> Tbf, the Finder is still crap (if only it would be nearly as good as Windows Explorer was in its heyday I would probably use it more)
I have the exact opposite opinion. I loathe Windows Explorer, and relatively simply stuff like presenting a tree view is apparently some weird magic trick that only Apple has figured out how to do.
Browsing SMB shares (or any other networked storage) is one shortcut away (cmd+k), and I don't need to visit control panel to enable weird subsystems that expose services on my machine to connect to other machines.
I use the terminal a lot, also for simple file operations, but that is because of proficiency, not out of need.
...but the SMB implementation on macOS is shit.
Try to browse any network directory with a non-trivial amount of files and see the whole Finder window just beach-ball or freeze.
I can browse my NAS faster via a browser and copyparty[0] than with Finder and SMB or NFS...
[0] https://github.com/9001/copyparty
Yeah I don’t know how they made it so bad. On Windows & Linux, using an SMB share basically gives you the same experience as using a USB hard drive connected directly to the machine. On Mac, you have to wait 30 seconds every time you open a directory. Then when you’re finally at the directory you want and start copying files, the speed slows down to a crawl as the copy progresses. I find it especially confusing because Apple offers 10 Gbit networking for their desktops at an additional fee. What’s the point of having that option when their shitty SMB implementation makes doing anything on your LAN far slower than 1 Gbit anyway?
Finder isnt crap?
Why can't i paste a path and just go to it like I can in Windows or KDE, why can't I cut and paste files? Why do i have to open 2 separate windows and drag the files between them?
Who decided that it is somehow useful to leave an applocation running when you close its window?
There are so many silly and stupid small things wrong with os x
You can:
Copy current path: Option + Command + C [1] Cut & paste: Alt + Command + Move (actually moves the file)
It's just bad that these simple things are very much hidden.
[1] https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/47216/copying-the-...
It moves the file? That's not the use case. The use case is copying a path and pasting it into the address bar of Explorer, and then Explorer showing the contents of the path. No file action is implied.
Shift-Command-G - "Go to folder..."
"Why can't i paste a path and just go to it like I can in Windows or KDE?"
on my Mac, the finder systematically fails to display the most recent downloaded files, or files synchronized through Nextcloud, under "recent files". For some reason, it always displays some random selection of recently used files. It's completely useless. In fact, I look for recent files using "find" in the terminal. At least this work.
On my Linux laptop, Nautilus (Gnome) displays exactly the last files in the right order, and it's incredibly useful.
There are countless annoyances like this on MacOS; window focus and placement always surprises and annoys me, even if Rectangle helps somewhat. I find it so much less usable and useful than Gnome.
>or files synchronized through Nextcloud, under "recent files"
Are those created/updated with the current date when they sync, or with the date they have on the host system?
How is \\server\share any harder than finder?
You have to type it.
Finder shows them in the sidebar and you just click on it.
Apple OS (both classic and NeXTStep) are not keyboard driven but mouse driven.
Same for Explorer, really. The SMB hosts that announce themselves show up in the sidebar.
>I loathe Windows Explorer, and relatively simply stuff like presenting a tree view is apparently some weird magic trick that only Apple has figured out how to do.
Is this a joke? This has to be a joke. Finder is so lame compared to Explorer that I'm reading it as a joke.
>Browsing SMB shares (or any other networked storage) is one shortcut away (cmd+k), and I don't need to visit control panel to enable weird subsystems that expose services on my machine to connect to other machines.
Uh... MacOS is nowhere near easier with SMB shares than Windows. You are dead wrong about all of this. SMB works out-of-the-box with Windows, you open Explorer and the "Network" is there, which will show available network shares. You could make it an icon on the desktop if you wanted to and then just click to open (not how I would do it, but you could). Or you can type \\servername in the Explorer address bar and get a list of all its shares, and there are probably many other ways for different use cases too.
MacOS has been difficult with SMB shares for us, especially with Finder - when we mount an SMB share in Finder they just stop responding eventually for no reason, there's no error - they just can't be reached anymore, requiring us to re-mount the share. But on Windows they always just work, no exception, no problem, 100% of the time - and no, that is not an exaggeration. There's very few things in tech that I would say works 100% of the time for me, but SMB on Windows is one of them.