Finder and Explorer history
Finally A New Post!
I mentioned this in Windows Me II but I think it should have it's own thread... in my opinion, both Windows Explorer (especially in XP) and Mac OS X Finder are simply a little messed up, but are slowly getting better.
A little history...
Windows 3.1 had File Manager. Now File Manager was very powerful for its day but very unintuitive. It's list view was extremely competent, and for those familiar with paths it was often faster to use FM than Explorer. FM major weaknesses were poor support for drag-n-drop and poor file association suppport. The Tree architecture was powerful, and the menu driven interface took up very little space. OTOH, File Manager was meant to be used full screen, it's window-in-window philosophy and tree view meant you couldn't really use it side by side with other apps without at least a 1024x768 screen, huge for the day.
Windows 95 had Windows Explorer and My Computer. According to plans I've read from beta documentation the plan was WinExp was to be the "pro" file manager and MyCom the "novice" file manager.
By 98, MyCom had more advanced features added to it, and MS made their biggest blunder - web integration. Web Integration involved integrating WinExp, MyCom, and IntExp into one program and one interface despite the security holes and UI problems with this. MyCom became a confusing mess of a browser, with none of the intuitiveness of the spacial MyCom of 95 and only part of the sophisticated features of WinExp.
With Mac OS 7.6 Apple had refined the Finder but it had a number of shortcomings relative to Windows 95, its main competition. It was not multithreaded, it was slow, it had limited long filename support, and sophisticated navigation, like tree navigation, was lacking. Furthermore, The requirement for drag-n-drop was annoying.
With Mac OS 8.0/8.1 Apple had refined the Finder and filesystem. Pop-up folders Allowed convenient storage of folders at the bottom of your screen, an innovative feature that only with stacks is anywhere close to being copied on any OS, OS X, Win, or Linux that I know of. Spring-loaded folders proved that drag-n-drop had power in it if you added the right features to it, and multithreaded capability was added. The biggest problems with the finder were fixed, but the tree solution was yet to come...
Mac OS 8.5/8.6/9.x added Sherlock and then Sherlock 2. The key feature here was indexing, which was previously available in NT 4 and UNIX but not to a wide market. With Mac OS 8.5, indexing was put in a consumer system. Indexing however was relatively poor performer and background indexing was not possible due to the Mac OS's inherent multitasking problems so the best was yet to come...
Windows 2000 continued the Search feature that had been available since Win95 which was simply awesome for a non-indexed search (although technically you could use indexing in 2000 - not in 98 or 95). Including Saved Searches, and many many search features, it was one of the most missed features during many a upgrade from 2000/98se to XP. Windows 2000 also improved the web integration, by taking it down a few notches to a more acceptable level. Double-click was back, and many other integration features were modified. Overall, the feel was smooth, like a good browser should be.
Mac OS X 10.0/10.1/Public Beta had one of the worst browsers ever. With virtually no spatial support and limited browser capability, Icon view was poor, leaving the most practical options as List View and the impressive new Column View. Column View was a high point in a poor browser. Another high point was the auto indexing in Sherlock 2.
Mac OS X 10.2 was similar with only minor changes, but improved performance and bugfixes made the finder acceptable as a browser. The new File>Find command was an excellent finder with auto background indexing and many finding features. Mac OS X 10.3 and the amazing morphing window will be covered shortly...
Windows XP added a strange task-based perspective to MyCom - by now WinExp was almost completely eliminated. The tree view was apparently not in style in favor of browser style management, unfortunately. The task-based perspective added some strange weirdness - advertising popped up in various areas and strange tasks and icons would appear in weird places. Task-based generally tried to be to helpful but ended up wasting space on the left.
Mac OS X 10.3/10.4 Had a revamped Finder that was pretty good from a browser perspective, but Icon View remained weak and slowness was still an issue. The revamped Finder's sidebar included hot links to your favorite places and things, replacing the Favorites Folder (see end of article.)
Windows Vista added a new, seperate Computer Explorer which was now completely separate from IE, and had an optional view that can display both tree and Tasks - very useful. Downsides? The lack of menu bar. Upsides? Incredible search, a reasonable browser, and limited spatial support, as well as a simplified filesystem that is easier to understand and use, especially for UNIX users.
Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard adds an all-new Finder Sidebar with Bonjour-networked servers, VNC servers, favorite places, drives and smart folders all automatically lined up in the proper slots, just like iTunes. Finally, a good browser finder. Icon view is also better, and Quick Look shows promise as an easy document viewer.
Well that's the summary, from 3.1 to Vista and 7.6 to 10.5. Thoughts? Which is better? Siracusa? :-). Oh and check out http://toastytech.com/ although I certainly don't agree very much with him he makes some interesting points. And the GUI gallery is good.
