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Author Topic: FileBoss (soon on bits) vs. Directory Opus  (Read 4388 times)

clean

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FileBoss (soon on bits) vs. Directory Opus
« on: March 21, 2013, 02:14 PM »
No need to repeat the numerous missings in Directory Opus, all the more so since it's not well accepted in this forum to mention them, and when you do, you're invariably told that you are asking for sheer rubbish: Whenever Directory Opus doesn't have, it MUST be rubbish, it's that simple! Cf. the current DO thread for this, and I happily accept this. But let me speak about FileBoss:

They have a "home licence", for up to three computers, and a "commercial licence" where you pay for any computer - BUT the "home licence" is also valid for individuals, i.e. and if I understand well, if you have some corporation or work in some, the corp must pay per seat, but you're free to install your "home" licence on up to 3 comps, be them in your personal use (and not of your paid secretary) or that of your family members. (Compare this with DO where even your wife pays extra (all the more so since DO checks every single comp out every felt minute).)

Good news here, FileBoss will be 40 p.c. off very soon, on bits - remember bits takes 50 p.c., so don't blame FB for wanting 30 p.c. of the asking price, and not just 25 p.c. - unfortunately, 40 p.c. off seems to be a lot less "interesting" than 50 p.c. off for many prospects, but we're speaking of some 5 dollars here, so don't let pass a very interesting offer (and bear in mind, the DO-1-comp-30$ version is literally stripped to the bone).

On YouTube, see two videos (15, and 10 minutes, but they explain a lot), and I mention some points here that you can observe there.

Yes, FileBoss has more than 2 panes in one window / instance (you can see this in the 15-min. vid), and I won't repeat here why this is extremely handy for most pc users out there, any sorting out your inbox into multiple folders becomes so much easier then. This is a unique feature of file boss, within the big shots, neither DO, nor X2, nor XY, nor SC offering such a feature (and no, multiple tabs (which FB has, of course, as they all have) are NOT an alternative for multiple panes in any way). As for shortkey to access these multiple panes when you're a a keyboard guy, not a mouse guy (anymore, e.g. for carpal tunnel syndrome caused by far too many web sites in your previous life where amply mouse abuse had been inavoidable), let's see about this later.

The second video (about 10 min.) shows another specialty of FB, i.e. copying / moving files with common attributes (e.g. "tags" as name parts, and many more), also from many sources, to a common destination, BUT with replicating their respective source folders there. This seems incredibly useful to me, IF you need such a feature, i.e. then this function will save you an incredible amount of manual work. At this time, I don't grasp yet how I could make this unique feature useful for me (and then explain to others how it could become useful to them), but I have to admit I know this feature just from looking on, not from trialling, and I have got a certain feeling that for both for project management as for "software engineering" / versioning of multiple files in multiple folders and sub-folders, such a feature could become pure gold if used in a smart way (home-made CMS, anyone?!).

There are other such, sophisticated features in FB that are not immediately "accessible" for the casual prospect, so I'll write again after having thoroughly trialled. And FB isn't any newcomer, see the "mini review" for the previous version in the respective DC folder (which I discovered rather late I must say, so this hint might seem unneeded for some but may be helpful for others). The offer on bits is their brand-new version 3, just out a week or so.
« Last Edit: April 08, 2013, 09:32 AM by clean »

clean

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Re: FileBoss (soon on bits) vs. Directory Opus
« Reply #1 on: March 21, 2013, 02:42 PM »
Oh, I forgot: It seems this "automatic collecting files from multiple source folders" also functions with comments in FB, which means you can use tags for this, not only tags in the file names, but also in the ntfs comment attribute - I had been very eager to find a file manager able to do exactly this, but couldn't find any, about a year ago, and I had trialled FB for this, in vain, as any other available file commander then. So, for FB in version 3 now, this seems to be another UNQIUE feature which could be tremendously useful, since if access to these comments (= for creating, and for updating them) is realized in a slick way, that is) it allows for doing real-life "document management" just with a file commander, i.e. just within the Windows file system itself, and without having to add multiple codes into the file names for this (which is totally unpractical and an awful way of doing things).

Of course, IF you use comments = tags for your file management, partially or in the most general way, you need a file manager that makes it easy to administer this meta data (adding, removing, (individual or global (!) changing of such tags), so there will be needed another, more thorough look into this, but let me just say here that no file commander of my knowledge is splendid here, X2 being the best in this respect among FB's contenders (XY, unfortunately, has not done away with its proprietary (!) meta data yet (meaning it cannot process standard ntfs comments), so all of them could do with a little help from their respective developers, with regards to Windows metadata. (Metadata specific to individual file formats like MS Office, pictures or audio files is another subject indeed into which I never delved up to now, so I cannot speak of the respective capabilities of all these file managers with those.)
« Last Edit: April 08, 2013, 09:45 AM by clean »

flamerz

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Re: FileBoss (soon on bits) vs. Directory Opus
« Reply #2 on: March 23, 2013, 12:14 PM »
im having many bugs with fileboss 3.

icons that dissapear from toolbars, flickering, mouse problems while selecting files, tabs... and sometimes is the app is not responsive.

looking at some bitsdujour comments im not alone.

i was thinking this editor was rock solid, but now i think ill stay away.

clean

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Re: FileBoss (soon on bits) vs. Directory Opus
« Reply #3 on: March 24, 2013, 03:25 PM »
flamerz, it's evident your observertion is right, the discussion on the bits offering there shows this clearly enough. As said, their version 3 was out for a week or, make it 3 weeks, and with their bits offering date fixed in advance. They should have reported the bits offering for some more 3 weeks, but I suppose that wasn't possible, bits-wise (bear in mind they had been on bits many years ago, not regularly as some other developers do, so we cannot assume bits treats them as preferred customers (cf. the Sunday they got there, but in retrospective, that Sunday wasn't too bad since this way, not too many prospects (hopefully) got into this early-publishing nightmare there).

They are heavily working on every single point mentioned there, and many more, I'm sure, even the minor ones, and their only "fault" is having gone bits early, instead of doing it 3 weeks later; that's unfortunate, but let's face it, next time, even the bits crowd that wants it all for free will get a more mature version, not some x.0, but x.3 or x.4, and should be happy with it, and I hear that for us DC members (or "visitors", as I happen to be called by the system), there could some intermediate offering, even if bits-only people not having a look, too, might wait for version 4.1 (or 4.02 or such): The x.0 lesson has been learned and how to avoid it, by everybody, I presume.

Another possible strategy which comes to mind: Developers offering rock-solid, perfectly mature versions x.9 or such on bits, with listing all the fine things to come within the next months, with version x+1.0 and following, together with a free update to that next major version - from what I've seen by the reactions of bits customers in such cases, I think that's a very enticing offer that makes salivate (and possibly buy, judging from what they say there) lots of prospects in the (special) bits world - of course, I just can speak of the probable reaction of those who post there and don't know how all the silent bystanders react - but they probably react in a positive way as those who write, since their high interest might be contagious, as is the prospect to get all these new fine things soon (the bits owners are the only ones to have valid data on all this) - with some bugs then, in the intermediate releases, but you accept these much better when you've become accustomed to a product, than if you hear of them in the moment you are expected to take a decision for a software brand-new to you.

This being as it might be, FileBoss is certain to offer many very good things, and what people (rightly) said on bits on its version 3  labour pains, will very soon be the news of yesteryear, not being valid any more today.
« Last Edit: April 08, 2013, 10:39 AM by clean »