I have decided to spool so here goes.
I made FileAnt
http://www.fileant.com/ for fun 'g' and a
resume piece. Which not many people have looked at (it is
ramping up this week though). It can show you the folder sizes
in the size column of the list view if you turn it on in
config. You can also telescopically browse the folders as pie
slices (with % or MB/KB), I hand coded the pie drawing
routines so it is quite neat. FileAnt does most standard
things the same way as explorer however it had one of the
first tabbed/split panel interfaces and it also has a lot of
unique features to speed up file management which I will not
mention here. With FileAnt, read the website and the help
(takes 30 mins) because there are some feature which by design
are not obvious because making them obvious was not possible,
purpose defeating or would have added to the bulk of the exe
(the apps memory footprint is the size of the exe and custom
dll's not what you see in task manager... task manager
includes shared dlls such as user32, kernel32, advapi32,
winsock etc in the memory calc).
Over the years FileAnt has been shaped heavily by the people
who use it as I make almost every change/fix asked for. I have
never bothered to market it much yet though... too much
software on the internet. IMHO the net is almost too big now
and needs to wipe some parts of itself clean. Many File
Managers have blatant problems if you fully tested them even
explorer (try opening a folder with many many icons in the one
you use). Many do not list properly on common ftp servers etc
etc but the big sites will still push them for the money
because they look good. Another problem with some file
managers is that they fill/alter your registry with all sorts
of stuff outside the software key (I always image the hard
drive before installing). If the download is > 3 meg it is
probably guaranteed to look good but it will not be after
close examination. Another indicator I use (and it may just be
me that thinks this) is the installer used... InstallSheild
packaged software is almost always real bad. FileAnt has had
many bugs (most of which have now been ironed out) but never a
file related one or one destructive in any way. Free software
is almost always guaranteed to be unfinished or have a catch.
I made FileAnt very un-annoying when it expires and you could
use it free forever if you wanted to, I do not mind at all.
The flip side is that paying for software helps authors with
some of the costs for websites, getting it out to others and
sometime spurs them on. Many authors write software at there
own cost, physical/mental/monetary and not for big direct
sales $, but for resumes, to explore computers, and in some
cases to satisfy a base human need to enhance the tools.