On the other hand, 35 years of cruft also represents 35 years of accumulated knowledge about what people want from a file manager. So one should not dismiss Dir

On the other hand, 35 years of cruft also represents 35 years of accumulated knowledge about what people want from a file manager. So one should not dismiss Directory Opus based upon a few screenshots. Fresh blood is certainly a good thing though. I am just arguing that we should not dismiss something based upon its age or cosmetics. (Directory Opus is one of the few things that I miss while using Linux.)