Dopus4 vs Dopus5

[jcgeuze]

which do you prefer for your amiga?

I remember using them both on my a1200 back in the day. Cant really remember the experience of dopus5, still dopus4 looks familiar from the screenshots online.


Now i have my a1200 back up and running again, which one do you recommend?

[Matt_H]

I prefer DOpus4. Does what I need and isn’t too complicated and there’s lots more power under the hood if I want to set up something more complex.

DOpus5 is *extremely* powerful, making the leap from 2-pane file manager to multi-window file manager. It can be configured for almost any file management workflow and then some, but I find the configuration process difficult given my relatively simple needs. If you’ve used the Windows version of DOpus, DOpus5 will feel very familiar.

Which one you should use depends on your particular needs and preferences. They’re both top-class pieces of software.

[drHirudo]

I also prefer Directory Opus 4. Been using it since 1990-ies. It is almost always open in separate screen on my AmigaOS 3 and AmigaOS 4 machines. Directory Opus 5 doesn't have the same appeal for me, even it can be configured to look like DOpus4, it is more heavy and as Workbench replacement I don't like it. I prefer to use Workbench itself.

[fxgogo]

Yip, a 4 user here. More power than I need really.

[jPV]

I couldn't go back to 4 from 5 anymore. DOpus4 just feels too difficult to use: clumsy way to sort by different columns, no inline-editing, hard to adjust window/list sizes, too much mouse movement to navigate between buttons and files, are there even rmb context menus or lister menus, and so on...

When I nowadays try to use DOpus4 it just feels so clumsy and extra effort to get anything done compared to DOpus5. And why to have a separate program for managing files? It's much more efficient to have it integrated into OS and even to let it improve the whole OS experience.

I also was DOpus4 advocate in 90s, but after Magellan 2 was released and little push from my friend, I took little time to learn it and never go back. All my Amigas from A2000-A1200s-MorphOS have been DOpus5 enhanced since then... spending couple weeks to learn the program properly was well worth of 20 years of enjoyment

[stevelord]

I use 4 because it's really powerful and runs on everything.
5 is good if you have a beefy enough setup but it's so different to 4 and it's no good for lower spec'd systems. Basically the same reason I pick vi over emacs (outside of memacs): it's good enough and is always available on your platform.

[Viceroy]

4 all the way!

[jcgeuze]

ok, thanks for your suggestions, i've installed dopus4. Liking it so far

[AMIGASYSTEM]

Dopus4 for all life, you can configure what you want, you can also reverse some functions, Dopus5 instead is uncomfortable "file view" compared to a nice Workbench OS 3.2/3.9, to consider also the slowness of Dopus5 with icons and windows.


I don't know if MOS uses a "parents" version of Dopus5 but in this case the MOS version is better organized and simpler and more functional than Dopus5

[daxb]

Hmm.. on my system (A1200 040/40, SFS) DOpus5 is several times faster listing files then DOpus4.17 (V4.12 is much faster but still slower then V5).

[jPV]

I also don't understand where DOpus5 would be slow? Icon cache feature makes windows in icon mode much faster than old WB and haven't noticed any slowdowns otherwise either...

Maybe it makes difference if we're talking about the latest original DOpus 5.82 version or these newer open source ones? I've always used the original 5.82 on my setups..

About the MorphOS... do you mean the default desktop on it? It's called Ambient and it's been written from the scratch.. so it isn't DOpus5, but it's been highly inspired by it... I myself am using the original 5.82 in "symbiosis" with Ambient... for example, I can double click on the desktop to get an Ambient lister opened and middle click to get a DOpus5 lister opened. So it's really easy and quick to use whichever suits for the situation.

[AMIGASYSTEM]

In fact the inspiration of Ambient with Dopus5 is noticeable, in my opinion simpler and more effective Ambient.
Regarding the slowness of Dopus5 probably I noticed it on the most recent versions with the use of PeterK Iconlibrary.
Even on AROS 68k Dopus5 is slow even if it adds features that Wanderer lacks.

[daxb]

I also use the original DOpus 5.82. Maybe V5.9 is the reason? Yesterday I just did a quick test listing my C directory (not in cache already) of 491 files. V5.82 tool <2 sec. and V4.17 took around 15 sec. (there must be something wrong going on). V4.12 was way faster.

[klx300r]

4 is a must have for me! I bought 5 but ended up setting up just like 4…dual pane forever lol
Been using latest DOpus on my work PC forever and can’t imagine using anything else and yes have it set up to like DOpus 4 even on my PC

[Daedalus]

Controversial I guess, but I much preferred the power and configurability of DOpus 5 over DOpus 4, which always felt a bit clunky and limited with just two panes. I like to be able to do my file operations on the "desktop" without using separate applications, so DOpus 5 as a Workbench replacement was amazing. When I moved to 3.9 however, the DOpus 5 icon handling didn't fully work and it was a paid upgrade to fix it, so I left it. At that point, Workbench itself had some of the key features I liked about DOpus 5, so it was less needed.

Amiga OS4 has a Filer commodity which gives the best of both worlds - DOpus 5-style listers fully integrated with Workbench; double-click on the Workbench background and you get a new lister. It's a shame there's no OS3 port as far as I'm aware.

[Rotareneg]

I remember spending lots of time with DOpus 4 getting it all tweaked and customized to work just like I liked and being terribly disappointed when I saw 5 has tossed all that out and switched to a clunky multi-window interface.

[Nobby_UK]

SID or 4, 5 = too much.

[XPD]

Loved 4, have a wicked config for it with all sort of compression routines setup and viewers.

[Firestone]

Well.... why not have the best of both worlds?



While Dopus4 is perfect for a non-expanded system, I'll prefer Dopus5 over 4 any day because of the speed of file operations. Try to compare them side by side deleting 100 files from RAM: for example.

[Octopus66]

I am experimenting with Dopus 5.5 currently and really enjoying it.

Similarly to above post I have a DOpus 4 style locked dual pane setup, with a shared button bank, but I wanted hires only without lace. I really enjoy all the extra benefits v5 brings over v4.