What's the big deal about total commander?

  • Thread starter Thread starter casioculture
  • Start date Start date
This software (total commander) has a very passionate fanbase. why?

I think you should have marked your post [OT] (Usenet Police, y'know).
I recall being flamed for "pushing" TC on "people" a while ago. Something I
was not *consciously* doing, it's not freeware so essentially OT. However, I
digress - and that aside...
Essential Caveat
As a purely personal opinion.

Total Commander is only a file manager, however, it does it's thing very
effectively. I don't know of another one that does it as well, and I've
probably tried them all in an attempt to justify that opinion.
The best way to find out is to download a copy and try it.
Be warned, however, out of the box, it doesn't look like much. On first
inspection, I thought it looked really awful. The power of the thing is
largely hidden from the casual user.
It is highly configurable and extensible, particularly with the vast array
of plugins you can add to it. Most of these are released as freeware.
To gain an insight into some of this, I suggest you start at www.ghisler.ch
and look in the forums. Then wander over to www.totalcmd.net and look around
at the plugins.
 
This software (total commander) has a very passionate fanbase. why?
Click to expand...

Totally OT, Total Commander(TC) is NOT freeware.

Aside from that, it really depends what you want from a file manager. I
have TC and I have TrackerV3 (freeware), and 95% of the time I use
TrackerV3. However, for dual pane, drag from one folder to another, I
sometimes use TC. Saying that though, if I had never had TC I wouldn't have
missed it. Two windows of windoze explorer does that too.
 
This software (total commander) has a very passionate fanbase. why?
Click to expand...

OT, as already said, but you can try (it's "only" nagware on startup).

It's FAST (also showing associated icons) and fully configurable (define
your own toolbar [e.g. to launch program], menu, your own pop-up
directory jump menu [biclick on the directory bar]), 2 panes (vertical
or horizontal) optionally with many tabs, many useful functions
(multiple rename, ftp, intuitive .zip functions, print directories,
synchronizing, quick preview (also audio file), disk span, incremental
search to jump to a specific file, personal filtering, good file finder,
if you select e.g. *.mp3 the up/down arrow keys move only among the
selected files,....and many other hidden functions (try to right click
on the division line between panes or in the scroll bar, or press Ctl-T
in the main window).

IMHO, no freeware equivalents (which often result slow).

Simone
_______________________________________________________
"Try not! Do, or do not. There is no try."
by Yoda, Jedi Master (from anonymous poster)
( remove/togli 'FalselinK' to reply/per rispondere )
 
Simone said:
This software (total commander) has a very passionate fanbase. why?
Click to expand...

OT, as already said, but you can try (it's "only" nagware on startup).

It's FAST (also showing associated icons) and fully configurable (define
your own toolbar [e.g. to launch program], menu, your own pop-up
directory jump menu [biclick on the directory bar]), 2 panes (vertical
or horizontal) optionally with many tabs, many useful functions
(multiple rename, ftp, intuitive .zip functions, print directories,
synchronizing, quick preview (also audio file), disk span, incremental
search to jump to a specific file, personal filtering, good file finder,
if you select e.g. *.mp3 the up/down arrow keys move only among the
selected files,....and many other hidden functions (try to right click
on the division line between panes or in the scroll bar, or press Ctl-T
in the main window).

IMHO, no freeware equivalents (which often result slow).
Click to expand...

explorer.. I have 12 desktops, with TortoiseSVN, TortoiseCVS, and
Rename-It! It's not fast, but powerful and looks very good :)

here's the screenshot: http://aquila-deus.myweb.hinet.net/big.jpg
 
casioculture wrote in
This software (total commander) has a very passionate fanbase. why?
Click to expand...

"Total Commander" aka "Windows Commander"
(see "November 2, 02: Name change to Total Commander!"
<http://www.ghisler.com/name.htm>).

Reading past Usenet messages about it should provide some clues as to
why, for example try:

Posts containing the exact phrase "Total Commander" in:
alt.comp.freeware
<http://groups-beta.google.com/groups?as_q="Total+Commander"&num=100&as_ugroup=alt.comp.freeware>
alt.comp.shareware
<http://groups-beta.google.com/groups?as_q="Total+Commander"&num=100&as_ugroup=alt.comp.shareware>

Posts containing the exact phrase "Windows Commander" in:
alt.comp.freeware
<http://groups-beta.google.com/groups?as_q="Windows+Commander"&num=100&as_ugroup=alt.comp.freeware>
alt.comp.shareware
<http://groups-beta.google.com/groups?as_q="Windows+Commander"&num=100&as_ugroup=alt.comp.shareware>


See also:
The Orthodox File Manager (OFM) Paradigm
<http://www.softpanorama.org/OFM/Paradigm/index.shtml>
Ch 5: Windows 32 based implementations
<http://www.softpanorama.org/OFM/Paradigm/Ofm_05.shtml>
about Total Commander

<http://www.softpanorama.org/OFM/Paradigm/Ofm_05.shtml#Total_commander>

All the best,
Bjorn Simonsen
 
Doc said:
Aside from that, it really depends what you want from a file manager. I
have TC and I have TrackerV3 (freeware), and 95% of the time I use
TrackerV3.
Click to expand...
Right on, Doc! You'll like to hear that TrackerV3 4.0 is about to be
released and it will feature a very powerful tabbed browsing... :)

Don
 
On preview, what Simone and Phoenix and others said:

It really has more powerful features than any single free file manager.
The ftp, for eg., is flawless -- and with all the plugins for the
"lister", it can view any file, even .doc and pdf files.

But I do agree that the UI is a tad old; this matters to some folks.

Good alternatives would be: TrackerV3, A43, Explorer2 and Free
Commander. But still, with these you need an external FTP app. [If
TrackerV3 had ftp, it would imho, rule the freeware class of file
managers.]
 
Right on, Doc! You'll like to hear that TrackerV3 4.0 is about to be
released and it will feature a very powerful tabbed browsing... :)

Don
Click to expand...

Thanks Don, you do a great job with TrackerV3. It rocks. The more I use it,
the more features I find. Looking forward to trying out ver 4.0
 
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