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- Jul 22, 2023
>KrashDE
The Windows OS Thread - Formerly THE OS for gamers and normies, now sadly ruined by Pajeets
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- Joined
- Dec 17, 2019
It's a file manager, yes. Does everything that Windows Explorer does and then some. The newest 32-bit version works flawlessly on Windows 95. The license is perpetual, can be used on however many computers you want, will also work on the old Windows 3.11 version, and the only rule for the personal license is that you're only allowed to use one instance at any given moment which technically means you can run both simultaneously as you're not gonna be using them at the same time and that it has to be you who's using the license.
I paid my dues to Christian Ghisler since I've been relying on this piece of software for many many years. Do keep in mind however that it is an OFM, so if you want to use it to it's fullest potential you'll have to learn the keyboard navigation, as well as dig into the documentation of it's features as there are a lot of them. Lister acts as a built-in expandable multimedia viewer, you have functionality for synchronizing directories, comparing files, mass renaming, built-in FTP client, packing/extracting archives, highlighting file names based on various parameters, including plugin ones like whether or not the file is a symlink and whether or not it's valid, file system plugins that let you edit the registry, use ADB, SFTP etc, make internal file associations, file checksums, file splitting/merging and many more, I've been using it for over a decade and there's always something new I find about it.
It's very customizable and 100% usable with a mouse if you prefer to use it that way though, the default configuration is definitely skewed to that with it's excess of buttons, but since I'm an advanced user I opted for a more minimal UI. There's also Double Commander which is a FOSS clone of TC that's arguably nowhere near as good as TC, Far Manager if you like TUI's, as well as other alternative file managers like Q-Dir, so there's always alternatives to default software. Though learning an OFM is useful as then you can move to Linux space, fire up mc and feel right at home, it's one of the few de facto standardized keyboard layouts out there.
Another important aspect is that LibreOffice cannot compete with MS Office, and web Office 365 is not the same as local Office 365. And the Office suite is a very big reason for which Windows is the dominant OS, Windows is Microsoft's third biggest earner with Office being the second. What Linux fanatics don't seem to understand is that a good chunk of those Windows machines on StatCoutner are business/work machines used to do proper work in proper software suites where FOSS cannot compete. The only two places where FOSS can compete is Blender and OBS, but even then Blender isn't the industry standard that people believe it is since Autodesk still holds a stranglehold on it and Houdini beats both Blender and Autodesk. That is not to say that Blender is bad software, it is the single most robust piece of free software around, but it's existence isn't enough to change the status quo.
The only hope for Linux is that Autodesk, Adobe and Microsoft will start shifting towards RHEL support when the Win11 codebase truly collapses on itself and moving their proprietary suites to Linux that way. Before that happens, Linux ever outbeating Windows in any meaningful way is a pipe dream.
- Joined
- Oct 29, 2019
I'm actually glad that Blender devs stopped being autistic and made an industry compatible keymap that actually made the software usable for people who are used to Autodesk controls.
Even if tomorrow, Blender magically becomes the best ever 3D software, Autodesk is so deeply embedded in the industry that getting rid of them is practically impossible.
- Joined
- Aug 7, 2024
I've mentioned this before, I myself use Directory Opus as a total Explorer replacement. https://kiwifarms.st/threads/software-endorsements.38657/post-22363806
Edit: I bought Total Commander a long time ago too, but I could not get used to it as much. Feels too oldschool for me, although it works much better than the Windows 10 explorer (and I imagine 11 too).
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- Joined
- Dec 17, 2019
>reinventing the wheel
>while the 64-bit MS Paint from Vista exists
>and will run under Wine
FOSStards truly have a mind disease. No wonder they can never achieve anything if they waste time reinventing the wheel.
Besides, I don't like MS Paint at all. It lacks a few modern QoL features that are only available in more robust programs, like wand selection, selection editing and layers. There is not a single editor, on Windows or Linux, that would bridge this gap between "launch instantly" and "have the basic modern QoL features for precise editing" for quick edits. Paint.NET takes a few seconds to load, GIMP takes like half a minute, and sometimes I want to quickly combine some images with pixel precision so while Vista's/7's MS Paint launches instantly, weighs less than a megabyte and can be copied over any computer with ease, it's too barebones for my use case.
- Joined
- Apr 30, 2023
Have you tried an old version of paint.net? I have v4.3.12 installed (last one that supports windows 7 and I already had it downloaded) and it takes like half a second to launch.
