File managers

(Modified 2011 Mar 27)

File managers

In Windows, I like the Explorer interface to navigate directories. Specifically, for example, I like the tree mode of exploding directories.

The file managers I've tried, in order of preference, are:

• • Thunar -- the current file manager in XFCE

    • dragging behavior is weird, for multiple-select, and sometimes disallowed

    • right-click + drag is handy for creating soft links

    • not tabbed

    • opening a file sometimes randomly grinds the desktop to a halt, until I change to another directory

  • Nautilus -- the GNOME file manager -- excellent, but rather large in size

    • • tabbed

      • I don't know how to copy the base of a filename

      • (F2 and a control character will exit the renaming field, while

      • CTRL-C without F2 will copy the full path preceded by the file:// tag)

  • PCman v0.9

    • tabbed

    • no tree view in some current versions, but nice

    • can't reorder columns and can't not display them

      • I often sort by modification time, and the date may be off the side of the window

      • file permissions would be a candiate to not display, for example

    • can't create symbolic links

  • X File Explorer -- old -- based on WinCommander

  • xffm -- the old XFCE file manager -- nice, but directory tree and file list not in separate frames

  • Xplore -- old -- light, but shortcut keys did't work for me

Other file managers I experimented with (back in the day, with Fedora Core 2):

• • simple file manager (sfm) -- couldn't install

  • gfb -- couldn't install

  • zfm -- compile errors

  • fm -- compile errors

  • endeavour -- dependency problem

  • gfile -- requires libraries that I didn't feel like installing

  • worker -- error when running Makefile

  • gentoo -- didn't like it

  • X Northern Captain -- dependency problem

  • flfm -- problem with X11 libraries

  • Endeavor Mark II -- dependency problem

  • rox -- didn't like it

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