Pathfinder going to a subscription model -- am I out?

I’m not sure this is a logical conclusion. They’re based in San Fran and were posting on Facebook and Twitter in the past couple of weeks. I doubt they’d be offshoring their support.

If they are in Ukraine I have the greatest sympathy for them (my wife also has relatives there) but I suspect it’s more a case of them getting a lot of heat from customers and trying to let the heat dissipate.

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This remark set me off on wondering about other Ukrainian-based Mac software companies. The one that I could think of, MacPaw (developers of Clean My Mac, Gemini, SetApp) has a blog post saying that product support should be unaffected as their key services are not in Ukraine. (Their about page lists both Kyiv and San Francisco offices).

Are there other Mac software developers based in Ukraine?

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Capture One has posted they have support staff in Ukraine which will likely affect support times. I think the tech team of Valentina DB is based in Russia so they could be affected by economic sanctions.

Perhaps the mods could move this to a new thread.

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Readdle are based in Odessa, Ukraine. Makers of PDF Expert, Scanner Pro and other excellent apps.

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JS Snell retweeted a Twitter thread of some important Ukrainian developers. Among those on the list in addition to those already mentioned is Grammarly.

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Yes, they are pretty great folks. Excellent support and great products. A tragedy and a further sign that 1945-2016 was an exceptional period. I do hope they and everyone else are ok.

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Path Finder and Forklift are both in Setapp – presumably PF is staying in there, is it?
PF’s blog post says nothing:
https://www.cocoatech.io/blogs/introducing-path-finder-2022

EDIT: strangely while I’m in London UK those banners were in German language (adding /en/ after the .com fixed it!)… maybe the Ukraine issue has forced some server-side things on Setapp’s end? BTW Setapp is brilliant – go support it if on the fence. :wink:

Does anyone know if Path Finder (and/or Forklift) have good iCloud+ file sync integration, as per the Finder?

I use iCloud file sync for Documents and Desktop folders extensively for nearly every non-media file I own (tens of thousands!). So without that working effortlessly, these Finder-replacements are non-starters.

I find that iCloud is where these fall down. Folders and files which need downloading are simply not listed. For that reason I stick with the Finder and only load up PathFinder (which after owning for a long time I may drop) is when I have specific tasks.

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Yeah I thought that might unfortunately be the case. I used Path Finder years ago before syncing and iCloud was a proper thing (c. MobileMe times!), and found its best function was tabs (Finder at the time didn’t have even that) and dual-pane, so you could easily drag docs from pane to pane (I just use two separately movable Finder panes now).

TBH, today I’m not really sure what I’d use it or Forklift for?

Although, the thing that REALLY bugs me in Finder’s List view is the width of columns changing back to all be small again on restarts. Why the heck Apple hasn’t fixed it so Finder remembers how you left them, literally YEARS users have been asking for, is anyone’s guess!

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Yes I just realized this… I thought files were missing but they had just been automatically uploaded (as requested) to iCloud. Open finder, there they are. And Spotlight finds them w/o problem. This is the final nail in the coffin for me. Time to find a Take Control book for Finder.

PF has an excuse in several answers from 2018 on that Apple does not give out the required API. Too bad for them, but for me, it is now unusable.

David

I got this response today (18-April-2022) to the email I sent to Cocoatech back in February that I think answers your question. If I understand this email correctly, the answer to the question is that the last version that worked will continue to work, but you won’t get any new versions.

As for me, I’m sorry be leaving Cocoatech and Path Finder behind after so many years. The irony is I’d’ve continued to pay $30 for each major release, but refuse to be drawn into a subscription model, even if the total cost is the same.

Anyway, I hope this helps you.

Kevin

From: Dragan (Cocoatech Support)
Subject: Please reconsider subscriptions

Hi Kevin,

I sincerely apologise for such delayed response, I was browsing through old issues and only now this has come to my intention. Sorry about that…

For the new versions of Path Finder (as of version 2121, released mid-February), we introduced licensing based on subscription. We’re really sorry we had to introduce those changes, but we wanted to see how it would work, as times for the small independent software companies are constantly getting tougher.

We definitely take into considerations all feedback we get and we’ll act accordingly.

You can use your existing PF10 license with newer versions of Path Finder until it’s one year old. Only then you’ll need to purchase the subscription, but only if you want to use latest versions. However, with your PF10 license you can continue using version 10 indefinitely. If you want to continue Path Finder 10 but you don’t have it anymore, you can download it on our support page, just scroll down and you’ll see it.

Thanks for your understanding, support and patience.

Best,
– Dragan

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I’ve purchased Forklift and will use it in lieu of PF. I bought it through one of the bundle deals and I think it was $3 for a perpetual license. I could use PF 10 for 12 months but I don’t see the point when I won’t pay a subscription beyond that and Forklift seems to cover everything I need.

FWIW, I’m also using Forklift as my FTP client so it means I’ll also be dropping Transmit which has become fairly expensive over the past few versions.

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@kolepard thank you for following up on this. Aside from the licensing issue, I decided that another aspect of PF (since a few years ago) is a dealbreaker – that is the lack of link between the favourites and dialogue boxes for open/save. For some reason they can’t make this link but Finder can. I switched to Finder a while back and am getting quite used to it. There are some things PF did that Finder doesn’t but I’ve adapted w/o problem.

If you’re not on an M1 Mac, you can use XtraFinder to enhance the Finder. It has a lot of useful features.

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Interesting app, I’d never heard of it before. Needing to run without SIP is a big barrier, though. Out of interest, why do you say it’s only for Intel Macs? The latest release notes indicate they’ve updated the software for Apple Silicon (and Monterey).

I think a lot of people feel the same way. I’ve always run XtraFinder and never turned SIP on.

I’ve read some comments somewhere, but cannot remember where. There is one comment here. However, this site says it should work.
Another competitive product TotalFinder seems to be having problems with M1 Macs also.

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