Total Commander for MAC

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x0054
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Total Commander for MAC

Post by *x0054 »

I know this has been proposed and rejected in the past, but I know there is a serious need and desire for total commander on mac and linux operating systems.

I have recently made the switch to mac, and for the most part I am very happy. I love the Operating system, and even more so, I love the hardware. However, I miss Total Commander. As a result, I have tried the following:
  • Disk Order
    Pathfinder
    ForkLift
    Double Commander
    muCommander
    Konqueror
    xFolders
Out of those the only solid alternative at the moment is muCommander. The Double Commander is a grate little clone of Total Commander, but the development on it is so painfully slow, and at the moment it's just much too buggy.

However, I did notice that Double Commander can be compiled cross-platform due to it's use of Free Pascal toolkits. Total Commander is written in Delphi 2, which is a derivative of Pascal. Also, there are frameworks available for Delphi to also make it cross compilable.

As a result, I was wondering if Ghisler might be interested in perhaps cooperating with another developer, perhaps some one skilled in OSX and Linux coding, to port the Total Commander first to a crosscompilable framework, and then to OSX and Linux. The Linux side of things would not be very profitable, as Linux users in general do not like paying for software. (just and idological thing, not because they are deadbeats, I am a linux user my self) However, OSX side might in fact be very, very profitable for Ghisler and company. First, because all OSX users would be new customers, not old customers simple downloading updates for free. Second, in general Mac Users are just more likely to actually pay for software.

Any thoughts? I know it's not easy to crosscompile apps for 3 operating systems, but I also think that it would be profitable and beneficial to the world.
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Post by *seb- »

I know your pain and have tried all the available clones and alternatives, too. As you, on Linux i'm now with muCommander but also Gnome Commander. Both not giving the same feel as TC though...

DoubleCommander sounds promising as it offers the same Plugin Architecture and Plugins are considered to be compatible... but as you found out as well, it is not an alternative...

But have you searched the forum?

I have seen some threads and the result is usually that there are no plans to port TC but afaik Ghisler tests TC running in WINE and TC is reported to run in some Win-Fake Environment on MAC as well...


See http://www.ghisler.com/download.htm

Using Total Commander on an Apple Mac?
CrossOver for Mac from CodeWeavers works great with Total Commander: They now offer a 25% discount and specific installation instructions at the provided link!


Sure, a native port to Linux and Mac would be a nice thing though as i use Linux frequently for work. I'd pay for the Linux port again.
x0054
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Post by *x0054 »

I recently learned that TC was written, or rather, ported to Lazarus and Free Pascal. Free Pascal is designed with the philosophy of "write once, compile anywhere." I understand that in practice it's not nearly as simple, but overall it would be possible to port TC to both Linux and Mac with some effort.

I wish there was some sort of way for Ghisler to open source this project and still continue to make money from it, and others could do the work of porting it to Linux and Mac. Unfortunately, I can't see a reasonable business plan that would allow the developer to do that.

However, as I mentioned, perhaps bringing in a fresh developer into the mix would be a good idea for 2 reasons. If I understand this correctly, Mr. Ghisler has been developing TC for the past 20 Years! And every one deserves a retirement at some point :) Plus, a new developer could work on porting TC to other platforms.

I am convinced that there is as much money in the Mac market place for TC as there is in Windows market place. Plus, I am sure the enterprise Linux customers would be interested as well, especially if it was marketed correctly.
x0054
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Post by *x0054 »

Oh, and thanks for the suggestion, I have tried running TC in wine, but the problem is that TC is inherently the kind of program that has to understand the local OS. Many functions like drag and drop in and out of the window, permissions, drives, etc, are unsupported because TC thinks it's running on windows.

So far muCommander, with all it's limitations, is the best option :(
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Sir_SiLvA
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Post by *Sir_SiLvA »

a) No there is ZERO money in Porting TC to Mac

b) you CANT just compile a Tool written for one OS to run out of the box on another to much system specific functions are use in TCs Code.
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x0054
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Post by *x0054 »

If you read my entire post, you would notice that I never said it's as simple as just compiling TC for another machine. However, it is possible to port TC to Mac and Linux with some work. The fact that TC runs, however imperfect, on Wine, proves my point.

