DaisyDisk vs. DiskRing

Last fall, I downloaded a free version of DaisyDisk as part of a MacHeist promotion. It creates a graphical representation of the contents of a folder of your choosing — sort of like a pie chart with concentric bands for each level of data, with the top level in the middle and lower levels expanding outward.

Confusing? Have a look at a sample:

daisydisk screenshot

At the right of the graph — not shown in the screenshot — is a colour-coded list of what each section represents. For example, the yellow-orange section close to the middle represents a project, and outward from it are sections representing folders for documents and images associated with the project. You can hover over them to get details such as the location of the folder and its main contents.

But what, you may be asking, has a $19.95 program got to do with freeware? Via the suggestion box, we received a tip about the open source DiskRing, which does much the same thing as DaisyDisk. Have a look at the graph it created of the same folders:

diskring screenshot

It looks familiar, yet somehow different. The main difference is in the use of colours. DiskDaisy attempts to use shadings of the same colour to represent a folder and its sub-folders. It’s easy to see, for example, that the yellow-oranges go together in a single hierarchy.

On the other hand, DiskRing’s approach to colours seems almost random. If there is a method to it, I couldn’t find it. Still, though, you can puzzle it out by hovering and observing the spatial relationships of the sections.

Another difference is the reported sizes of the folders. Each program lists folder sizes, but — strangely — they don’t agree. DaisyDisk says the main folder shown in the screenshots is 71.3 MB, while DiskRing says it is 68 MB. So who is right? I went to Get Info as the final arbiter, and DaisyDisk was the winner.

We love freeware here at thriftmac, and our sincere thanks go to the developers who make it possible, but in this case the free alternative doesn’t measure up. Keep an eye on DiskRing, though — it could become a contender.

date posted Posted Thursday, February 25, 2010 in

Share   

Comments are open

  1. Having used both apps, it’s pretty clear DaisyDisk is hands-down the winner. They have such a beautiful, well-thought-out app, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it won an ADA.

    This other app, DiskRing, is just not up to par with DaisyDisk. You can tell the developers were trying to mimic the brilliant UI, but they got plenty of it wrong. It’s fine if you want something for free, but I recommend buying DaisyDisk, it’s worth every penny.

    Steven

  2. Disk Inventory X from http://www.derlien.com/ is a nice open-source (needless to say Free) tool that does its job very well. It is similar to KDirStat and WinDirStat and I’ve found it extremely useful.

    Jasim





Make links like this: "Your choice of text":http://www.example.com
Learn more about Textile markup

  

Previous:
Next: