Exclusive Interview: A Surprise from BinaryNights

Posted by Marvin Sum on 05/9/07 in Interviews

2 weeks ago, I reviewed ForkLift, an advanced file manager that turned out to be a very useful application. While I voiced my dislike for Finder, I found that ForkLift was a very productive file manager with some great features.

After publishing the review, I managed to sit down with the developers from BinaryNights (Attila, Bela, Gabor and Mudi), to chat about ForkLift, Macs and their future plans. They even made a significant announcement, but I won’t spoil the surprise. Read on to find out.

BinaryNights Team

Marvin: First of all, tell me more about BinaryNights. How did you guys come about, and what do you do?

BinaryNights: There are four of us at BinaryNights; all of us come from different IT backgrounds. We were originally involved with developing J2EE enterprise applications for telecommunication enterprises, like T-mobile.

We bought our first Mac in early 2006 and immediately fell in love with the concept. It was obvious that this is a much more progressive market to develop applications for. Desktop application development was an exciting opportunity to shift to from the repetitive enterprise tasks.

Marvin: Cool. What was the motivation to start ForkLift? Was it to build a better file manager?

BinaryNights: Although the Mac way is superior in almost every aspect, we had to realise that file management was pretty complicated for advanced users. Our goal was to create an application that integrates every aspect of file management into a single platform, be it on your home computer, remote server or even on your mobile phone.

We also wanted to know, if we could make a living from developing shareware software

Marvin: What sort of Macs do you use for your day-to-day tasks?

BinaryNights: We currently have three MacBook Pros, two 20” and a 24″ iMacs, two PowerMacs, a Mac Pro and 23-30″ Cinema Displays.

Marvin: Quick! Name 5 apps currently sitting in your dock.

BinaryNights: XCode (of course), IShowu, Adium, VLC, LightRoom.

Marvin: Any word on ForkLift’s pricing? I’m sure a lot of readers are anxious to know.

BinaryNights: The final price should be $29.95. This is the first public announcement of the final price, you might want to emphasize that.

Marvin: Really! Wow, I thought it would be around $70 because it has roughly the same functionality as Pathfinder + Transmit + AppZapper, but that’s awesome. So what are your plans for ForkLift and beyond?

BinaryNights: We’ve spent a lot of time developing ForkLift, but we have merely scratched the surface. There are a lot of improvements and new features to come, that will further streamline people’s file management workflow.

We have high hopes for our upcoming plug-in infrastructure, which will hopefully encourage other developers to extend our app even further. In the long run, we want to reposition ourselves as full time shareware developers for this great platform.

Marvin: Looking forward to some great features. Guys, thank you so much for your time. It’s been a pleasure chatting with you all.

So there you have it. An advanced file manager with built-in FTP, an application deleter, live remote editing, plus an upcoming plugin infrastructure. Definitely worth checking out. Download your beta copy from BinaryNights and be sure to send the team some feedback.

But best of all, the price. $29.95. You heard it here first.

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19 Comment(s)

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Phraktle Commander said on

May 9th, 2007 at 11:38 am

Yo, I’ll pay you $29.95 once you improve the keybindings

Mudi said on

May 9th, 2007 at 11:53 am

Lookin’ goooooooood

Phraktle Commander: how can you improve something perfect?

+10

Sean said on

May 9th, 2007 at 12:04 pm

I will gladly pay for Fork Lift once horizontal panes are an option. Though I hate to say it, look to the Windows app “Directory Opus” by GP Software at www.gpsoft.com.au

Opus has hundreds of options and customizations, and it’s the only way I’ll use Windows (when I’m forced to). Something like Directory Opus for OS X would be awesome.

Kintaro said on

May 9th, 2007 at 2:47 pm

Nice app, ugly ppl

-1

Hummer45 said on

May 9th, 2007 at 2:55 pm

Kintaro: What a shitty thing to say. Maybe you should grow some marbles and upload a gravitar before letting crap like that come out of your mouth.

As far as ForkLift goes, I will admit I am a fan of the app but what I cannot understand is the need for the Uninstall button. I really think that should be removed in a final version. Aside from that I use FL every day and it is much better than Finder or any other window managers I have tried. Good interview Marvin.

Marvin Sum said on

May 9th, 2007 at 3:42 pm

People, thank you so much for your feedback.

@Phraktle Commander: If you look under Preferences you can set your custom keybindings.

@Kintaro: Haha.

@Hummer45: Thanks!

