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The file manager seems to be closed-source[1], does anyone know of any good open-source alternatives ? [1] https://github.com/marta-file-manager/ https://githu

The file manager seems to be closed-source[1], does anyone know of any good open-source alternatives ? [1] https://github.com/marta-file-manager/ https://github.com/marta-file-manager/

darek 9y ago
I've been using Nimble Commander for a while now. Snappy, similar to Total Commander on Windows and I love it. The developer recently made it open source and published the code on GitHub here: https://github.com/mikekazakov/nimble-commander https://github.com/mikekazakov/nimble-commander I'm not sure if that's the kind of open source you were looking for, but may be worth checking out.
- vbezhenar 9y ago
  Wow. When I used macOS, I used this manager a lot and it's awesome. Now Open Source, it's even more awesome.
  - tambourine_man 9y ago
    I didn’t know it was made open source either. Great news.
- pbalau 9y ago
  Total Commander is the best piece of software I ever used! I even bought a license for it, they sent me a cd with an installer and the license and I promptly lost it. At some point i even had tc as a replacement for the Windows shell. These days i dont care that much about where my files are, I have a "work" folder and thats that. My music is on spotify, my videos on netflix/amazon prime/now tv, i dont take that many meaningful pictures anymore and I dont see a reason to care about files anymore. But Total Commander was my life for a very long time, along with piracy :-P
josteink 9y ago
While I think downvoting this comment is unfair, it should be noted that if you care about your OS and tools being open-source, you probably shouldn’t be running OSX in the first place. I might even suggest running Linux. Oh my :)
- ovao 9y ago
  Limiting the number of entities you need to trust with closed-source software is perfectly sound wisdom, but that number doesn’t need to be zero to be useful. That’s not to say Marta’s author has any ill intent, because I doubt he or she does.
- mrgordon 9y ago
  This all or nothing mentality doesn't often end up being useful in practice. For example, try doing some deep learning on Linux with CUDA without installing closed source NVIDIA drivers. The important detail is who provided the software and in this case most people are going to trust Apple or NVIDIA significantly more than a small third-party software developer they've never heard of. (FWIW many of us tried running Linux as a desktop OS but found the UI and driver situation to be abysmal so it continues to just power our servers)
  - ReverseCold 9y ago
    Linux is actually good now for desktop use. I install it (= Fedora or Antergos w/ GNOME) on everything now and it just works(tm). Not a single thing has been broken across two modern PCs and a laptop.
    - azinman2 9y ago
      Question is “good for what?” It simply doesn’t have the polish, or flexibility that I’d need to effectively stay on it for long. I always end up spending longggg times customizing things only to feel little integration, little support, and a lack of decent third party software. Sketch is Mac only. Spotify barely has a Linux client. Certainly no photoshop, medocire native email clients, zero IM that integrate with any networks I use (sms/iMessage), etc etc. Yes there’s lots of options as a webpage, but that’s a shallow substitute. If you happen to need only the stuff that’s available, and your workflow is largely CLI-driven, then it’s probably fine. Otherwise it’s macOS for me.
Digital-Citizen 9y ago
If that's the case (and I take it the absence of a source code repository is how you're reaching your conclusion), that's ironic. The Marta webpage linked to this story includes "Because I want to own what I pay money for." yet one never truly owns proprietary software regardless of price; one can never really tell what it is doing, and users are prohibited from inspecting the program to find out, as well as sharing copies (modified for sure, often verbatim copies too).
- yanex 9y ago
  Marta author here. I agree with you that the open source software has higher level of trust than the proprietary one, but I afraid I just can't maintain Marta steadily for a long time if it was open-sourced (and then forever free). And I doubt the community will do that instead of me. In case if you're interested, I expressed my thoughts about this here [1] earlier. I do promise, though, that Marta will never collect personal data, display ads or do some other bad things. I just don't see any sense in that, and I'd rather have a good reputation. [1] https://github.com/marta-file-manager/marta-issues/issues/194 https://github.com/marta-file-manager/marta-issues/issues/19...
  - dogma1138 9y ago
    Is there a reason to not license it under a dual license? Have the source code open with a non commercial license and also distribute the binaries under a commercial license. I’m not sure that it will have a significant impact on the revenue since most people would likely opt out and purchase the binary rather than building it on their own.
    - yanex 9y ago
      According to what I know, in case of desktop applications, the revenue drops almost to zero, unless you have a Free and Pro versions. "Free edition" then lacks almost all features that make the product competitive, and it's not really good. It's reasonable, though, if your potential user base is totally different. For example, IntelliJ IDEA has a Community edition that lacks enterprise frameworks support, but that's not a problem for "single users" because they basically don't do any enterprise. But it looks like it won't work for Marta. So I'd rather choose the Sublime Text strategy (though I think that Sublime costs too much).
BozeWolf 9y ago
I still use midnight commander every now and then. It is terminal based though. It is open source, feature packed and works cross platform.
- v_lisivka 9y ago
  I also use mc everyday, because it gives huge performance boost when working in shell, but it's time for face lift.

