Ever since I discovered BinaryNights Forklift application I have been a lot happier with my Mac. This was the best $29.95 I have spent on Mac software in quite some time. While Mac OS X is amazing, the Finder is difficult to use at best. But now, with Forklift, I happily go about my file management, directory utility, and FTP tasks with ease. Forklift helps me manage FishTrain.com more efficiently.
Here is an exclusive interview from across the pond.
First off, tell us a little bit about the team.
csaba> First of all thanks for the praise Jesse … And welcome, by all means, Forklift.
attila> Yeah, so this is the team: Bela, Mudi and I, we write the code. And Csaba recently joined to help with the business.
bela> Binarynights in Budapest 13th rulez, haha!
mudi> Yeah, the Hungarian Silicon Valley.
What do you do when not developing software?
attila> Sleep.
mudi> I’m brokenhearted. I code, and am brokenhearted. That’s true guys, do you ever see me doing anything other than coding? And have 5 minute breaks, when we talk about coding and computers. Oh, yeah, and Bela’s a family man!
bela> And I have a dog too…
Do you use the Apple Macintosh exclusively or PCs as well?
mudi> Bela, he still uses that… But it’s crammed in a corner and covered with a canvas sheet.
bela> Yeah, though it makes a nice stand for the plants.
csaba> Yeah, why do you have those exactly for?
mudi/bela> MySQL, and some PC stuff we still have.
Where did you find the inspiration to develop such a fine piece of software?
mudi> There was no ftp/file manager for the mac, and, well, people use that, we use it. And there’s loads of Mac users still with Total Commander reflexes. And well, Forklift is something like that.
attila> No it’s not. I never really was that, and what I’m working on is not a Total Commander at all. It’s an app that does things with your files. My idea is that it’s something that does everything to files, and does it in one place. There are apps out there that do things like that, or parts of it. There are NC-type filemanagers, there are FTP software, app deleters, rename tools… utility stuff like that. But the Forklift idea is to have one app that integrates these functions, because the workflow involving these functions is itself integrated.
mudi> For the Mac.
csaba> Oh yeah, ’cause you mudi you are the original mac guy. Bela and Attila switched from PC, right?
attila/mudi> No, we got our first Mac 2 years ago.
attila> Yeah, I sold my previous company, and went out with Mudi to buy a Mac. That was the first one.
mudi>Yeah and later we bought these G5s. You know, when we were in that other place. Then we got the iMacs here.
What development software do you use?
attila> Apple software and Forklift.
mudi> Yeah, the dev tools they have with OSX are great.
bela> Yeah, Forklift for updating stuff, and archiving…And I use this tool, Textwrangler, a lot. Text editor you know.
What features are users requesting the most?
mudi> Total Commander features.
attila> Finder features.
csaba> Yeah, so we thought this meant that we need to do something with the UI that will please everybody. And that’s what we’re doing now. With Leopard coming soon, we’ve decided to make good of the switch every developer will
have to make, and do some work on the UI – many surface polishing, but some real enhancements too. And a lot of people mention a module for synchronizing folders, which we completely agree on. But it won’t fit into the next release, which will be in about 10 weeks.
What’s next for Binary Nights?
mudi> To make more software. And to make Forklift the #1 tool.
attila/bela> And to make money. Lots of money.
mudi> I’d love to become comfortably well-off.
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