I use both every day, which is why I cannot understand how that experience is possible. After Outlook, File Explorer is the worst program I have to deal with.
I can see where this point of view comes from -- but honestly, I can easily see the opposing view as well. (I know, I know... now
both of you want to hate me... but hear me out.)
The thing about preferences -- and empirically speaking, that's all this is -- is that they are usually rooted in personal experiences. In some cases, it's a matter of which one you learned first... in fact, I tend to believe that describes most people. But in other cases, it's a matter of which one you feel gives you either more power or more simplicity... and which of those priorities happens to be more important to you.
Windows File Explorer grew out of a "Power User" centric environment. You pretty much
had to be a power user to thrive in that world. Even today, you can still literally type a full file path right at the top of every File Explorer window, and Windows will even helpfully suggest path completion options as you type... whereas to type an actual path on a Mac, you have to either go up to a menu, where it doesn't work quite the same way as on Windows, or you have to actually open a (shudder)
real Unix command prompt. Put another way: Microsoft puts that feature front and center whereas Apple prefers to hide it.
Apple's Finder, in contrast, grew from an environment where paths and command lines didn't even exist. (That would be the pre-Unix Mac OS, for those who don't know.) You can still get to those deep rooted folder structures, but Macs tend to favor different methods to get there; for example, you could toggle a series of triangles on the left side and can see every folder --
and file -- along the way. (Mac users can also toggle on some very power user friendly features, like the ability to see the calculated sizes of every single folder along the way.)
And yeah... both environments have their annoyances.
Especially if you're a cross-platform user who has a good working knowledge of the feature sets on both platforms. I cannot count the number of times I've attempted to use a feature on one platform that only exists on the other... and it happens
on both.
Both have their strengths and weaknesses... but both are also generally serviceable. The vast majority of what we complain about at this point are
just preferences.
