JONATHAN WOOLSON  So far, after 5 hours, I've seen no crashes in Safari, which crashed frequently for me under 2.0.2. Contacts are noticeably faster to search. The extra line of meta data with videos and songs in iPod app is very helpful. Overall no problems experienced so far.  
(Version 2.1)

JONATHAN WOOLSON  PathFinder 4.7 makes me happy -- just a few obvious, but pleasant little refinements from 4.6. CocoaTech is very good at listening to their customers, fixing bugs, responsive via email and great at making their software better with each release. I look forward to a more substantial implementation of the Subversion browser in future releases.

I've used PathFinder nearly every day for the past 18 months. PathFinder is an efficient, essential tool for file manipulation, that adds productivity and brings warm, happy feelings to my heavy, daily computer use.

I think I've used about 80% of Pathfinder's features, and found it a speedy, useful alternative to the Apple Finder. I REALLY notice the difference in my efficiency when I must use a stock Mac to do any amount work. The strongest evidence of how effective PathFinder is: I don't use the Apple Finder for any tasks, at all. While I found that quitting the Finder altogether can disrupt other processes and scripts, I almost never see or use any Finder windows or menus. The only time I even see any part of the Finder UI is when I download a disk image and it opens a new Finder window.

I am more productive with PathFinder and would/could not go back to using the stock Finder. If Apple does not introduce a Leopard Finder with most (all?) of PathFinder's features I that use daily, I will wait until CocoaTech releases a Leopard-compatible version of PathFinder.

I'm using PathFinder 4.7 on a MacBook Pro 17in/2.33GHz with 2GB RAM running 10.4.9  
(Version 4.7)

JONATHAN WOOLSON  DrZoom: Thank you for the recommendation for VisualHub!  
(Version 1.011)

JONATHAN WOOLSON  This is the first "killer app" for Intel-based Macs, clearly separating them from "old" G3/G4/G5s and having the potential to really drive Mac upgrades.

With Coherence and near-native speed for most tasks, Parallels version 3 is far more functional than Boot Camp, as other comments here also suggest.

Parallels Desktop is a "must have" for anyone who interacts with Windows-based files/programs/networks, etc. Linux is frosting on the cake.

IE7 and IE6 each run in their own virtual XP install. Web developing/QA for *ALL* modern Win/Mac/Linux web browsers is very simple: separate OS installs each run concurrently on one Intel-based Mac (with 2+GBs RAM and a Core2Duo CPU).

Disk footprint is very small (typically 4+GB for each standard Windows XP install I have).

Parallels Desktop creates a unique position for Intel-based Macs: the "run-every-app-in-every-os-without-substantial-compromise" choice for personal computers.  
(Version 2.5.3186)

JONATHAN WOOLSON  Since you purchased it, I really suggest that you try out version 4.5. CocoaTech seems to have made it a lot faster and less buggy. I've been using it for a while an noticed all the bugs and CPU/memory issues that people have noted and still found it useful, even if it requires restarting PathFinder every few hours.  
(Version 4.5)

JONATHAN WOOLSON  I've been a PathFinder v4 user for 6 months, after I noticed it on my friend's laptop. I consider myself a "power user" and PathFinder's occasionally confusing, busy UI is definitely aimed at gearheads, not grandmas. I understand and appreciate Apple's simple, highly visual approach to UI, but file management can be very complex and a UI that addresses that complexity is necessary for many professional Mac users.

I tried to use previous versions of PathFinder (2 or 3?) and didn't find it robust enough to replace the Finder. The first few versions (PF 4.0, 4.0.3, 4.1) seemed to have memory leaks and they were a bit unstable for me at times, but PathFinder's features and UI are so far beyond the Finder (the current path to a folder is REALLY useful every single day) that I have been happy to tolerate these minor bugs in PF4.x, and I immediately notice the absence of the features when I use the Mac OS Finder on other Macs.

PF is more than a superficial improvement over the Mac OS Finder, it is a complete replacement for the Finder, without any substantial missing features when compared to the Finder and PF fills in almost all of the gaps that make the Finder so tedious to use for more advanced file management tasks (searching/batch rename/comparing directories).

The latest version of PF, v4.5, addresses the few feature requests that I had for v4.0, with Undo being the most important, useful addition. PF is now exactly the tool I need and I've turned off the Finder on my Mac.

I haven't noticed any instability in v4.5, so perhaps CocoaTech has nailed those bugs.

Apple really should buy PF outright from CT and incorporate PF's features as an "advanced user mode" of the Leopard Finder, maybe switchable with a less complex mode, so that regular users are not confused by too many options or buttons. Remember the Launcher or Simple Finder?  
(Version 4.5)