The History of Directory Opus

[CodyJarrett]

Lore relates the history of Directory Opus on the Amiga and PC. Directory Opus, or DOpus as it's commonly known, is the most famous directory manager on the Amiga and now continues life on Windows.

Here's the full interview with Jonathan Potter.

[mai]

Of course i am using both, on Amiga and for Windows, its great!

[klx300r]

Originally Posted by mai

Of course i am using both, on Amiga and for Windows, its great!

+ 1

[CodyJarrett]

This interview is now available in French on Obligement

http://obligement.free.fr/articles/itwpotter.php

[Unkown]

Well i always loved Dopus on the amiga and use it on the PC ( Paid For As Well )

But i only wish the inerface / GUI was the same as it was on the Amiga.

[DrFruit]

Yep absolute legendary util, never stop using it!

[Hewitson]

Never understood why people used this on the Amiga. Even more difficult to understand why you'd want it in Windows.

[Hedeon]

Now I am intrigued what you use for file management on the Amiga, Hewitson.

[McTrinsic]

On the Amiga, I indeed prefer RO.

As an alternative, I use DosControl, which recently became freeware.

[Unkown]

Originally Posted by Hewitson

Never understood why people used this on the Amiga. Even more difficult to understand why you'd want it in Windows.

And why would you not want to use it on amiga or on windows make my life easy on both platforms.


But i guess its down to personal preference at the end of the day you love it or hate it, And nobody is forcing you to use the program.

[lilalurl]

Originally Posted by Hewitson

Even more difficult to understand why you'd want it in Windows.

It is a highly customizable file explorer. Ofc, you might prefer some others (like TotalCommander) or have no need for what features it offers.

A few years ago, I decided to give it a try after reading these guides (old now, but still relevant):
https://www.pretentiousname.com/opus9/
https://www.pretentiousname.com/opus/index.html

[stevsurv]

Till this day I still use Dopus 4 on my Amiga's and use the Directory Opus 9 on my pc's. Once setup, they have lots of extremely useful features!

Back in 1989, I had the fortune of meeting Jonathan Potter himself when I purchased his ZeroVirus program for my Amiga's. He delivered it to my workplace and we chatted for about 30 minutes. We chatted about ZerVirus, some other stuff he was working on at the time and also about his fully decked out A2000 workhorse that he used! He was a pleasure to talk to.

[stevsurv]

Some Directory Opus info etc...

http://dopus.free.fr/

[cosmiq]

I'm a BIG fan of DirOpus. Use it with Windows as well. All should check their videos and read how super customizable it is. It just makes life easier!
And it's not too expensive. I think they allow you to have 2 instances with 1 license (one for your work laptop for instance).
This sounds like a commercial, but it just really is a good program IMHO!

[Mickoz]

I remember Jon handing me my first purchased copy of DOpus back in the early 90's and paid for several upgrades over the course of a few years. Jon Potter and Andrew Wilson were very active members of the Adelaide Amiga User Group and held an almost celebrity status in the club. I would say that the days of the computer clubs shaped my life really. I met my wife at the club and Jon and Andrew both came to my wedding. I lost touch with both of them.. I wonder if Andrew still has my original horribly hacked A500+A590 that I sold him. If you are out there guys, drop me a line. I would love to catch up for a pizza and Chinotto if you are back in Adelaide.

[lilalurl]

Originally Posted by Mickoz

I met my wife at the club and Jon and Andrew both came to my wedding

I hope their wedding gift was Amiga-related.

[Octopus66]

I love Directory Opus. I had a long gap between 5.82 and Windows era, but once I installed v9 haven’t looked back. Running 12 now. I can’t imagine a personal Windows install without it.

[Mickoz]

Originally Posted by lilalurl

I hope their wedding gift was Amiga-related.

I’m pretty sure it wasn’t Amiga related, but I can’t remember what it was

[BippyM]

Originally Posted by Hewitson

Never understood why people used this on the Amiga. Even more difficult to understand why you'd want it in Windows.

Because everyone is different, and you don't need to understand.

[Leandro Jardim]

Originally Posted by stevsurv

Some Directory Opus info etc...

http://dopus.free.fr/

Unfortunately, for me that speak portuguese, Dopus 4 don't work correctly with my language because it don't accept some essential portuguese accents that I was needing to use in directory names on my Workbench HDF, some time ago.

Another minor thing that happened is that Jon don't translated the Dopus GUI to portuguese. This and that other issue above was never fixed that I may know. So, recently I have decided to use another file manager.

But at the time when I owned an Amiga 500, it was very common for me to use Dopus with this computer that ran with a Kickstart 1.3 ROM. Dopus made it very easier to manage my floppy disks when it was necessary! (with only one disk drive and no harddisk, back in the day...)

The interview was excellent, thanks. Brings me memories...