
The history of dual-pane file managers - mherrmann
https://fman.io/blog/dual-pane-file-manager-history/
======
hs86
I can't enjoy using the default file managers on Windows and macOS. They are
too confusing and require too many screen space for advanced tasks. For this
reason I started to look for alternatives and (re)discovered dual-pane file
managers a couple of decades after their invention.

After some time I chose SpeedCommander for Windows and Path Finder for macOS.
Both have many advanced features, are easier to use than Explorer/Finder and I
do not reget paying for them.

I really hope that fman will catch up to them and have a similar impact as
Sublime Text. Having an unified file management experience across my operating
systems while expanding it to my needs with plugins sounds like something that
I really want. :) But in its current state I feel like it is too early to ask
for money. I never saw Sublime Text 1.x or even Sublime Text 0.x but if we
compare it to ST, then fman is nowhere near it.

There are many ST users who don't use any plugins and consider it as feature
complete. I doubt that this would be the same for the current state of fman.

~~~
mherrmann
Well, I'm happy to hear you believe in fman's vision. Sublime Text has been in
development for 10 years, fman for 1. So you'll agree it isn't quite fair to
compare the two. Let us talk again in 9 years.

Users are already happily paying for fman. But you're right that it is still
missing many important features. This will get better with time.

------
oddrationale
You forgot to mention my favorite dual-pane file manager for Windows:
[FreeCommander]([http://freecommander.com/](http://freecommander.com/)).

I know fman is still pretty young, so for now I'm sticking with FreeCommander.
Also, fman was too slow using Windows network drives which I have to use at
work. Local files are fine. Plus, there are a few features of FreeCommander
that I can't live without including the tab interface, multi-file renamer,
built-in archive handling, and many more. Although fman does look like a cool
project, hopefully it will catch up in terms of speed and functionality with
user-provided plugins.

~~~
mherrmann
Yeah I can't mention the 98 others I know of :) Thank you for the kind words
and the feedback. I'll take it into account!