The file manager seems to be closed-source[1], does anyone know of any good open-source alternatives ? [1] https://github.com/marta-file-manager/ https://github.com/marta-file-manager/

darek 9y ago

I've been using Nimble Commander for a while now. Snappy, similar to Total Commander on Windows and I love it. The developer recently made it open source and published the code on GitHub here: https://github.com/mikekazakov/nimble-commander https://github.com/mikekazakov/nimble-commander I'm not sure if that's the kind of open source you were looking for, but may be worth checking out.

vbezhenar 9y ago
Wow. When I used macOS, I used this manager a lot and it's awesome. Now Open Source, it's even more awesome.
- tambourine_man 9y ago
  I didn’t know it was made open source either. Great news.
pbalau 9y ago
Total Commander is the best piece of software I ever used! I even bought a license for it, they sent me a cd with an installer and the license and I promptly lost it. At some point i even had tc as a replacement for the Windows shell. These days i dont care that much about where my files are, I have a "work" folder and thats that. My music is on spotify, my videos on netflix/amazon prime/now tv, i dont take that many meaningful pictures anymore and I dont see a reason to care about files anymore. But Total Commander was my life for a very long time, along with piracy :-P

josteink 9y ago

While I think downvoting this comment is unfair, it should be noted that if you care about your OS and tools being open-source, you probably shouldn’t be running OSX in the first place. I might even suggest running Linux. Oh my :)

ovao 9y ago
Limiting the number of entities you need to trust with closed-source software is perfectly sound wisdom, but that number doesn’t need to be zero to be useful. That’s not to say Marta’s author has any ill intent, because I doubt he or she does.
mrgordon 9y ago
This all or nothing mentality doesn't often end up being useful in practice. For example, try doing some deep learning on Linux with CUDA without installing closed source NVIDIA drivers. The important detail is who provided the software and in this case most people are going to trust Apple or NVIDIA significantly more than a small third-party software developer they've never heard of. (FWIW many of us tried running Linux as a desktop OS but found the UI and driver situation to be abysmal so it continues to just power our servers)
- ReverseCold 9y ago
  Linux is actually good now for desktop use. I install it (= Fedora or Antergos w/ GNOME) on everything now and it just works(tm). Not a single thing has been broken across two modern PCs and a laptop.
  - azinman2 9y ago
    Question is “good for what?” It simply doesn’t have the polish, or flexibility that I’d need to effectively stay on it for long. I always end up spending longggg times customizing things only to feel little integration, little support, and a lack of decent third party software. Sketch is Mac only. Spotify barely has a Linux client. Certainly no photoshop, medocire native email clients, zero IM that integrate with any networks I use (sms/iMessage), etc etc. Yes there’s lots of options as a webpage, but that’s a shallow substitute. If you happen to need only the stuff that’s available, and your workflow is largely CLI-driven, then it’s probably fine. Otherwise it’s macOS for me.

Digital-Citizen 9y ago

If that's the case (and I take it the absence of a source code repository is how you're reaching your conclusion), that's ironic. The Marta webpage linked to this story includes "Because I want to own what I pay money for." yet one never truly owns proprietary software regardless of price; one can never really tell what it is doing, and users are prohibited from inspecting the program to find out, as well as sharing copies (modified for sure, often verbatim copies too).

yanex 9y ago
Marta author here. I agree with you that the open source software has higher level of trust than the proprietary one, but I afraid I just can't maintain Marta steadily for a long time if it was open-sourced (and then forever free). And I doubt the community will do that instead of me. In case if you're interested, I expressed my thoughts about this here [1] earlier. I do promise, though, that Marta will never collect personal data, display ads or do some other bad things. I just don't see any sense in that, and I'd rather have a good reputation. [1] https://github.com/marta-file-manager/marta-issues/issues/194 https://github.com/marta-file-manager/marta-issues/issues/19...
- dogma1138 9y ago
  Is there a reason to not license it under a dual license? Have the source code open with a non commercial license and also distribute the binaries under a commercial license. I’m not sure that it will have a significant impact on the revenue since most people would likely opt out and purchase the binary rather than building it on their own.
  - yanex 9y ago
    According to what I know, in case of desktop applications, the revenue drops almost to zero, unless you have a Free and Pro versions. "Free edition" then lacks almost all features that make the product competitive, and it's not really good. It's reasonable, though, if your potential user base is totally different. For example, IntelliJ IDEA has a Community edition that lacks enterprise frameworks support, but that's not a problem for "single users" because they basically don't do any enterprise. But it looks like it won't work for Marta. So I'd rather choose the Sublime Text strategy (though I think that Sublime costs too much).

BozeWolf 9y ago

I still use midnight commander every now and then. It is terminal based though. It is open source, feature packed and works cross platform.

v_lisivka 9y ago
I also use mc everyday, because it gives huge performance boost when working in shell, but it's time for face lift.