Why FAR Manager it's kinda' dead project ...

You want to talk about Far Manager, but don't know where to turn?

Does FAR have to be open-source?

Yes, i'll be happy to work on future development
23
45%
Yes, i'll use it with more pasion
18
35%
No
7
14%
I don't give a ****
3
6%
 
Total votes: 51

Hory
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Post by Hory »

Well, on my computer, DOS Navigator died because of FAR Manager :). I still use it in DOS mode though. Then how about making FAR Manager free? It will give it a serious boost above all other file managers. I run a freeware recommendations site and I know that "File Management" is a category where there's need of a good free solution. And there are many more freeware sites that would link to it. I think FAR Manager's main competitor is Total Commander, which can be easily defeated by a powerful AND free program such as FAR M.
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t-rex
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Post by t-rex »

To make FAR freeware is a bit complicated at the moment, if it'll ever be a freeware it will probably be open source.
And about competing with TC, TC is GUI which is very compeling to non power users but we don't want FAR to become GUI at least not only GUI. At any other comparison FAR is way advanced than TC (or any other file manager for the matter), the main disablity now is unicode but I hope that will be fixed in the near future.
henrypijames
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Post by henrypijames »

t-rex wrote:I say that there has been for years a mailing ling for egnlish speaking users (plugringenglish) along with the mailing list for russian speakers (plugring).
I'm sorry if I didn't make myself clear. I was complaining about not having a English language discussion channel for *users* for years. A "plugring" mailing list, as the name suggests, wouldn't count for that, would it?
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t-rex
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Post by t-rex »

Actualy it is a mailig list for users and always been that way.
Soulcatcher
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Post by Soulcatcher »

t-rex wrote:At any other comparison FAR is way advanced than TC (or any other file manager for the matter)
Just out of curiosity, what makes you say that? :) Is there any link to a detailed comparison or something like that?
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t-rex
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Post by t-rex »

Soulcatcher wrote:
t-rex wrote:At any other comparison FAR is way advanced than TC (or any other file manager for the matter)
Just out of curiosity, what makes you say that? :) Is there any link to a detailed comparison or something like that?
Personal experience, I have tried a lot of file managers and they all are very limited or lack some functionality which is available in FAR. FAR is one of a few file managers that have an internal editor, but FAR's has support for plugins (which adds a lot of usability). FAR has a huge base of plugins, the only competitor here is TC but it's plugins are limited as the API provided by TC is very limited and simplistic, and well all TC plugins (but wdx as of yet) can be used from FAR :)
About the comparison, there is a site about The Orthodox File Manager (OFM) Paradigm, it's a kind of standard for two pane file managers, there is a comparison of support for functionality based on the standard.
http://www.softpanorama.org/OFM/Paradigm/Ofm_08.shtml
brablc
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FAR is dead

Post by brablc »

I have made good business to FAR by suggesting it and getting installed on Germany Stock Exchange. We use it there as the primary development environment and FAR with Colorer as our only editor. I have developed two plugins for FAR and I can read Russian.

All this said, I must now write, that I have already started looking for alternatives. It must be something platform independent, because I will not stay with Window for ever and it must be something evolving. At the moment the only way of knowing what's new is comparing .LNG files. We simply do not get enough information.

What about developing two panel file manager for Eclipse? Anyone knows about something already in progress? Anyone interested in joining such project?
intersol
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Post by intersol »

Fact: over 90% of the projects becoming open source are dead or almost dead because the author can't manage them anymore or it doesn't bring profits. :)
xxbbcc
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Why FAR Manager it's kinda' dead project ...

Post by xxbbcc »

I wouldn't mind Far staying a commercial project, as long as that ensures that it's updated at least along with the operating system updates. $20-something is not a huge price for a program with all the features of Far (features that most other file manager programs wouldn't even dream about.)

A file manager cannot be updated every month with new features anyway (bug fixes is a different issue), but an update for every major OS service pack/release would be nice.

I, too use Far almost continously: on my machine there is practically no time without at least a single Far instance running. I haven't used Windows Explorer in years.
pandronic
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Re: Why FAR Manager it's kinda' dead project ...

Post by pandronic »

The main issue is not if it's commercial/free/open source or whatever, but the fact that the last official release was in 2003 in the form of a beta (beta 5).

It's true that I've been using this beta since then without any problems, but the lack of news and updates is getting very annoying.

