DeltaWalker: Affordable and comfortable OS X file and folder comparison! Finally!

Today’s MacUpdate Promo — DeltaWalker — is a breath of fresh air! A reasonable and comfortable replacement for BeyondCompare for OS X, without the exorbitant price of Araxis Merge that kept me from even bothering to review it when I first found it some time ago. I didn’t evaluate it until today — and that was just to compare with DeltaWalker so I was making the most informed decision (to buy DeltaWalker) possible.

So now I’ve evaluated DeltaWalker, Araxis Merge, FileMerge, Changes and DiffMerge. I’ve never evaluated Guiffy as it just never looked appealing interface-wise.

I’m a longtime and heavy user of BeyondCompare 2.x in Windows. For me, BeyondCompare is the gold standard of file/folder comparison apps but it is Windows-only and I only use Windows for work — and, even then, only when I must. Like when I need BeyondCompare.

My Needs
Folder comparison is a must. File comparison is also a must. I’m particular about having a certain feature set and DeltaWalker fit the bill so I bought it via this promo today.

Great Support
I got a prompt response from Deltopia support today asking about Word doc comparison support (Araxis Merge has a filter that strips the text out of Word docs so they can be compared.) Deltopia support told me they’ve already started on Word and PDF comparison support and that they’ll definitely have it out by the end of this year (2008). That broke the approximate tie (ignoring price momentarily) between DeltaWalker and Araxis Merge.

Deltopia support has been consistently prompt, professional and even friendly. And it seems from all the reviews I’ve read, my experience is the norm. As a support professional I can comfortably say that Deltopia provides world class support. The kind of support you’d put up with merely passable software for — but with these guys, you don’t have to make that compromise.

User Interface Comfort
Although Araxis Merge uses native OS X controls and DeltaWalker is apparently a Java app or uses some other toolkit I’m not familiar with (the controls and icons didn’t ring a bell), I was surprised that I found DeltaWalker instantly and consistently more comfortable than Araxis Merge.
So in the end it came down to more than just Araxis’ huge price vs. the more reasonable DeltaWalker Personal price: I actually was more comfortable inside DeltaWalker.

The Other Tools
The other tools I’ve evaluated didn’t come close to the top two, DeltaWalker and Araxis Merge. And DeltaWalker gets my money, without hesitation.

Fanboy? Nope, Just Lucky
If this review seems over the top, please give my other reviews a read. I know when I’ve found a gem — and Deltopia gets it all right: Features, interface, documentation and support/service.

Taco Monday (Woot.com)

From today’s Woot (pretty funny):

Good morning, sales associates! Who’s ready to have a fantastic day?

We’ve got a lot to talk about at this meeting, but first, here’s something kind of fun: anybody here left-handed? Let’s see.. two, three.. five… OK, cool! You guys are all fired! Not because you’re left-handed. We just need to trim the payroll and that’s an easy way for me to make the cut. Otherwise, I’d have to look at your sales records and figure out whose is best and whose is worst and frankly, I’ve got better things to do with my time. If you guys wouldn’t mind leaving now, that’d be cool. This meeting’s for employees only. Company business. Thanks!

So management has been talking about some incentives here in the workplace to keep up morale in the, uh, workplace, and that discussion led us to the following question: who here would like a Toshiba 26” LCD HDTV with a built-in DVD player? Sound good to anybody? We’re talking a 26”, 16:9 LCD screen with 720p resolution and a digital tuner – not to mention that slot-loading, DivX-certified DVD player integrated right into the side of the TV. Sounds pretty sweet, huh? Yeah? Who wants to know how it can be yours?

Well, here’s how: start doing your job a little better and you can buy one out of your paycheck. If you thought we were going to bribe you with a free TV to do what you’re supposed to be doing, it’s time to grow up, OK? You want incentives? Here’s your incentive: sell more or you’ll be out there Dumpster-diving with those left-handed losers. Everybody clear on that?

Finally, one last thing here…speaking of morale, today we’re inaugurating our first-ever Taco Monday! Everybody here likes tacos, right? Well, any employee who brought his or her own taco fixings is allowed to use the break room kitchen to make tacos between 12:15 and 12:30, assuming your lunch break is scheduled for that time. The company will provide the napkins at no charge, but there is a one-napkin-per-employee limit. Anyone found making tacos after 12:30 will be severely disciplined. All right, let’s get out there and have a great Monday – make that a great TACO Monday! Taco! Taco! Taco!

Natural Selection

I was thinking the other day about the perceived increase in people with cancer. Let’s say today cf. fifty or seventy-five years ago. Maybe it’s fact, maybe it’s not. Let’s assume for now that it is a fact that today we have more people afflicted with cancer. And other serious diseases.

I was thinking that part of this is likely that since people with these diseases live longer due to advances in medicine, they’re more likely to reproduce and propagate their disease-prone genes. Interesting thought.

It’s probably also worth considering how much this would change if the treatments focused on the root causes of such diseases. Sure, someone can be prone to something but that doesn’t mean we can’t defeat that ailment if we address its exact source, meaning the person and their presumed-hereditarily-disease-prone offspring could be free of the disease despite genetic predisposition.