DeltaWalker In the News
DeltaWalker - one of the most cleverly designed comparison applications that I’ve ever seen.
Erik Vlietinck, publisher of IT Enquirer - one of the most important online information resources for cross media publishers - took DeltaWalker for a spin in August 2010. Here are just some of his impressions:
DeltaWaker is more than just an explorer of differences. While you can use the application just for that purpose — as I’ve shown in the screencast the program is extremely powerful in that respect — it can do a lot more. You can actually use DeltaWalker to edit the files under scrutiny, or to fully synchronize them.
At the end of about four weeks of using DeltaWalker occasionally, I came to the conclusion it’s an incredibly powerful and flexible application that is quite easy to use, at least for simple 2-way comparisons.
I finally broke down and looked harder, and found an amazing tool, DeltaWalker, that seems as though it were designed for exactly the nightmare I faced.
Tim Jarrett - a software product manager and a veteran blogger - created a big mess on his outboard media drive with iTunes, while trying to consolidate all his music onto a new 1TB drive. Then... he found DeltaWalker:
I finally broke down and looked harder, and found an amazing tool, DeltaWalker, that seems as though it were designed for exactly the nightmare I faced. Point it at a pair of directories and it will highlight all the differences between them–missing subdirectories on one side or the other, or subdirectories whose contents are different in the two different locations. You can filter the output, too, so that you only have to see the differences that you care about (I didn’t need to know how many folders were in my target directory and not my source). And when you find files that have to come over, it’s a button click to make the move.
Once I found DeltaWalker, it took only about an hour to finish cleaning up the mess that I had started over six months before. It’s an awesome tool, and one I can’t believe I had never seen before. Tim Jarrett, Aug 3, 2010. Full post. (opens in a new tab)
Despite having purchased the Araxis Pro for $269... I gave DeltaWalker a try and was immediately very impressed...
I was a long time user of Araxis Merge on Windows however the OSX version of their merge tool is very rough around the edges and is missing several features that were important to me. Despite having purchased the Professional Edition license for $269 it was awkward to use. Among other feature requests, I had filed a request to support the deletion of files in the folder comparison view using DEL or Cmd + DEL and also support a keyboard shortcut to copy selected files from one folder view to the other. One year passed and these features were still not added. The final straw to me was when I asked about one of the feature requests I was notified that my one year of free support had expired and I would need to renew it.
So I was back on the hunt for a good OSX diff / merge when I discovered Delta Walker on the Wikipedia File Comparison Tools page. I gave it a shot and was immediately very impressed. The Tabbed User Interface, the progress indicator when comparing large files, the highly configurable keyboard shortcuts and overall experience make it a pleasure to work with. Sanjiv Jivan, author of Smart GWT (opens in a new tab), May 4, 2010. Full review. (opens in a new tab)
After a year and a half, I finally found that product. It's called DeltaWalker
I installed 1.9 today and I love it! It does exactly what I need! I love the new Cocoa interface for the Mac; that'll really go over well with all those Mac "purists" out there. :) It really does look great.
I'd choose DeltaWalker over Beyond Compare 3, even if BC3 were available on the Mac.
Thanks again for creating a great product! I'm looking forward to spending some time with it. Brian Jarrett, Apr 7, 2010.
Quite possibly the best MAC app ever!
I bought Deltawalker (Macintosh) this morning to get me out of a synchronization scrape. It did the job beautifully....but that was only the beginning. After I "fixed" my problem, I started playing around with this app and simply could not believe how "deep" this program runs. Using byte by byte comparisons, I now have a handle on my multiple iTunes library problems. Sort by date...no problem.
And don't get me started on how awesome this app was when merging a backed up hard drive. WOW!
I can't get over how powerful, yet intuitive, DeltaWalker is as an application. I had spent most of last night trying to find a solution to my problem. I wasted hours on playing with Automator and was disappointed with the "Compare Folders" application from Infinite Nexus. Their product was way too simplistic for my needs (any query over 1000 files, killed it). Very weak and pedestrian, IMHO.
This is better than sliced bread.
DeltaWalker Adds Word/Excel/PowerPoint/PDF file comparison support!
But DeltaWalker’s support for Office files has been super fast and bulletproof. It is part of the core product, not just a third-party extension like it is with BeyondCompare 2.0. And BeyondCompare 2.0 requires a separate download to get its doc/xls comparison support, which wouldn’t be a big deal if it had proven reliable for me." Eiren Smith, Jan 31, 2009 (opens in a new tab)
The Official List of OS X File/Folder Comparison Software
"#1 DeltaWalker Highly Recommended!" Eiren Smith, Nov 26, 2008 (opens in a new tab)
DeltaWalker: Affordable and comfortable OS X file and folder comparison! Finally!
"DeltaWalker is a breath of fresh air! A reasonable and comfortable replacement for BeyondCompare for OS X, without the exorbitant price of Araxis Merge… DeltaWalker gets my money, without hesitation." joyfully blogs Eiren Smith, Independent Product Manager.
Eiren adds, "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." He concludes with confidence, "I know when I’ve found a gem — and Deltopia gets it all right: Features, interface, documentation and support/service." Eiren Smith, Jan 31, 2009 Full article (opens in a new tab)
"I really like your product" blogs in German and in English (opens in a new tab) Software Architect and ERP Consultant Ekkehard Gentz. "In DeltaWalker I can do what I want". In Ekkehard's hands DeltaWalker gets the job done where other comparison products have failed. A long-time Eclipse friend Ekkehard says proudly: "I think that DeltaWalker will be a good helper and a great example for RCP Apps".
"... We could be clever and use DeltaWalker" advises Mario Rizzi in the August issue of Macworld Italy when confronted with the important, but tedious task of getting his multiple Mac hard drives safely in sync, giving DeltaWalker an 8/10 Macworld score. Full article: English | Italian
You can't quite tell people what to like, much less the folks at Apple Downloads known for objectiveness and, in the eyes of some, pickiness. With hundreds of products per category they pick 20 apps they simply...like and find useful.
"It was a jaw-dropping moment to behold DeltaWalker..." admits no other, but Adrew Eddie, Joomla's lead developer, upon finding DeltaWalker at the end of a long search for a comparison tool that would meet his requirements and fit his work style.
"I road-tested both [Araxis Merge and DeltaWalker] and finally settled on DeltaWalker (the Personal Oro version) for giving the best value for money overall" further explains Andrew his choice, then adds:"DeltaWalker is a worthy replacement for Beyond Compare for when I was working on Windows. In fact, if I ever did have a momentary lapse of reason to go back to Windows land, I think I would be taking DeltaWalker with me.
"DeltaWalker's intuitive and smooth interface for comparing files could delight programmers..." concludes Erik Larkin of PC World in his editorial review of DeltaWalker.