Than there are the alphas. There is no information on them - how long does it take to write a changelog really? And WHY do the alphas come after the beta release??? And where is 1.70 Final? I'm waiting it for a few years.
hujer
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open source

Post by hujer »

ok i am sick and tired of this, i am using far for a long time, i am working as c++/c# developer and i have contributed to open source projects already, i am SO MUCH frustrated that i cannot find any replacement for FAR, the far project is dead now and the fixes done in last years are invisible to any standard user, i so much would like to implement features into far but if its not opensourced i cant, i dont know if the far group has power to opensource the project because i dont know what the deal with eugene is, but if they have the power i BEG for a release, the argument that many forks will be created and plugins wont be compatible is very valid, but plugin creators can just use the mainline fork maintained by the far group, noone will force them to use some forked version, if the far groups like a feature from some fork they can just get it into their tree, just release it under license that forces the forks to be open source (like gpl), i am very depressed that such a great tool is being killed for no proper reason, and the ppl that can change this will rather sit silently hidden and do nothing to change this...

and its nice to see at least something happening, but hey no unicode support in 2005 ? cmon, you must see yourself that the current way is BAD and is not helping anone

sorry for this post but i had to express my feelings, i would very much like to discuss open-sourced far some more because i still have hope

and trust me all those who beg for open-sourced far have a reason, we like FAR and we dont want it as DEAD as it is now
Duke
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Post by Duke »

Hi!

I use FAR Manager since 1998 (or '97 i don't remember).
This is the best File Manager ever, but I fully agree with pandronic. I think the 'marketing strategy' of FAR isn't good, that's the problem. I know, not that's the main goal, but it's important too! I have never come in this forum, while it wasn't necessary. FAR worked good and i had never questions. So, the traffic of this forum isn't matter. I know many-many peolpes - here in Hungary - whos use FAR.

A way to propagate FAR is to create new versions. I know, that FAR is nearly perfect, so you need only to link new plugins. (ie. at installation can man select the plugins what he want, and maybe a net-install version is a good reason too. Namely FAR connects at install to PlugRinG where can be a popular category where the main plugins are, and a other where the other plugins are categorized.)

I hope i have gave with this a good suggestion, and maybe a push for the new FAR Manager 2. (It's a little funny to see this written. :) )
JimWilson
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Post by JimWilson »

I've been watching this thread for a while, but only just now have decided to toss in my opinion. So, here goes.

There are only 4 or 5 programs that I consider must have's, and FAR is definitely one of those (I've lost track of how may years I've been using it, but it has to be at least 5 by now). On every computer I own it's automatically loaded from my Startup Group. I use it all day, every day, and would be completely lost without it. The way I have my copy configured, especially with the plugins, would be impossible to duplicate with any other file manager.

For me, the lack of FAR development has been a serious concern. Two of my other "must have" programs are now dead, which has made my life considerably more difficult. Knowing that at some point they will no longer function on whatever platform Micro$oft puts out is a HUGE problem for me. I certainly don't want FAR to become extinct too.

Personally, I think open source has a wonderful future, and is a significant part of todays software development. But I don't think FAR is a good candidate for it. Like most of you, I'm very concerned that FAR seems to be getting stale, but I don't see how making it open source will fix that. I have watched two other programs I know and love go that route, and after the initial surge of development activity they both died down and are now no better off then before they went open source (and yes, DOS Navigator is one of those).

Perhaps there will be some renewed commitment from the developers so FAR can continue to grow, and earn them some money in the process (which is usually an incentive to work harder :D) . That's what I hope for anyway because I would surely miss FAR if it died too...
Manni
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Post by Manni »

JimWilson wrote:For me, the lack of FAR development has been a serious concern. Two of my other "must have" programs are now dead, which has made my life considerably more difficult. Knowing that at some point they will no longer function on whatever platform Micro$oft puts out is a HUGE problem for me. I certainly don't want FAR to become extinct too.
I don't know. I've seen some of my favorite programs die, too. I still use one of them, though. A good program that is no longer maintained isn't the same thing as a bad program.

Worrying about what future MS operating systems will or will not support is a waste of time, IMHO. And if the next MS OS won't run my favorite applications that make Windows a half-way decent OS today, well, I just might not upgrade to that next OS.

Another point: a fast update cycle is a sure sign of a program that still lacks many features and has many bugs. I sure cannot say that about FAR.
JimWilson
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Post by JimWilson »

Manni wrote:Worrying about what future MS operating systems will or will not support is a waste of time, IMHO. And if the next MS OS won't run my favorite applications that make Windows a half-way decent OS today, well, I just might not upgrade to that next OS.
There's a difference between worry and concern. I'm concerned, but not worried (because worrying is indeed a waste of time). However, at some point you have to upgrade your OS in order to avail yourself of new features, bug fixes, security enhancements, etc. Unfortunately, that's an inevitability. And when your favorites don't work properly on the new OS it makes it difficult.
Manni wrote:Another point: a fast update cycle is a sure sign of a program that still lacks many features and has many bugs. I sure cannot say that about FAR.
Quite true. But I somehow doubt you can accuse FAR of having a fast update cycle. AAMOF, that's precisely what started this thread; the lack of any official new release in a long time. IMHO it's time. Enough has been done since 1.65 to warrant it. If for no other reason then to let the world know that FAR is still around!
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