Alpha Alert: TotalFinder

Mac users have long dreamed of the day when Apple would grant their wish of Finder windows with tabs.

How much simpler life would be: instead of windows proliferating as your work progresses, you just stick to the one window with multiple tabs and switch between them. How much more usable Finder would be: it could be pressed into service just like other Mac programs with one-stop shopping.

Many hoped such a thing would arrive with Leopard. But no. With Snow Leopard? No new features really did mean no new features.

Developers have stepped into the breach, though, and one of the results is Path Finder — a killer app that does an amazing makeover of Finder for $39.95. Tabs similar to those found in Safari are but one of its plethora of features.

Seem like overkill? Then how about TotalFinder? Its developer, Antonin Hildebrand, has been toiling in the obscurity of alpha for some time now, but has suddenly found himself cast into the full light of day with the addition of tabs.

He was able to do this thanks to the Chromium codebase, made available when Google came out with its tabbed web browser, Chrome. And, as you may have guessed, the Finder tabs in TotalFinder are just like the ones in Chrome.

It really is a treat to use. Once Chrome for Mac comes out of beta, I may start using it full-time because I like the tabs so much. And to have them in Finder as well would double the pleasure.

Before you rush into a TotalFinder installation, there are a few things you should know. First, it’s alpha. That’s not even as good as beta, which can be dicey. Second, it installs a plug-in called SIMBL, which by itself may be harmless, but may lead to problems down the road if you upgrade your operating system. Third, Hildebrand intends to eventually charge a fee, although there is nothing on the site at this point to indicate how much.

The good news is that uninstallers for both SIMBL and TotalFinder are included, so if you get cold feet, you can make a quick exit.

Of course, the best way to get this tab thing on the road would be for Apple to do it. In the meantime, let TotalFinder show you how your dreams could become reality.

Posted Friday, January 15, 2010 in

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  1. Kind of recreating the wheel, isn’t it? If it stays as freeware, then that’s great, but… have a look at PathFinder.

    http://cocoatech.com/

    Sigilist

  2. Besides – Snow Leopard only, just like Chrome…

    Why is the developing community starting to abandon the huge PowerPC user base? It’s sad…

    James

  3. Huge PowerPC user base? Really? Are mac users really that reluctant to upgrade to faster better hardware and software? I was a windows guy for years, and jumped into mac with a intel based macbook and love snow leopard, I will never go back to pc.

    Jason

  4. @Jason—
    One of the great things about owning a Mac is—or has been—that software and OS versions are pretty much backward compatible, and the hardware is so freakin’ great that you don’t HAVE to upgrade every five minutes (like with a PC?). If you have a ’65 Ferrari, it’ll still blow the doors off a 2010 Ford. So yeah—there are are lots of us with PowerPC machines. And they fly.

    Neil





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