Finder 10.5.6

Apple Inc
Rating: (four burnt toasts — and that's generous)

Apple Inc
Cupertino CA
US

Collateral damage:
Getting laughed at so hard by everyone outside the 'Mac community' your ears start to bleed

Right away the name throws you off: this is a program that helps ordinary users 'find' things? So they're in the habit of losing them?

And that icon - is it or is it not a digitalised version of Alfred E Neuman? Is not the overall message 'what me worry'?

Apple have previously been the laughing stock of the computer science industry for their shocking and abysmal lack of file management tools.

But brother you ain't seen nothing yet! For that was before Leopard - check what's happened now!

This review is a story in pictures. It makes it easier for the Apple engineers to follow along. Words and details have never been their strong point. One thing is clear from this point and forward.

Apple have neither the intention nor the capability of positioning their operating system as a professional tool for the enterprise.

Where did they go wrong? Did anyone say they went wrong? But in case you were confused on this issue - in case your corporate directors were seriously considering deploying Apple dongles and software on a non-trivial scale: follow the comic strip that follows.

Picture 1. First look.

Picture 2. Drilling down.

Picture 3. 'File info'.

Picture 4. More 'file info'.

Picture 5. The only user/group permissions options available.

Picture 6. The only permissions options available for 'other' users.

Picture 7. HUD previews.

Picture 8. Cover Flow!!1!

Picture 9. Xfile in Cover Flow.

Picture 10. Drilling down again.

Picture 11. User/group permissions available on Unix console executable.

Picture 12. 'Other' permissions available on Unix console executable.

Picture 13. 'File info' for Unix console executable.

Picture 14. Attempting to do the impossible.

Picture 15. Getting told the impossible is indeed impossible.

Picture 16. Let's go somewhere else!

Picture 17. Cover Flow!!1! Again!!1!

Picture 18. Cover Flow!!1! Again!!1! And again!!1! Where it really pays off!!1!

Picture 19. Prompting for a password (actually a passphrase) in places it's not needed. Ace!

Picture 20. Selecting a new user or group??!?? From an address book??!??

Picture 21. Test is over! So where did this 'file manager' drop its stool?

6 items, 61464 bytes, 144 blocks, 192 bytes in extended attributes.

~/Desktop/.DS_Store
~/Documents/.DS_Store
~/Applications/.DS_Store
~/Applications/etc/.DS_Store
/private/var/folders/3t/.../.DS_Store
/private/var/folders/3t/.../-Caches-/.DS_Store

Nothing like having extended attributes on .DS_Store files.

'Stay tuned.'