn't pin tabs to stay open the next time I launched a window.

Yeah, admittedly that's a failing of Cosmil's first version. Workspace preservation should come with the rewrite.

The double color tag feature was inconsistent

I don't know what "double color tag" feature you are referring to, I don't have anything like that listed on the website.

I often had to reload a window to see updated content

In tree view, folders that you open do not automatically update with changes, an oversight on my part. This has already been fixed in the rewrite.

Regarding the issues you were having with drag and drop and external drives, I will do some more testing but I have yet to encounter such issues. If you joined the Discord you could screenshare and show me what you mean so I can try to reproduce it.



That first version of Cosmil was not made with the intention of satisfying powerusers. It's was aimed mostly at folks that just wanted a more intuitive and visually pleasing experience than Finder provided. Now, after realizing how big the market is for powerusers, I have shifted my focus for the rewrite to include more powerful features (like dual pane), alongside the simple experience Cosmil already offers. Writing a file manager is not easy work (especially with the very new tech stack that made Cosmil possible), so I hope you can understand that getting everything right on the first release is not easy.

If you want to get involved on a deeper level with the project you can join the Discord Server, where we (or anyone else that's interested) can chat about any issues or feature requests you might have. I understand that most people here don't use Discord, but when it comes to really getting valuable feedback from customers, it makes my life so much easier. Screensharing and realtime text/voice chat make everything so much more efficient, but I digress.

I'm working hard on this new rewrite and depending on how many features I want to implement and how much time I have to work on Cosmil (I have a lot going on) it could be out within the next month or two. All existing users will get this update for free of course, hopefully it can solve the issues you experienced.

Please don't hesitate to reach out if you have any other issues or questions.

 

[I WAS the one]

That first version of Cosmil was not made with the intention of satisfying powerusers.

I'm pleased that my feedback can contribute to enhancing your app. Although I don't frequently use Discord, I assure you that I will attend to other issues there. The double tag is a default feature on macOS, and my response simply reflects my inability to find it in your app. Your inquiry prompted my answer.

 

[marfpilf]

I attempted to purchase but there were no links on the purchase page. I also downloaded the trial but when I run it, I'm simply prompted for a license key with no way to trial. tried in Safari and Edge. On latest Sequioa.

 

[cosmil]

I attempted to purchase but there were no links on the purchase page. I also downloaded the trial but when I run it, I'm simply prompted for a license key with no way to trial. tried in Safari and Edge. On latest Sequioa.

Sorry, I have not intended for anyone to purchase it/use the free trial until this coming Saturday (the 19th), which is when 1.1 will be releasing. The website is still being being polished up for the final release and as such purchasing is still not enabled.

Try again on Saturday and it should work fine. The version you downloaded was still 1.0, which has no free trial option.

I will also post on this thread when 1.1 releases. Apologies for the inconvenience.

 

[I WAS the one]

Try again on Saturday and it should work fine.

Free trial doesn't work. In fact, now I can't even use the older version.