How I like my Finder

I'm still surprised how used we all got to the modern, somewhat simplistic file management metaphors. Icon/list view plus "shortcut" panel, wherever you look. I still remember that for years after Windows 95 came out, one of the first applications everyone installed was a better file manager, quite often some GUI Norton clone. Then there was the "spatial Finder" hullaballoo, echoed by GNOME, too, if I remember correctly. But in recent years, that market niche seems to be on the verge of extinction.<p>Probably for the same reason why keyboards are getting increasingly worse: No "hardcore" users. Pictures, music and similar files are "managed", lots of other stuff is exclusively accessed via a single application and its open dialog, leaving <i>maybe</i> the all-purpose Documents folder to be the target for occasional visitation.<p>And the desktop. Oh heavens, the desktop...

The author mentions a bunch of programs that offer similar functionality but states that "the way they're designed doesn't work for me." I'd be curious what about them doesn't work.<p>I use TotalFinder primarily for this functionality, and their split-pane looks almost identical to what he has set up in the screenshot, with the added benefit that it is more efficient (e.g. you can move the window around and resize it and the panes stay together, you can adjust the size of each pane relative to the other just by dragging the single middle bar, etc.).<p>TotalFinder split-pane screenshot: <a href="http://i.imgur.com/K6KkSws.png" rel="nofollow">http://i.imgur.com/K6KkSws.png</a>

Do consider ForkLift - <a href="http://www.binarynights.com/" rel="nofollow">http://www.binarynights.com/</a> - just look through the key features. I would have bought it for Multi Rename alone (but it also has Dual panes, Mount as disk, all kinds of remote connections, custom shortcuts, Merge, etc etc)

Why don't you just use one that has dual windows and tabs.<p>TotalFinder <a href="http://totalfinder.binaryage.com/" rel="nofollow">http://totalfinder.binaryage.com/</a><p>XtraFinder <a href="http://www.trankynam.com/xtrafinder/" rel="nofollow">http://www.trankynam.com/xtrafinder/</a>

totalfinder has a split pane (actually a tab join) which works awesomely.<p>What I like about totalfinder is that it is not a finder replacement, but just adds some small (but massive) improvements.<p>highly recommend.

I still don't understand how some people work without a folder hierarchy in the left pane... I never understood Norton's dual-file-list-pane setup - the current path is not sufficient context for me.

I use Bettertouchtool's window arrangement functions which you can set to (nearly) any custom shortcut you want. I use these on all applications not just Finder (in some it will not work) and I use these all the time.<p>my laptop:<p>- fn + left middle double tap -&#62; position/maximize window to half left screen<p>- fn + right middle doubletap -&#62; position/maximize window to half right screen<p>- fn + top middle doubletap -&#62; maximize window<p>on my desktop workstations I use keyboard shortcuts.

I always bind super-left and super-right to <a href="https://gist.github.com/unhammer/5336830" rel="nofollow">https://gist.github.com/unhammer/5336830</a> (requires wmctrl and xorg-xdpyinfo), so I can tile any two windows left/right. Also handy when e.g. reading an article while note-taking, watching a screencast while chatting, etc.<p>I guess I should try a tiling window manager some day, but I almost never need more than fullscreen vs 50/50.

<a href="http://totalfinder.binaryage.com/" rel="nofollow">http://totalfinder.binaryage.com/</a><p>You're welcome.

Terminal (or better yet iTerm 2). It's the best filesystem manager out there.

I recommend spectacle instead of divvy. There were a couple problems that I had with divvy resizing and placing windows. Spectacle addresses those concerns.

Use total commander not open source but definitely us worth every penny sold more than 25m copies

Reminds me of <a href="http://panic.com/transmit/" rel="nofollow">http://panic.com/transmit/</a>

Oh, you mean F3 in that usability-horrorshow-totally-not-to-the-level-of-MacOS that is Ubuntu?

TotalFinder and Divvy work for me. I get exactly what he's looking for.

Hello, TotalFinder author here. I'm a HN addict too :)

Forklift v2 will do this pretty well. Sure it costs $50 but it does a lot for a program.