Path Finder - worth it?

[OldCorpse]

Finder is slowly driving me insane. I hate the way I can't see anything without constantly having to adjust window frames. I hate how I can't have a bird's eye overview of the file tree in all my volumes (external drives etc.) without opening a new finder window the way you can do it even in Windows Explorer. And I especially hate moving folders around in Finder - makes me feel suicidal... I want to cut and paste, no - not copy and paste and then delete, and I want to do it with one hand, one click of the mouse... I hate holding on and moving through multiple layers of spring loaded windows, as I always lose the folder, and it's soooo sloooowww. In short, I find my blood pressure rocketing up every single day when I use Finder. I hate it with a passion.

My understanding is that Path Finder is the only reasonable alternative to Finder... and clearly, Finder is never going to get fixed by Apple, so I've given up hope on that.

So what about Path Finder? Is it worth shelling out for? I'm worried about a few things - how stable it is, does it conflict with Finder in some weird way, is there a performance penalty in running the computer, is Path Finder slow, etc.

 

[Stella]

I got Path Finder (PF ) due to MacUpdate Bundle.

Its pretty good - its a shame its not a total Finder replacement , because if you try, you'll loose some functionality that the Finder provides ( Finder being more than just the GUI file manager element ), I think there's some documentation regarding this on the PF website. On my system - I have the Finder Icon removed from the Dock. It is possible to also replace the Finder Desktop with the PF desktop - so when you Apple+N, you'll open a PF window instead of a Finder window - something I've not done - I think there's some limitations IRC.

PF certainly has the functionality I wish the Finder has, and visually it looks better. However, PF can also be slow too.. it went through a period of being extremely slow - I had to force close and restart to get PF functional again. Also, sometimes can be slow at displaying a not-too-excessive-amount of files in a directory - but only occasionally.

I leave PF open all the time and don't notice any slow down due to this.

Would I buy it at full price? Not sure - but I certainly use FP on a daily basis. Personally, I prefer not to use add ons that replace OSX core functionality where possible.

Apple should buy Path Finder and integrate it, IMO.

The best thing to do is download the trial version and try it.

 

[TonyK]

+1 for PathFinder. Been using it for nearly 2 years. Finder still has some uses but usually I'm in PF.