Might be vulnerable to some image library vuln attack but idk if I really care. Not like the feature set has changed much in the past 15 years.
- Joined
- Dec 17, 2019
Nope, but now that you've mentioned it, I downloaded a portable version of the newest Paint.NET and it does launch almost instantly. Maybe it's because my current local install just has a whole bunch of plugins to load which slows it down.
Yapping1337
kiwifarms.net
- Joined
- Jun 13, 2025
I switched from Total Commander to Directory Opus in 2018, it is vastly superior when it comes to features and customization.
- Joined
- Dec 17, 2019
I've mentioned this before but I really dislike Directory Opus' licensing where they nickel and dime you for the amount of computers you want to use and for how long you can get updates for. In comparison I find Total Commander a much better value. I really couldn't care about all the fancy features DOpus has that TC doesn't, since TC is powerful enough for me, and I refuse to be nickel and dimed on software licenses like that. Upon changing default class registry keys for Directory and Drive, everything opens in TC and I never see Windows Explorer in daily use.
- Joined
- Apr 19, 2019
Yeah, me either.
I'm an old-school guy through and through when it comes to file managers. Occasionally use Double Commander instead of Total Commander, especially on installations where I cannot or do not want to copy my license file or be annoyed by the nag screen every time I start it. TC has generally been better, but DC has been very close since Version 1.0.
In command line environments, I use Midnight Commander on Linux and FreeBSD, Necromancer's Dos Navigator on Windows, and Volkov Commander on DOS.
- Joined
- Nov 27, 2024
Absolutely unrelated, but I hate the new california valley accent on the internet. Not everything needs to be punctuated with a question mark.
- Joined
- Apr 19, 2019
Here's the MS Paint from Server 2025 for comparison. Yes, that's the old one from Windows 10.
- Joined
- Dec 26, 2025
I know, right? A few dozen contributors at any moment working in their spare time to reverse-engineer an entire proprietary operating system maintained by a company with an estimated 60,000-90,000 software engineers should be easy.
It's unfortunate that the ReactOS project is so far behind Windows, but you seem to have a lot of unrealistic expectations when it comes to open source development. Speaking of:
Oh look, another reverse-engineering project without the resources of a massive corporation! But let's ignore all factors making the dream of total binary compatibility a nearly insurmountable task and just call them lazy.
Not to mention that the two projects have different goals. Wine developers want an open source reverse-engineered translation of the entire Windows API, while Valve just wants games to work. Different scope and resources.
You apparently fail to realize just how much money, time, and effort is needed to make these projects successful and that many contributors to this software are doing so in their free time. Some people might be paid to work full-time on FOSS, but most aren't--and those that are don't have the manpower of a corporate giant like Microsoft or Apple. The fact that some programmers decided to reverse-engineer Windows and got as far as they did should be commended.
If only you could see the irony of this statement.
I like the idea that Linux users/developers are lazy, narrow-minded and stupid, but when Microsoft disappoints it's because they don't know what they're doing.
Linux has a single digit percent desktop market share not because it's terrible, but because Microsoft has desperately tried to keep it out of the desktop market. Microsoft has made FUD an art form since the 1980s to stamp out competitors like DR-DOS and OS/2. Are you going to tell me that their history of doing everything to maintain a stranglehold on the PC market is just them not knowing what they're doing?
- Joined
- Dec 17, 2019
If you were to swap every single instance of Windows with Linux today, people would complain. But please, do keep ignoring the fact that a good chunk of the Windows market share comes from corporate use where people rely on software that doesn't run on desktop Linux and believe that if XYZ happened Linux would dominate the market right now and it's only because Microsoft forces it out of the market it cannot compete. And not that it has decades old issues Linux devs refuse to fix and just tell people to deal with them, and then every year they just hope that this year is the year everyone will make the switch because Windows got worse. Ever since the 90's it's been the same and nothing ever changed.
Yapping1337
kiwifarms.net
- Joined
- Jun 13, 2025
It's more of an honor system, I don't think there is anything that would actively prevent a user from using the certificate file (which has no online component) to activate on more computers than intended and I doubt they care that much. At least in that regard I think they are being reasonable. Of course the value of Directory Opus is subjective, the price is fairly high considering you can get other file managers for free and most people simply want dual-pane functionality.
- Joined
- Jul 4, 2022
Most people use their operating system as a boot loader for their browser.
You mean like how they try to fix X11 by replacing everything with Wayland which still isn't ready after almost two decades?
- Joined
- Nov 15, 2021
FOSS was supposed to do better than corporate software.