As to your first point: WHY? Do you have a mac? Have you ever used a mac for a long time? Have you ever tried to market an app for the mac? Have you noticed that there are several successful companies who make money selling File Managers inferior to TC, and manage to stay in business and in fact prosper for years? I am guessing the answer to all those questions is NO.
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Post by *Sir_SiLvA »

theres work that needs to be done and theres work that is absolutely useless - porting a FILEmanager depending heavily on FILEsystemfunctions is a waste when it comes to a Mac...

And please tell me at least 2 firms as big as Microsoft living from selling Filemanagers for the Mac...

But I see you you have Zero knowledge how a Filesystem works so EOD
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x0054
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Post by *x0054 »

Please name ANY, and I mean ANY firm as big as Microsoft that makes it's money by selling a file manager for ANY operating system? For that matter, name ANY software company as big as Microsoft, period. It's a silly argument.

As for OS dependencies, they are not so great that they can not be overcome, admittedly with effort. And that's why I am proposing that involving another developer and having him/her share the profits from MAC and Linux sales would be a good idea.

FWI: Double Commander, though a part time open source project with only a few developers, runs perfectly well on Linux, Mac, and Windows. It's written in the same programming language and environment TC was written in. I love TC way more due to it's customization, and that's why I would love to see a MAC and Linux copy of TC.
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Post by *ghisler(Author) »

Unfortunately TC uses a lot of Windows functions directly, for many things like the user interface (e.g. special selection modes), file functions (e.g. the various copy methods), drag&drop etc. While porting to the Mac would be possible, it would be a LOT of work, and the usability would never be the same.
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x0054
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Post by *x0054 »

No doubt, porting TC to MAC and Linux would be a huge undertaking. I do have to disagree though, the resulting TC ports could be just as usable as the original.

Well, I can not argue with the author :) It's sad though, I think the computer world would be a better place with TC available for the 3 major operating systems. And from the business perspective, I really think it would sell.

All the same, thanks for the great software!

- Bogdan

PS: Keep in mind, you don't have to do all the work of porting your self, you can always hire people, give some young programmer a % cut of the MAC sales, I am sure you would find someone interested in that deal. Just had to stick that last bit of persuasion in :)
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Post by *Hacker »

x0054,
I really think it would sell
Who in the GNU's not Unix / Linux world would pay for a closed source software?

Roman
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Post by *seb- »

Hacker wrote:x0054,
I really think it would sell
Who in the GNU's not Unix / Linux world would pay for a closed source software?

Roman
i would - but i'm neither a Jobs nor a Linus evangelist but a Windows user who loves TC (... and is forced to use Linux now and then ;))
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Post by *Lefteous »

Another problem is the current business perspective on Macs. While the Mac App Store is a great way to distribute apps it's very limited for apps like TC. The problems here are sandboxing, using custom ccontrols and stuff like that. The experience wouldn't be the same for an App Store app.
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Post by *ghisler(Author) »

Indeed TC would have to be sold outside of the Mac App store - but who knows how long this will be possible. Suddently Apple will only allow store apps, and then all the work would be in vain.
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x0054
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Post by *x0054 »

There is no doubt, just like all the other file managers, TC would have to be sold outside Mac App Store in order to be fully featured.

As for apple limiting Mac's to App Store software only, it might happen, but that would only lead to mass exodus of people from the platform, and Apple knows it. They might be very controlling, but they are not that stupid. The gatekeeper introduced in 10.8 is no different then the unsigned warning you get on Windows when you run application not signed by Microsoft.

Overtime they may make you jump through more hoops to allow unsigned apps to run, but I doubt they would ever block signed apps not sold from AppStore, again, that would basically be equivalent to hanging a "Out of Business" sign on their Mac devision.

Any way, that aside, I see TC for Mac isn't happening :( oh well it was worth a shot. Any way, thanks a bunch for TC for windows, it's a marvelous piece of software.

- Bogdan
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