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Without file managers, the 90s would have been an absolutely unbearable decade for internet users. After all, back in those days it was either dial up or don’t get online at all. The speeds were not very good, and the likelihood was that you would get about 50 percent done with your download… and then the phone would ring. Of course, it was almost never a call that mattered in the slightest. But that did not matter in the slightest, either, since it would completely destroy the file you had spent the last hour or two trying to download. The good news, however, is that download managers made the process a bit more bearable (though not too much, admittedly).
For one thing, a download manager will often allow you to set the start time when you will be downloading something large. So, if you want to have your computer remember to download that big, precious file, but you do not want to use up all of your bandwidth right now, you can set it to after you have gone to bed to do its thing. Also, you can set many kinds of download managers to reset themselves, in case something should happen to your internet connection. This can be a veritable life saver, as random calls often happen at two in the morning.
And while the connectivity problems of years past are mostly over with, there is still the issue of convenience. How much more fun is it to wake up to a great program or modification that you know has been downloading quietly all night long, than it is to download the thing (and waste most of your evening), only to go to bed right afterward and know that it is just waiting there, neglected, for you to get this “sleep” nonsense over with? If you are like a lot of people, there is just no comparing the two states. Every day is Christmas! There are courses available to teach using software like File Manager through accredited online colleges.