So did FOSS boosters back in 2002.
No, actually, it's because it's a terrible desktop OS.
Counterpoint:
Linux is bringing in around $7b/yr in the server space. Microsoft tried to flex Linux out of the server space, but since Windows Server sucks, they've been losing ground for years.
- Joined
- Jan 3, 2024
Yea but we are talking about perfectly mimicking the API of the corporate software, not any actual responsibility of the operating system. In that regard windows is now worst in its class compared to anything else on the market.
The last thing windows is best at is complying with the windows API, and given how well proton has worked for me over the years it seems to be slowly losing that battle as well.
In 2002, windows was by far the better operating system.
This is a failing strategy. My previous job, the last software that had this issue was matlab, which only effected one group. 80% of everyone was developing on linux. All software has some degree of shelf life in this regard. Everything is eventually going to be replaced and the replacements are not going to be windows exclusive.
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- Joined
- Nov 15, 2021
Still is...for the desktop.
Since Linux was basically developed as a copy of a server-centric OS to be a platform for programming in C, yes, if all you want to do with it is coding-related tasks, it's great for that. Windows was objectively behind Linux in a number of critical features like multiplatform and multicompiler development support. Ended up being a better server OS than Windows because of how much it cribbed from UNIX.
The DEs are not really designed for anyone to do anything really. They're just directionless ideological copycat shitpiles.
- Joined
- Dec 17, 2019
That's not a problem, and if it is then it's a you problem for not willing to learn the difference and choose the right distro. And if you think FOSS software sucks then it's a you problem for not willing to learn how to draw a circle in GIMP by going through four obtuse steps where everywhere else it's a dedicated one click, drag and done tool. They cannot understand that if they're going to battle commercial software, they need FOSS software to be as accessible and easy to use as commercial software. No one will care about the functionality if it's obtuse, that's how businesses work and no one who made functional but obtuse to use product ever survived on the market.
That's another issue with FOSStards, they refuse to accept the reality that only 1% of the market are autistic neckbeards, and refuse to make their holy OS more approachable to the masses while constantly gunning for the dominant force in the market, constantly stuck in believing these two mutually contradicting ideas of "be like us or fuck you" and "we want to dethrone Windows". And no matter how accurate these criticisms of their mentality are, they will get defensive, they will refuse to accept it, and if they can, they will run cry to
And then they're shocked people hate them, it's like dealing with autistic children.
Yet Linux still fails to take over Windows in the x86 desktop space. But Linux users used this cope for decades, whenever Windows did something stupid they gaslit themselves into believing that this will magically shift the scales in Linux's favor. One personal anecdotal example isn't enough to skew the global trend.
In my experience for example, people relied on MS Office, installed locally. In places which tended to have Internet/power outages. LibreOffice was out of the question as it was nothing but compatibility issues with MS Office. So was Office 365 in the browser, it needed to be accessible offline, and it saved people's asses when it was accessible offline.
Now guess what has the bigger global market share, software development or office suites.
Which will never be accepted as FOSStards are permanently deranged into believing that Microsoft is some sort of Marvel comic supervillain that does everything in their power to undercut the greatest gift to mankind that is Linux. And not that desktop Linux sucks dick and no one wants to use it over Windows. To them it's always some 4D chess conspiracy theory, as accepting the reality would mean accepting that they're constantly wrong for decades and stuck in a radical isolated info bubble, which is unacceptable.
It's not that the X11/Wayland debacle is detrimental to the end user. It's not that not having sensible software packaging where you can install anything on any distro is detrimental to the end user. It's not that being told to use this or that distro because it doesn't have systemd is detrimental to the end user. It's not that not having compatibility with Win32 software is detrimental to the end user. It's always Microsoft purposefully fucking them over out of spite, as they're not doing anything wrong. And if anyone says that those issues have been plaguing the end Linux user for decades, then it's the end user problem, as Linux is perfect as-is.
Now cue the crying about how people still choose to use Win11 despite how bad it is and default to insulting them as baby duck cattle, then being shocked when they hate Linux thanks to it's toxic community and cry about how Windows still stays dominant. Also act like it's only a "vocal minority" of the Linux community that's this toxic shitheap that keeps making people hate Linux.
Rinse and repeat, they'll never learn. Valve could save Linux desktop by uprooting everything about it, doing things their way and taking a fat steamy dump into the mouths of the Linux """community""" whenever they'd complain they're doing something wrong. There is no other way forward.