It’s that time of the week again, I guess.
The year is 2026, and I’m still amazed when I find a new entry in my Start menu’s All apps list for an app I don’t remember installing. This time, it’s Microsoft again, and the product is OneDrive Photos, which appears to be yet another photo viewer and editor for Windows 11 that nobody asked to have installed automatically.
While searching for Microsoft Photos, a new app called “OneDrive Photos” showed up in my results out of nowhere. It appears to have arrived either via Windows Update or an update for the OneDrive sync client on Windows.
↫ Mayank Parmar at Windows Latest
Just don’t use Windows. You people paid me to use it and it was not a fun experience.
I saw your write-up about your Windows experience, and I would’ve very much advised against sticking with the Windows stock apps, esp. File Explorer. Virtually nobody who is tech savvy does that. As a friend of mine is keen on saying, ‘I don’t like Windows. I like what I can run on Windows.’
Of course, I understand that this is sort of the equivalent of telling someone ‘you were using the wrong distro’ when they have a bad experience with Linux, but it is what it is.
And what you use? Basic file manager is poor, but it does basic jobs. I`ve been trying with Total Commander, but well… For me it`s ugly, so for just browsing files I use default explorer with thumbs, etc.
I would use explorer for browsing pictures or videos, but most everything else (Especially actually managing files and not just opening an individual file) I used total commander. I configured it once years ago and have made sure to keep a copy of the settings file intact since then.
But, since I no longer use Windows and use Linux, I do use Krusader, but honestly Dolphin is good enough since they ironed out the split-pane feature.
Total Commander is the way to got, but its default settings are a bit weird indeed.
You can try my preconfigured version here (“TOTALCMD.BAT” to make it portable) :
https://github.com/Kochise/win_portable/blob/master/Manager/Total%20Commander/TOTALCMD.BAT
Don’t forget to first run “recompose.bat” at the root to stitch back some files together.
Directory Opus is the best file manager for any operating system out there, and the competition is not even close.
It doesn’t run on anything other than x86-64 Windows. It absolutely isn’t the best file manager for any operating system.
Being the best file manager for x86-64 windows, though, is debatable.
What I meant is, there’s no other file manager on any operating system that would come close to how powerful Directory Opus is. And I’ve tested a lot of them when I was looking for a good file manager for Linux (there are none).
There are many :
https://doublecmd.sourceforge.io/
https://www.mucommander.com/
https://spacedrive.com/
It seems overly complicated. A simpler, more streamlined design (like Total Commander) is actually better.
LOL, File Explorer is one of the redeeming qualities of Windows.
They’ve kind of ruined it by integrating copilot and one drive, ending up making it slow, unstable, and hard to navigate unless you uninstall One Drive. The fact Linux file explorers can’t seem to get all the same features working in the same product however…
File Explorer is pretty good though. I though of commenting on that last entry that everybody office computer comes with Notepad++ and 7zip preinstalled as standard and I am more than happy that MS has not consumed these wonderful apps yet.
Also, File Explorer is underrated. At work we downgraded from Windows to Rocky Linux so I lost many great windows features. Just from the top of my head:
– There is an extra useless bar on the top of the screen
– No maximize button by default
– If I put an application half-screen, it won’t let me immediately choose the other app to tile.
– It can’t tile 4 windows
– I can’t copy or edit the path in a window as text.
– Right-click on folder does not have the option to copy path
– Quick access folders are not pinned on top level as with Windows but into a separate folder
– Folders on Samba can’t be put into quick access
But the real problems with Rocky Linux are:
– It’s not that automatic display scaling does not work, it apparently can’t scale the display at all
– I can’t copy files from the UI on a samba share, support told me I should do this from the command line.
– Worse, If I edit a document on a Samba share, saving can damage the document.
– Taking a screenshot of an area goes to the screenshot folder but not to the clipboard.
The OneDrive team stepping on the Windows team’s turf, I guess. Goomics 62 is proving itself again and again.
You guys are using Windows?
It’s still an OS, with 80% of market share, you know.
> Just don’t use Windows.
Nice enough advice for those who can. In the meantime, that does not really help the people who, for whatever reason, are not able to “just” remove windows from their workflows.
As I’ve said previously, this place is a classic echo chamber. Linux will forever be a thing people try for a few weeks, realize it’s not good, and switch back. But the fanboys think “if it were just pre-installed…” Sure, some small percentage will stick with it, but the moment you start having issues it’s back to the terminal and rabbit hole of time wasting. Windows can keep enshitifiying itself because Microsoft knows the alternative is worse.
dark2,
Honestly the majority of linux fans don’t fit the zealot stereotype.
That’s just your opinion though. I might say “MacOS will forever be a thing people try for a few weeks, realize it’s not good, and switch back” or “ChomeBooks will forever be a thing people try for a few weeks, realize it’s not good, and switch back”. But saying things this way comes across as rather passive aggressive. In truth millions of people not only like linux but even find it to be the best option. Everyone has their own preference and that’s ok.
Changing an OS is hard because long term users tend to get tied down to an ecosystem to the point where they feel stuck. Unfortunately a lot of proprietary software is windows only, creating barriers to switching even when people actually like what they see. Same is true with mobile alternative operating systems. The application barrier is often the deal breaker even when you find an alternative OS that you like.