Probably an often asked question.....

[curls]

How does Free Commander compare to Total Commander? I have been using TC since forever, and I doubt I could use Windows without it, I rely on it so much. I did look at Free Commander a long time ago, but it was pretty basic at the time, but now seems to be maturing nicely. I am not averse to moving to a different program, even though I am a registered user of TC, if there is a good enough reason.

I suppose I can find out simply by using it, but I was wondering what others thought.

[Fad]

I guess that`s the best way to find out...actually use it for a while !
(and use it properly, not just for 10 minutes)

In the past, I have tested a LOT of file managers, and I have to admit that some of them I didn`t give very long to test, there was always something "wrong" or something that just didn`t work the way I was used to.

FC for me became perfect when the Go Up side strips were added, because it was then when it did everything I needed...

it was portable, and I don`t use any of the other functions available, so you have nothing to lose by testing it out alongside TC for a while and see how things go.

It`s all down to personal preferences though, and some people will like all the features of TC....the extreme of which I would say is DirectoryOpus, but I never liked that many years ago when it was even less complex !

Give it a tryout for a while...you have nothing to lose.

[Bearded Kirklander]

FC behaves more like a Windows program should. It just feels better when I'm using it.

TC works more like Norton Commander for DOS did and feels old and unrefined.

I prefer FC. I'm a huge fan of the program. I am probably too impatient about seeing certain features added, but I really do wanna bail on every other file manager and use FC only. In order for that to happen, however, there are features / functions / changes that I really do want to see addressed. I know Marek is busy, but for some reason, I find myself looking eagerly towards every new update and release.

I hope he has a huge burst of time and energy and can whip some of this stuff out mega-fast.

[JohnFredC]

IMO, The major difference between the two is plug-in support.

There is a very active developer community behind the compression, file system, lister (file preview, etc), and contents (custom lister columns) TC plug-in architectures. If you depend upon the TC plug-ins, you will find yourself frequently returning to TC for the functionality they offer.

TC was developed "bottom-up" over a long period of time... a constant accrual of little details of file handling functionality (the number of different options for overwriting files, for a small example) based on an evolving model of what TC should do.

FC seems to be a "top-down" metaphor. The "big picture" was developed first as a sort of skeleton on which to hang the little details later. Consequently, things like the FC folder tree are more advanced than in TC (where the folder trees are almost an afterthought and are not well integrated) but the little things (again an example would be the file overwriting options though there are many others) aren't quite there (in FC) yet.

OTOH TC is 15 years old! Kudos to the FC developer for having implemented so much excellent functionality so quickly and offering it to us for free, too!

[Bearded Kirklander]

Kudos to the FC developer for having implemented so much excellent functionality so quickly and offering it to us for free, too!

I agree completely. Marek is just AWESOME for doing what he does with Free Commander.

[curls]

Thanks for the replies. I've installed FC on my Vista laptop and left TC on my XP box, that way I get to compare them easier.

[mloskot]

Kudos to Marek for FC. Great work in deed!

I also wanted to ask for API for plug-in modules. It would be great to have ability to extend FC features.