GNOME's Nautilus File Manager: "Its Best Moment Since It Was Created"

[Marc Driftmeyer]

It's a work in progress. The +Other Locations I can crash it periodically going to other drive mounts. Sorry, nothing in file managers will ever touch NeXT's File Manager and Shelf.

[Marc Driftmeyer]

When GNOME guys thought it'd be cool to cut down Nautilus functionality i started my search for better alternatives and stopped at Dolphin. Even though i was using Gnome-shell, i was using Dolphin, though it was limited until i installed everything it wanted(which as they say half KDE). In time i started to use more KDE software and switch to it completely. The end.

Wow! You like Dolphin? That's been a bag of hurt since its inception. But like all things KDE there is a button and a menu item to configure itself recursively into a state of chaos.

[Marc Driftmeyer]

It doesn't. Nautilus has more features than Mac's Finder. You can't even see, let alone navigate, the entire file system with Finder. You can't see hidden files, and the only way to enable the display of hidden files is with a terminal command that's not even persisted across sessions. It's really really limited if you're used to more useful file managers (including Nautilus).

Sorry, but the dwrite (defaults write_ system comes from NeXT and you've been able to activate those in the Finder since OS X was released.

http://www.macworld.co.uk/how-to/mac-software/how-show-hidden-files-in-mac-os-x-finder-funter-3520878/

You really don't know what you're talking about.

[shawnsterp]

This article caused me to look at Files/Nautilus for the first time since Gnome 3.14. It's better, but I still prefer Nemo. It wouldn't surprise me if the underlying code is in better shape, but the zeal with which they have removed features still bugs me. Gimping the sidebar, removing the menus, removing the address bar (but wasting the space anyway), useless zoom levels (at least they added one back), no open terminal button, etc. As someone who still has to use Windows from time to time, Nemo is just more Explorer like, and that's not a bad thing. I'd bet for someone who works on a Mac, the current Nautilus feels more familiar.

Me, too, actually! Funny, I had the exact opposite reaction. I think it IS a little nicer than Nemo. Having said that, Dolphin is one of the MAIN reasons I prefer kde.

Anyway, one of the things that I did not like was the lack of a dual window. I just tested, and you can pretty much accomplish the same thing with tabs (can drag and drop), it just takes a few more clicks I guess. Also, while there is no button for open terminal, there is an option in the right click. You probably know that, but I was not sure myself until I looked. (Again, this is not up to par with dolphin, where you can have both, AND it can embed the terminal into dolphin itself. Want to change directories? Just click a button.)

[grimscythe]

I know it is a slightly different ballpark, but Double Commander anyday!!!

[Luke]

I'm rather partial to Caja 1.14 or later built with GTK3, which works with compiz without having to be patched. I have Caja, Nemo, and Nautius all installed as I need all of them to test my theme work (and indeed all three unerlying DE's as well). Might be biased though: many of the commits that made Caja work properly with GTK3 either were mine or came from collaboration between myself and other team members, and I'n normally running it in MATE. I also use it in IceWM though, as it works on the desktop without compositing, which is no longer true of Nautilus and hasn't been true of Nemo for years unless the patches to use it in Ubuntu (normally with compiz) are applied.

By default though there none of these three is all-DE universal with no issues outside its home environment. Nautilus 3.20 shares with Nemo the nasty compiz redrawing problems when managing the desktop. Ubuntu has used an older version of Nautilus until now that didn't do this. When Ubuntu updates to 3.20 they will need to patch it the same way Nemo can be patched to work in Compiz. If you want to use compiz and have icons on the desktop, you must use Caja, Nemo with the compiz/ubuntu patches applied, or another FM like Thunar, PcManFM, SpaceFM, etc.

Caja is set up not to manage the desktop unless XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP=MATE . This is to keep it from competing with other file managers for control of the desktop in other DE's. Fortunately, if you want to use it in another DE, launching it from a script setting that environmental variable works perfectly, no patch to Caja itself required.

Caja and Nemo feature sets are similar, with Nemo having a few more options and using a bit less space. Caja's two-piece toolbar on the other hand is a bit easier to read and of course is a better stylistic match for toolbars in other MATE applications. I normally use Nemo for work requiring root though, as I have not been able to find a way to port the red "elevated priviliges" warning bar available in Nemo to Caja.

[Krejzi]

I kinda like Caja (MATE's file manager, some fork of GNOME 2 Nautilus, but now also ported to GTK3). Sadly, it doesn't work under GNOME Wayland session due to it using libunique, which only works under X11.

[ssokolow]

PCManFM is my file manager of choice. It's light, has all of the features I want, and, at the time I was in the market for a new file manager, Thunar devs stubbornly refused to add support for tabbed operation, claiming that was the window manager's job.

I used to be a hardcore Konqueror 3.5.x user, using it as a splittable, tabbable KPart host that acted as a part-time knock-off for a tabbing, tiling WM, but Konqueror 4.x died a death of a thousand papercuts because it's apparently hurting for devs and only stuff relating to its use as a browser isn't bitrotting.

Of course, a big part of its unsuitability was just Qt 4.x being VERY over-eager to interpret clicks as drags on even the lower of the hardware-selectable DPI settings for my Logitech G3 mouse. I asked around but nobody could tell me how to increase the click-drag dead zone threshold.

[Slartifartblast]

Could be worse and you're forced to use Windows File Manager, that really is punishment for being naughty.

[BwackNinja]

Anybody else here use SpaceFM? It's even lighter than PCManFM, has a lot of fun features, and works with both GTK2 and GTK3.