BumpTop for Mac

Remember BumpTop, the sort-of 3D desktop file manager that shipped for Windows back in October? The Mac version shipped today, for $29. It’s interesting. I’ve had the beta versions for a few weeks, and I can vouch that it doesn’t feel like a Windows app ported to the Mac; it feels like a real Mac app.

But: I quickly realized I had no need for it. I found it fun to play with, and the “piles” idea is something that has been rumored for the Mac dating back to the aborted Copland project in the 90s — and it actually is very nice to have a way to group related file system objects together without putting them into a folder which itself is a file system object and which introduces another layer of hierarchy. The thing is, I don’t just want better file management for my desktop. I want better file management everywhere. BumpTop is a Finder alternative that only handles one folder: ~/Desktop/. And the 3D stuff, with a weird perspective on “walls”, just seems silly.

If you spend a lot of time dealing with files and folders on your desktop, though, it’s definitely worth a look.

★ Wednesday, 20 January 2010