Sneptaur

Well, now we know why Trump and JD Vance were saying anti-EU things lately

Well, I stopped using macOS for about four years because the 2020 models were just... bad. I am back to using it now because my current employer provided me with a MacBook Pro to use, and I've gotten to enjoy the current version of Finder. I think the most notable change in recent years is the addition of tabbed finder windows, and just a ton of really small changes to make things a bit easier, like how they changed the way copying files works to be paused and resumed from the finder itself.

In macOS 15 I'm mostly happy that Microsoft's window tiling patent expired so we can finally tile windows natively in macOS without needing that bettersnaptool app.

Well, the moment you want to start being a power user on the Mac, you have to learn a few common menu items or their keyboard shortcuts. This is by design because Apple doesn't want to make it easy to mistakenly mess up your computer, and even with things being this way by default with all these restrictions, you'd find that people still find ways to break it. It's stunning.

Knowing that, it's understandable that some settings would be required to be tweaked if a power user were to use the system. You can hit cmd+, to open the settings, customize your side bar, and add desktop icons for any connected drives. To jump to a certain directory, you would use the Go > Go to Folder or shift+cmd+G to type in your location. This works for hidden files too, but it may be easier to simply use the terminal when working with hidden files such as these.

To move up a directory when you're caught in the middle of a file tree, you can use cmd+up arrow, or use Go > Enclosing Folder. Alternatively, you could just start using the column view, which is one of the great features I tend to shout out the Finder for in the first place. It makes it incredibly easy to navigate deeply nested directories.

You can also use cmd+j to change the view settings in any folder, and it will remember your preferences per each folder.

The cmd+i information pop-up is extremely useful and well laid out, easy to use, and intuitive.

You can tap the space bar after highlighting most files to view a preview of the file, including media files. This preview is also used in the gallery and column view in Finder, which can make working with media files much easier and simpler.

These are all things you learn when you spend a lot of time using macOS. Keyboard shortcuts obviously exist on everything, but with macOS they're pretty much required for power users.

In fairness, Dolphin is definitely the best available on Linux. I think Finder strikes the perfect balance of simplicity and customization. It's easy to figure out for a newbie and powerful enough for a developer. Dolphin's learning curve is a bit steeper and in my view it has too many features on offer. This is a common problem with KDE software. It's not a big deal because KDE stuff isn't used on commercially-available products that need tech support, and anyone using Linux should be able to get by just fine with it, but I still think Finder is simply better software with a longer history and judicious use of new features

Well, Windows Explorer is terrible, Dolphin is better but still not really that great, Nautilus is stripped back and barebones, Thunar is ancient and barely competes with what Windows XP had, and vifm is unreasonable unless you exclusively work in terminals. Did I miss any that are even remotely popular?

That would be a waste of my time. You're not someone who needs to know how to use one, so what's the point of telling you how to use one? You're an intelligent human being, you can figure it out if and when you need to. Until then, whatever tech you're using serves your needs so it's no biggie.

Is it that outlandish that someone can appreciate a piece of closed-source software?

You really don't know how to use macOS, lol

I still contend that the best file browser ever made is the macOS Finder. When someone makes something that good for Linux, I'll be very happy

Best of luck in that case!

I know this is unsolicited advice, so feel free to ignore me, but I am an expert on these things so here's my take:

Before you switch to Linux, start switching your apps to ones that you know will work on Linux. It'll make the process much easier for ya! :-)