I mentioned this in Windows Me II but I think it should have it's own thread... in my opinion, both Windows Explorer (especially in XP) and Mac OS X Finder are simply a little messed up, but are slowly getting better.
A little history...
Windows 3.1 had File Manager. Now File Manager was very powerful for its day but very unintuitive. It's list view was extremely competent, and for those familiar with paths it was often faster to use FM than Explorer. FM major weaknesses were poor support for drag-n-drop and poor file association suppport. The Tree architecture was powerful, and the menu driven interface took up very little space. OTOH, File Manager was meant to be used full screen, it's window-in-window philosophy and tree view meant you couldn't really use it side by side with other apps without at least a 1024x768 screen, huge for the day.
Windows 95 had Windows Explorer and My Computer. According to plans I've read from beta documentation the plan was WinExp was to be the "pro" file manager and MyCom the "novice" file manager.
By 98, MyCom had more advanced features added to it, and MS made their biggest blunder - web integration. Web Integration involved integrating WinExp, MyCom, and IntExp into one program and one interface despite the security holes and UI problems with this. MyCom became a confusing mess of a browser, with none of the intuitiveness of the spacial MyCom of 95 and only part of the sophisticated features of WinExp.
With Mac OS 7.6 Apple had refined the Finder but it had a number of shortcomings relative to Windows 95, its main competition. It was not multithreaded, it was slow, it had limited long filename support, and sophisticated navigation, like tree navigation, was lacking. Furthermore, The requirement for drag-n-drop was annoying.
With Mac OS 8.0/8.1 Apple had refined the Finder and filesystem. Pop-up folders Allowed convenient storage of folders at the bottom of your screen, an innovative feature that only with stacks is anywhere close to being copied on any OS, OS X, Win, or Linux that I know of. Spring-loaded folders proved that drag-n-drop had power in it if you added the right features to it, and multithreaded capability was added. The biggest problems with the finder were fixed, but the tree solution was yet to come...
Mac OS 8.5/8.6/9.x added Sherlock and then Sherlock 2. The key feature here was indexing, which was previously available in NT 4 and UNIX but not to a wide market. With Mac OS 8.5, indexing was put in a consumer system. Indexing however was relatively poor performer and background indexing was not possible due to the Mac OS's inherent multitasking problems so the best was yet to come...
Windows 2000 continued the Search feature that had been available since Win95 which was simply awesome for a non-indexed search (although technically you could use indexing in 2000 - not in 98 or 95). Including Saved Searches, and many many search features, it was one of the most missed features during many a upgrade from 2000/98se to XP. Windows 2000 also improved the web integration, by taking it down a few notches to a more acceptable level. Double-click was back, and many other integration features were modified. Overall, the feel was smooth, like a good browser should be.
Mac OS X 10.0/10.1/Public Beta had one of the worst browsers ever. With virtually no spatial support and limited browser capability, Icon view was poor, leaving the most practical options as List View and the impressive new Column View. Column View was a high point in a poor browser. Another high point was the auto indexing in Sherlock 2.
Mac OS X 10.2 was similar with only minor changes, but improved performance and bugfixes made the finder acceptable as a browser. The new File>Find command was an excellent finder with auto background indexing and many finding features. Mac OS X 10.3 and the amazing morphing window will be covered shortly...
Windows XP added a strange task-based perspective to MyCom - by now WinExp was almost completely eliminated. The tree view was apparently not in style in favor of browser style management, unfortunately. The task-based perspective added some strange weirdness - advertising popped up in various areas and strange tasks and icons would appear in weird places. Task-based generally tried to be to helpful but ended up wasting space on the left.
Mac OS X 10.3/10.4 Had a revamped Finder that was pretty good from a browser perspective, but Icon View remained weak and slowness was still an issue. The revamped Finder's sidebar included hot links to your favorite places and things, replacing the Favorites Folder (see end of article.)
Windows Vista added a new, seperate Computer Explorer which was now completely separate from IE, and had an optional view that can display both tree and Tasks - very useful. Downsides? The lack of menu bar. Upsides? Incredible search, a reasonable browser, and limited spatial support, as well as a simplified filesystem that is easier to understand and use, especially for UNIX users.
Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard adds an all-new Finder Sidebar with Bonjour-networked servers, VNC servers, favorite places, drives and smart folders all automatically lined up in the proper slots, just like iTunes. Finally, a good browser finder. Icon view is also better, and Quick Look shows promise as an easy document viewer.
Well that's the summary, from 3.1 to Vista and 7.6 to 10.5. Thoughts? Which is better? Siracusa? :-). Oh and check out http://toastytech.com/ although I certainly don't agree very much with him he makes some interesting points. And the GUI gallery is good.
posted by Ryan Butler at 1:11 PM
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