Overview
Talk about a controversial topic, file managers can get people fighting and arguing almost as much as discussing why VIM is so much better than EMACS. The default file managers that ship with GNOME (Nautilus) and KDE (Konqueror) are very usable, helpful and configurable, I use them both all the time, but it’s never enough to just use the defaults, or you wouldn’t be reading this post… Also, if you like your Norton Commander-style layout or pine for the days of Xtree Gold, then the last half of this article is just for you.
Nautilus Alternatives
First off, let’s talk about direct replacements for GNOME’s Nautilus, which you probably either use and don’t care much about, or don’t use and think was designed to drive you crazy. Either way, there are some great alternatives to Nautilus:
- Thunar – Named after the Norse God Thor, this file manager is a component of the XFCE desktop, which is not quite on the same level as GNOME and KDE, but is gaining in popularity. Pluses include small size, responsiveness, lots of plugins and familiarity for new users.
- Endeavor Mk II – Endeavor is cross-platform and has a ton of features, including multiple layout options, archive-management, image-viewer and management and front-ends for tools like zip and wget.
- EmelFM – I used emelfm for a while, and like it’s features, but I found I needed to use it and a couple of others, so try it out, the features and stability are excellent, but you may find you need additional options.
- Rox-Filer – If you’re used to the Mac OS X finder, or Windows Explorer, then you’ll probably like Rox, it’s a component of the Rox Desktop, but is easily installable separately.
GFileRunnerVelocity – This is a great tool, it’s almost a complete Windows Explorer work-alike, in a good way… Features include clickable, expandable trees for files and directories, configurable toolbars, address bar for quick navigation and an undo feature to keep you from goofing up too bad. NOTE: Thanks to Eric Woods for the updated project name, location and status.- PCManFM – Probably one of the most useful competitors to Nautilus, it does a lot of things that have driven us crazy in Nautilus for years, such as Tabbed interface, loading large directories quickly, bookmarks, several great views and good stability.
Konqueror Alternatives
Next lets cover the alternatives for the KDE Konqueror file manager, which a lot of people actually use as a replacement for Nautilus! I personally use the GNOME desktop and default to Konqueror for a lot of tasks, you just run it, it automatically loads the needed KDE libraries and it works.
One point, rather than focus on the same kind of replacements that Nautilus has, I want to show the file managers that provide either Xtree-like or Norton Commander-like alternatives. These alternatives to Konqueror include:
- Midnight Commander – A part of the GNOME desktop, mc is authored by Miguel de Icaza, the founder of GNOME, and is a text-mode Norton Commander clone, and a serious file manager that I have used for years with great results.
- XNC – Dubbed the “X Northern Captain”, this is probably the most Motif-looking of the alternatives to Konqueror, it is a well-done implementation of the NC options, highly configurable and a good alternative to consider.
- Krusader – For fellow Saxon fans, this is my favorite name for a file manager, and Krusader doesn’t disappoint, it’s very configurable, has a two-pane NC-like interface, has ACL support (a first for a GUI file manager, I believe), smart renaming of files, a new and updated look and finally my favorite, a greatly-improved synchronization feature that helps keep large directory trees updated.
- KCommander – This NC clone is well done, offers archive file management and is very speedy, helps you upload via ftp (which some others also offer), but not much else over it’s competitors.
Xtree
Finally, we get to the Xtree-like alternatives:
- ytree – Obviously an Xtree alternative, ytree is a text-mode app that really does look very much like the Xtree Gold app that I used so often for a number of years in the old DOS days.
- UnixTree – Excellent and stable implementation of Xtree for the Unix/Linux platform.
- XTC – Unix clone of the DOS clones of Xtree, it’s not in very active development, and has some bugs.
- linXtree – Another older and fairly well done Xtree clone.
- utree – Lastly, another older version of the same type of clone of Xtree, last updated in 2005
Conclusion
Obviously you can choose to run just the stock file manager, whatever desktop you have, but in true Unix/Linux fashion you can customize, replace and in general play around with the various choices until you find just the right one for you.
Enjoy, and as ever, if you have a favorite alternative, please leave a comment and I’ll add it and a shout-out to you for the suggestion.
RossB
July 10, 2007 at 2:43 pm
[…] Posted July 8, 2007 Although NOT my favorite File Manager, see my article on the OPS Team Blog “File Managers: Alternatives to Nautilus and Konqueror” for why, Nautilus can be taught to be less […]
July 11, 2007 at 11:36 am
Wow Ross! XTree Gold… I haven’t thought about that product in YEARS!! I used to use it all the time though. Thanks for the memory jog.
July 11, 2007 at 12:22 pm
That and Norton Commander were THE hot ones of the day when I was really getting started, amazing how they still continue to influence the interfaces we use today.
July 14, 2007 at 9:31 pm
[…] File Managers… Several alternatives to Nautilus and Konqueror. Ruby Ruport… Reports for Ruby […]
July 14, 2007 at 10:42 pm
gfilerunner was replaced. actually renamed and continued @ http://velocity.gnomeuser.org/
It kicks the shit out of any of the others for layout options. The speed is as good as any and has some cool features that others don’t. Unfortunately development has stagnated. 😦
July 15, 2007 at 9:45 am
Erick,
Thanks for the link update, I’ve noted it in the article, and for future reference, please try to obfuscate any of George Carlin’s 7 words, just so we can keep the clean tag…
RossB
July 15, 2007 at 5:46 pm
Sh*t – my bad. 😉
Velocity has one VERY sweet feature. I despise having image previews in the icon view. Give me a consistent icon that shows it’s an image file and I’m happy – most of the time I will know what the file is. In the case that I don’t, you can right click on an image file and in the context menu, there is a Preview item. That expands to show a larger-than-any-icon-size preview (256×256 max, iirc). It can be seen in this screenshot: http://velocity.gnomeuser.org/screenshots/velocity-0.1alpha.jpg
July 20, 2007 at 12:53 pm
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July 24, 2007 at 4:09 am
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