ForkLift: Now With 2 Killer Features

Posted by Marvin Sum on 04/27/07 in Applications, Organization, Productivity, Utilities, Web

My biggest whine about OS X was with the Finder. It was simply too inefficient and really slowed me down, especially when working on a MacBook. I thought there was no end to my productivity woes, until I tried ForkLift.

Last month, fellow contributor Jordan Chark previewed ForkLift, where he mentioned some of its great features like dual-panes, remote file previews, and spotlight integration. But thereâ€™s a new Beta available, and it comes with 2 new killer features.

ForkLift Beta 2 offers live editing. This means that you can open any remote file for editing while ForkLift works quietly in the background to update your changes to the FTP server. It really takes all the boring steps out and lets you just focus on your files. This really speeds up your workflow and will save you valuable time.

ForkLift Screenshot

When you choose an App for deletion, ForkLift now searches your computer for application support files to delete, similar to what AppDelete does. These little files consists of preferences, caches and plugins that build up over time. In my tests, ForkLift managed to find a lot of related configuration files, caches, and .plist files. Removing applications completely is just a click away.

ForkLift Delete App

Iâ€™m impressed. Truly impressed. My workflow has been vastly improved by the dual-panes, favourites, and live editing. AppZapper and Transmit functionality are just the icing on an already delicious cake. Until Apple comes up with a better Finder, ForkLift will be my file manager of choice.

Despite being available as a time-limited beta, ForkLift works flawlessly for me. Oh, and did I mention itâ€™s Leopard ready with Universal goodness?

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16 Comment(s)

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kugel said on

April 27th, 2007 at 9:33 am

I’ll love this app.
Any info on pricing?

zozi said on

April 27th, 2007 at 9:44 am

This app is getting really serious.

Marvin Sum said on

April 27th, 2007 at 9:48 am

@kugel: No word yet. But if it’s cheaper than Transmit + AppZapper combined, it will be a sweet deal.

@zozi: Yep, it does look serious.

kugel said on

April 27th, 2007 at 9:59 am

Marvin,

You didn’t menton PathFinder

John Doe said on

April 27th, 2007 at 11:43 am

ForkLift have changed my life completely !

I’ve lost 400 pounds from my weight, and now I’m a happy man.

Oh it’s a fuckin’ commander for the Mac

-1

Viktor Szathmary said on

April 27th, 2007 at 11:48 am

The two-pane concept, as championed by Norton Commander, is indeed a really effective way to manage files for power-users. ForkLift is probably the best implementation of this on the Mac today.

Now only if ForkLift adhered more to the Orthodox File Manager (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orthodox_file_manager) standard in key-bindings (F3 view, F4 edit, F5 copy, etc), old-school folks, like myself, who have grown up with these key bindings wired into their cerebellum, would be happy to use this product.

Steven Owens said on

April 27th, 2007 at 11:49 am

While I like Forklift, I don’t see it replacing finder for me simply because the integration is not as good. This is the same reason I use Mail and Safari instead of Thunderbird and Firefox.

dave said on

April 27th, 2007 at 11:51 am

i love this app too - just wish it had an auto file back up option for storing real time edits and changes…or maybe a sorta ’subversion lite’ for personal use? now there’s a cool idea for a product…like time machine, but a more cvs style interface…

Andrew said on

April 27th, 2007 at 3:46 pm

this should’ve been released years ago. Using finder alone for file operations has almost done irreversible damage to my brain

Marvin Sum said on

April 27th, 2007 at 6:05 pm

@Viktor Szathmary: It’s possible to change the key bindings in ForkLift. Look under Preferences > Shortcuts.

@Steven Owens: ForkLift is written in Cocoa, so it looks like any Mac app out there, unlike Thunderbird/Firefox which are both written in XUL (I think).

@Andrew: Agreed.

paul said on

April 27th, 2007 at 6:35 pm

I think the best thing about ForkLift is its speed. I could not believe my eyes how much faster than Transmit when moving a lot of small files to SFTP which I do a lot.

Tim said on

April 28th, 2007 at 8:41 pm

It was just about time to have an application like ForkLift. It’s really promising indeed.

JimBo said on

April 29th, 2007 at 5:04 pm

This app is so neat! I’ve been using it for a while and it satisfies all my file managing needs. The UI needs a bit polishing though.

Adric said on

April 30th, 2007 at 7:33 am

I don’t have any problems with the finder, but this is a very cool application. I’ve been using it through out the day, and I have to say I’m impressed. Finding things is a lot quicker, and you basically only need a few clicks to find what you. I also like the two pane style, and the drag-and-drop between them. Very nice. I will watch this application closly.

Marvin Sum said on

April 30th, 2007 at 5:17 pm

Thank you all for your positive feedback on ForkLift. Just to let you guys know, I’ve got some exclusive ForkLift stuff coming. You’ll love it.

Stay tuned!

KubaMan said on

May 9th, 2007 at 5:01 pm

It’s a cheap rip-off of the original Norton Commander. Nothing new here!

-3

55480c255da6 said on

May 10th, 2008 at 8:34 pm

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