Do you quit Finder or replace it?

[bill]

I see a lot of posts involving quitting the finder, and problems with keeping it quit, and I see posts about replacing Finder with Path Finder. I have one question: why?

I'm running Path Finder on a 500 MHz Pismo and a 350 MHz B&W, with Finder still running, and it's not hurting my performance. Why are so many people bent on doing away with the Finder in one way or another? Am I missing something?

Let's make a poll of it: how many of you kill or try to kill the finder, and how many use FNDRMACS or other tactics to replace the finder? What are your reasons? I did it for a while a year or two ago, and my reason was "because I can."

[grotsasha]

I keep Finder running. Because I know about unpredictable instabilities which can happen. I use PF desktop, so I don't even notice Finder is there. Sometimes some downloads open in Finder, but I like to see beautiful customized backgrounds, that some developers make with so much taste and love.

[Darkshadow]

I have PF set to quit the Finder when it launches, but I haven't ever replaced the Finder with PF.

Mainly, it's because I don't need two different file browsers open at once. Plus, I don't have any problems this way with things that need the Finder - if something like that pops up, the Finder just launches and I'm good to go.

I do usually quit the Finder after I'm done with it if it's been launched for some reason.

[CBStephenson]

There was a time when I replaced the Finder completely with PF ("because I could," as someone said) but there was always that nagging concern that something might break, maybe at the next OS X release. Simply quitting the Finder upon launch of PF is a simple, clean way of proceeding that requires little effort or attention. When a seldom-used utility (Onyx, for example) insists on starting the Finder I usually notice after a few minutes, and then just quit it again.

Why quit the Finder at all? Good question. I guess I'm just trying to avoid the momentary disorientation that occurs when I open a file-browser window and the delights of PathFinder aren't there.