Phraktle Commander said on

May 9th, 2007 at 3:56 pm

Marvin, the custom keybindings leave a lot to be desired for users growing up on the various Norton Commander clones. I’ve sent my detailed comments to the developers earlier, we’ll see how much they listen to their potential customers

Miles Evans said on

May 9th, 2007 at 4:11 pm

Mudi from BinaryNights just emailed saying ‘we would like to offer you free license keys to be given to ten lucky readers of your site when the final release comes out.’

That’s a lot of licenses. Thanks Mudi!

Back on topic…I’ve only been using ForkLift over the last 2 releases and I think it’s a fairly natural replacement for Finder. These style of apps seem to appeal to both former Windows users, and people doing lots of heavy lifting, and I think it does a bang up job of pleasing both camps.

Paul said on

May 9th, 2007 at 7:25 pm

Holly smokes, 29.95 is very fair price, I’m in

Sumner said on

May 10th, 2007 at 12:14 am

In the staff image…Bottom right image…is that not a stack of all season radials I see there?

Marvin Sum said on

May 10th, 2007 at 1:37 am

@Sumner: Yep, it’s a bunch of tyres, no idea what they’re doing there.

Bubber said on

May 10th, 2007 at 11:33 am

Nice interview Marvin.
It hit Digg’s main page.

msbob said on

May 10th, 2007 at 12:51 pm

“I cannot understand is the need for the Uninstall button. ” - Kintatro

That uninstall feature is great. So many people assume that mac apps only exist in the Applications folder. There is a lot of junk that gets scattered, mostly inert, but some goes into the Library folder and ~App Support folder.

I would like to see a detailed summary in the copy window if there was a problem. It’s stupid that a locked or permission’s related file can stop a copy process. Instead the problem file should be logged and shown (with full path) in the dialog box (or a sidebar) while the copy continues. This is especially true when copying folders with lots of files. How frustrating is it to leave a 1 hour copy only to return to find that it never got going because of a dialog box. Apple should do this, but now FL has the opportunity.

Motorcycle Guy said on

May 15th, 2007 at 8:34 am

Their office looks like a fun place.

seth said on

May 16th, 2007 at 5:20 pm

MSBOB, you are correct about the locked file. THere is a great windows utility that i use when on my work computer called, simply enough, “Unlocker Assistant” that will present you with a window of locked files as the need arises, you can kill the process that has them locked or just “unlock” the file. Of coruse it requires user interaction to actually unlock the file, maybe there could be some “auto unlock” feature that would do the honors for you. I can’t wait to try ForkLift against PathFinder. I’ll feel like it’s a waste of I end up paying for ForkLift and ditch my purchased copy of PathFinder.

Miles Evans said on

May 17th, 2007 at 5:56 am

From the Dev’s…

Hey Guys,

We have released Forklift 1.0b3 which will be the last beta.

The following new features have been added:

* Amazon S3 support !!!!!!
* Tabs !!!!!!
* Spring loaded folders
* International Domain name support (IDNA)
* Extended FTP Connection panel

Bug fixes and improvements:

* FTP program termination
* Show/hide invisible items from menu
* Rename and new folder is followed by selection
* File deletion crash
* Speed improvements
* Appdelete algorithm improved
* Minor fixes

Marius Piedallu van Wyk said on

May 23rd, 2007 at 4:48 pm

I’m a DirOpus/TotalCMD/Diskmaster/NC fan, but I find too many little things unconfigurable to be able to use it as a replacement 100% of the time. Thus I find the app goes unused for long periods of time and thus it does not warrant to be bought and used by me.

That said, it does show promise, but care has to be taken not to spend time on all the wrong features.

For instance, I see you have taken the time to implement a Amazon S2 storage accessing mechanism instead of, say better keyboard shortcut configuration (I use multiple type of keyboards, and need to map multiple sets of shortcuts) or more layout configuration (Adding . and .. as directories?)

I mean, really… if I needed remote SFTP/FTP/S3 access I would look to MacFUSE plugins… that makes more sense instead of having plugin bloat in Forklift.

Don’t get me wrong, plugins are essential.

Otherwise, good work… it’s always good to have options… your’s show the most promise out of µCommander, Disk Order, mc or any other attempt.

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Franca Richard said on

March 16th, 2008 at 3:34 am

Really useful, thanks.

http://www.colorfulmars.com

Lisha Rhodes said on

March 24th, 2008 at 4:34 am

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IBM Kiosk Technology Services
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87eb1c2e2868 said on