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Comment by nlitened | Hacker News Reader

I think it’s also interesting to keep in mind that in 2025 people don’t really use Finder as much as they did in 2009. It was an important part of the OS and of users’ workflow back then, but nowadays it’s just a browser for the Downloads folder, it’s time to admit that. No need to keep it fancy — file system power users will likely use other specialized software anyway

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People dont' use Finder? "File system power users"? Are we talking about MacOS or iOS here? Seriously, I think that's an interesting take - that does not relate even a little bit to most work domains I ever was in contact with.

I think both fewer and more people use finder than we assume.

Spotlight has replaced app search.

In-app file browsers have replaced a lot of Finder functionality (project views, file views, browsing etc. in IDEs and power tools).

And given how anemic Finder still is, I wonder if its use among power users is very low.

What do you think power users use?

Console

I think you might mean "Terminal". Console is an app that just gives you macOS's log spew. Also, I don't know any Mac power user, myself included, who doesn't use both the terminal and Finder. Most of them use iTerm2, actually.

You’re right

That’s not my use case but even if it were true : is the current design broken ? Can’t even the Snow Leopard version do the job of "just browsing the download folder" and allow more "advanced" users to have a decent tool ?

I mean, sure, usages changed (even if not for everyone) but even for someone "just browsing downloads", the new design is not better.

Changing/modernizing the general theme of the OS ? Changing colors ? Textures ? Fonts ? I’m not against it and it’s an age old tradition at this point. But why mess with the general organisation / visual clues / layout to make it less functional especially when your users are already happy with the current design ?

It’s change for the sake of change, not to build a better tool for the user.

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