It burns me from the inside, each time I must jump into my Download/ folder and I realize how much chaos lies in this tiny but infinitely deep folder ...
Please tidy our Download folders, I need it, you need it, we all need it :)
I certainly don't think a big startup could come out of this, but there's definitely an issue with our Download folders.
One of the issue with the Download folder is that most of us use it as a temporary folder, by that I meen, we download a file, open it once and then leave it to rot their for eternity.
The app could simply do things like detecting duplicates (a lot of non tech savy people download the same file multiple times) (just fingerprinting each file and then removing all versions except one), removing files which haven't be accessed for a certain amount of time (unused files), and also moving files to different folders depending on their type or source ...
I think it's just a very simple issue but something that is universally painful for every computer user tech savy or not.
I periodically reorganize my files, mainly my desktop and downloads folder. This helps me take this habit to the real world and keep my life organized as well.
I'd welcome an app that automates the process just for the sake of choice but I think I'll keep doing this particular task manually.
But I do think that there is a room for improvement. For example : instead of making you setup custom rules, it could have an "automagic" mode where it analyzes the behavior of it's current users and learns which rules suit which kind of people.
I imagine it would ask you a few questions upon install (age, etc ...) to get a grasp of which kind of user you are. And then thanks to the data from it's users it could apply some machine learning to work which rules would suit you best.
But Hazel is still a lot better than the defacto solution (which is just leaving your Download folder in a mess).
But I do find it interesting that we've "over engineered" many things on other futile topics, and yet our download folders are still stuck in the messe 1990's (but even then, users where pushed to tidy their Downloads for space reasons).
Anyway, I suggest we let this topic rest.
I've still got some work to do on the new version of my startup's product (and in case you ask, no it isn't anything related to the above)
I personally would pay 10$ for an app which would do the job for me in a smart and evolved manner.
I'm not sure I'm really the target user, since I really use my computer as a dumb terminal to access web/cloud services, but I know a lot of friends and family who struggle managing their downloads effectively.
They forget that they can actually access what they've already downloaded, so instead they co and download again (and waist 15mn searching for the link online).
So I do believe that such a tool would improve the entire computer user experience for elderly and non savy users.
(To gain mass adoption I think such a solution should be bundled with the OS)
#!/bin/bash
MYHOME=$HOME
MYDESKTOP=$HOME/Desktop
echo " _ "
echo " | | "
echo " ___ | | ___ __ _ _ __ _ _ _ __ "
echo " / __|| |/ _ \/ _ | '_ \| | | | '_ \ "
echo " | (__ | | __/ (_| | | | | |_| | |_) |"
echo " \___||_|\___|\__,_|_| |_|\__,_| .__/ "
echo " | | "
echo " |_| v0.1 "
echo " "
cd $MYDESKTOP
DIRS="Papers Code Images Music Videos Links Archives Webpages Progs"
for dir in $DIRS; do
mkdir $dir
done
# make the final dest dir...
mkdir "desktop `date "+%Y-%m-%d"` "
for file in $MYDESKTOP/*; do
#echo "found file $file ... "
case $file in
*.pdf | *.PDF | *.doc | *.ps | *.ppt | *.textClipping)
echo "Moving $file to Papers/"
mv "$file" Papers/
;;
*.py | *.pyc | *.php | *.php4 | *.php5 | *.pl | *.java | *.c | *.js | *.m | *.csv | *.tex | *.log | *.cpp )
echo "Moving $file to Code/"
mv "$file" Code/
;;
*.gif | *.png | *.PNG | *.jpg | *.JPG | *.jpeg | *.tiff | *.bmp | *.gcx | *.svg )
echo "moving $file to to Images/"
mv "$file" Images/
;;
*.aiff | *.sd2 | *.wav | *.mp3 | *.ogg | *.pls )
echo "moving $file to to Music/"
mv "$file" Music/
;;
*.wmv | *.mov | *.WMV | *.flv | *.avi | *.mp4 | *.mpg | *.m4v )
echo "moving $file to to Videos/"
mv "$file" Videos/
;;
*.exe | *.EXE)
echo "moving $file to to Progs/"
mv "$file" Progs/
;;
*.webloc | *.lnk | *.desktop)
echo "Moving $file to Links..."
mv "$file" Links/
;;
*.zip | *.gz | *.tgz | *.tar | *.dmg | *.iso | *.iso.md5sum | *.deb | *.pkg | *.bz2 | *.rar | *.mpkg | *.torrent )
echo "Moving $file to Archives... "
mv "$file" Archives/
;;
*.html | *.htm | *.webarchive)
echo "Moving $file to Webpages..."
mv "$file" Webpages/
mv "${file%.*} Files" "Webpages/${file%.*} Files"
mv "${file%.*}_files" "Webpages/${file%.*}_files"
;;
*) echo "Sorry, I don't know what kind of file $file is!"
esac
done
#delete empty dirs
for dir in $DIRS; do
rmdir $dir # will fail if files were put into it
done
It doesn't clean things up, but at least it gets the files out of the way. I often use the labels to find stuff. Eg.
desktop 2012-11-20 (Berlin)
desktop 2012-12-07 (cleanup after book launch rush)
desktop 2012-12-26 (ka-lite, web dev stuff, pre-NoBS launch)
desktop 2013-03-01 (day at the Spundge offices)