losing a customer?

[Tuxman]

Ah, a subtext text editor flame war. Use ed!

In opposite to most recent text editors, file managers show diversity though. It's hard to find a good text editor because most of them look and work alike (except the ones I use, my little daily luxury), but it's pretty easy to find a good file manager as each of them has different strengths.

[drac]

It depends on how one defines, "good". What makes a good file manager in MY opinion may not be the same as yours.

I want a file manager (actually this applies to ALL software) with excellent customer support. I want a file manager that has features I want and if it doesn't, those features will be added (assuming they are of general use and not major changes) in a reasonable amount of time. I want a file manager that does not have any significant bugs, and when a bug or other issue is found, it will be fixed within days of being discovered and confirmed (where "days" is less than 14). I want a file manager that allows me to customize the appearance and the operation to match my needs and way of working.

I almost always operate in single pane mode, hardly ever do searches beyond the current folder, seldom use the "flatten" mode, do not want or use file tabs. I realize some of these features are essential to some of you. That probably makes it more difficult to find a file manager that we both like. However since we are both here, it must be possible. So another indication of a good file manager is that people with very different needs and ways of working find that product to be "good".

[namsupo]

It's pricey and the way they track if you actually own a license is so... virus like. It's scary even if you're a legitimate user.

Paranoid much? No idea what you are talking about there. There's no "tracking" or viruses, this is just gobbledegook I'm sorry.

Although... you do have to admit that for XYplorer that's written in VB6, it does a great job of supporting portable devices, an actual scripting language that's useful, and it's completely portable. Right? right? ... *silence*

It took Don literally years of broken promises to finally get around to supporting portable devices, and his dirty secret is - he still actually doesn't. Just like his "zip file support", it just piggy backs on Explorer. Nikos could probably add that in about a day if he could be bothered. Meanwhile the big scary one you referred to above actually does supports them natively, and has done for ages. Right? right? ...

[Tuxman]

The big scary one with the daily online activation, you mean?

[Kilmatead]

There's no "tracking" or viruses, this is just gobbledegook I'm sorry.

It's not gobbledegook, actually. While it's not as open a method as daily online activation would be, it's been [edit] long suspected [end edit] that dopus uses (FTP-unrelatred) DLL injection with 3rd-party browsers for certificate checking as part of its standard protection (masking the caller, so you can't just block dopus directly), as well as procmon disabling to prevent the creation and tracking of non-shell registry objects, etc.

While it's certainly accepted practice that any programme be allowed some form of rightful copy protection, dopus is without a doubt a little more creepy than most. There's always the old argument that maleware methodology isn't maleware if it's used for legal purposes, but if it walks and talks like a duck, it's probably not a cuddly koala.

(Sources for the above are readily found via googling, and obviously are related to DRM, so while the ethics of the discoverers may be in question, their results are not. But take that as you may... and note that this discussion won't be long for this world, if we stay in this direction.)

[Tuxman]

maleware methodology isn't maleware if it's used for legal purposes

Legal purposes male ware? You should have done better! Weekend, right?

[Kilmatead]

The transatlantic cable-tapping row by GCHQ is still news here, so in a post-Snowdon era, we use what language we can to get by. Besides, we're not really here to judge the overt methodology applied (DRM is justified, like it or not - I just gave specifics to refute the 'gobbledegook argument'), but to question the invasiveness of its nature is always fair-game. There's a reason SecuROM died (and not because optical drives went away), and Lenovo obviously can't be trusted even with off-the-shelf computing, etc, so what companies do and how they do it must always be scrutinised by us all.

I'll just keep dreaming of cuddly koala's and let you worry about tapping Anjela's phone.

[Leo Davidson]

it's well known that dopus uses (FTP-unrelatred) DLL injection with 3rd-party browsers for certificate checking as part of its standard protection (masking the caller, so you can't just block dopus directly), as well as procmon disabling to prevent the creation and tracking of non-shell registry objects, etc.

Keeping things brief: The parts of this claim which aren't meaningless techno-jargon are abject nonsense. Please don't spread lies or things you have made-up or barely understood as if they were facts.

[namsupo]

Sounds like you've been hanging out on conspiracy theory websites a bit too much, Kilmatead

I have seen on the Opus forum these claims come up from time to time and they have always been denied. They have a faq addressing the matter which seems quite clear to me.

And why does this thread keep going OT onto Opus when it was originally about x2/XY and the ribbon!

[Kilmatead]

I claim nothing - except to say that if I were to choose to investigate such "abject nonsense" further, I would probably find more there than a little to doubt the word of superiors, as was ever thus.

For obvious reasons, I won't post any links, but anyone is free to seek out the obscene yet clever lads who wish to thwart the efforts of the self-protection in question - and the same themes have surfaced through their (often failed) empirical efforts. That usually indicates that there's more going on behind the scenes than relying upon more conservative measures. I simply repeated their conclusions, as (contrary to a blithe dismissal) I do know more than enough techno-babble to separate potential fact from mere conjecture. (I perhaps should not have worded it as implied fact - instead of "known" it should probably read "suspected". Ah well, such is life.)

What developers do, and how they do it is their business (literally), but anyone with a long experience should know that sauntering around with a demeaning waver only poisons the waters - it's often best to ignore those you consider merely malicious, else you invite further suspicion.

I stated before that this was a bad direction for this thread to head, and so it is. It should be terminated, if not mostly deleted, at the whim of our betters.

Sounds like you've been hanging out on conspiracy theory websites a bit too much, Kilmatead"

Why anyone would raise such questions on the forums of the very product itself and expect anything other than obvious denial is a mystery to me. Of course that would be the predicted response, and rightfully so. The only problem is that people often seriously underestimate the "bad guys" in these equations, and don't realise that the more of a puzzle is presented, the more the scrutiny gets focused.

The FAQ of any file-manager would read the same (as has happened here as well), and all the points are properly clear and true, as no one with any experience or knowledge could argue with any of it.

But that's not really the point in question. And... well, we really shouldn't be discussing the point in question anymore, for obvious reasons, this quickly becomes counter productive.

But no, I've not been reading conspiracy websites. The best thing in favour of Mr. Davidson's condescension is that most people really aren't very good at digesting the mass of information readily available to them, and so will never bother to seek it out properly.

And why does this thread keep going OT onto Opus when it was originally about x2/XY and the ribbon

Because you make such a good apologist! (In the classical sense of the word.) If your favoured career doesn't work out, you could go into public relations, or, worse, politics. (Doesn't mean I believe a word of it, just that it's infectious "in a good way", which is precisely the point.) XY and the Ribbon are small potatoes compared to the true amusements of file-management!

[drac]

How about a nice game of chess?

[namsupo]

I believe XKCD #386 is applicable here