The new Nautilus: is there a plan B?

[lads]

Hello everyone, this is an issue that has been under the radar for some weeks, but to which I hadn't so far dedicated much time. Today Joey Sneddon posted a list of features that are being dropped (http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2012/07/is-the-new-nautilus-a-step-in-the-direction-poll) and it is quite scary. If this sort of defacing is indeed to happen I believe I'll have to switch to another file manager/browser. The only question is which.

As you can see from the poll at OMG, this will be the case for the majority of Ubuntu users. Is there a plan B? Is Canonical thinking of an alternative file manager for 12.10?

Thanks for sharing your thoughts.

P.S.: doesn't this looks like the endgame for GNome?

[irv]

I don't know if you seen this yet.

INSTALL MARLIN FILE BROWSER ON UBUNTU 12.04/11.10 OR LINUX MINT (http://www.techlw.com/2012/02/install-marlin-file-browser-on-ubuntu.html)


Most long term Ubuntu users here must have been familiar with the now defunct Nautilus-Elementary project. The project's lead, nicknamed ammonkey, is now working on a full blown Nautilus-Elementary inspired file browser for Linux called Marlin. Marlin is supposed to become the default file browser of Elementary OS in the near future. Though Marlin is still a work-in-progress, it already looks promising.

[Copper Bezel]

I nearly freaked out to see that they're removing the typehead functionality. Apparently, it's being replaced with a type-to-search function instead, which would be worth the loss, particularly if it's search-as-you-type.

The loss of template documents is nonsense.

I'm using Marlin right now, because it's cleaner and better-looking than the current Nautilus and has a sane breadcrumb bar. Right now in Marlin, I miss the search feature and templates in the old Nautilus, but it's not worth the interface differences. In Quantal, it'll be a decision between Nautilus's search feature and Marlin's breadcrumb bar in two otherwise indistinguishable products.

So Nautilus is effectively following my preferences, and I can't possibly complain about this. At the same time, I don't know why Nautilus has to be Marlin when there's already a perfectly good Marlin out there for that.

Edit: And irv, that really doesn't help anyone who has a legitimate complaint about the new Nautilus. Admittedly, Marlin still does bookmarks. Someone might choose Marlin over Nautilus as an upgrade path if he or she really likes bookmarks. Otherwise, I don't see the point.

[irv]

Edit: And irv, that really doesn't help anyone who has a legitimate complaint about the new Nautilus. Admittedly, Marlin still does bookmarks. Someone might choose Marlin over Nautilus as an upgrade path if he or she really likes bookmarks. Otherwise, I don't see the point.

Point taken.
Like you I am using Marlin but when needed I go back to Nautilus.

One thing I like about Marlin file browser is the fact I can open a file browser using Root by just right clicking on the icon in the Dash.
221988
Before I had to install script files in a hidden directory and open it from a pop-out-menu by right clicking on the directory selecting the script from a pop-out-list.
221989

[MadmanRB]

Switch to KDE

[irv]

Switch to KDE

That doesn't solved the problem either if one wants to use Ubuntu with Unity or Gnome. There are many of us out here that don't like KDE. I have tried it a few time, and I never really like it. I would sooner use Xfce. But my real choice is Ubuntu with Unity.

[georgelappies]

That doesn't solved the problem either if one wants to use Ubuntu with Unity or Gnome. There are many of us out here that don't like KDE. I have tried it a few time, and I never really like it. I would sooner use Xfce. But my real choice is Ubuntu with Unity.

+1 Ubuntu with Unity is great I don't want to change. One can see the end goal they are trying to get to.

However, who is making the decisions at GNOME??? What exactly do they think they will benefit by dumbing down Nautilus even further? Really lately it seems like they make decisions on the spur of the moment and have no clear usability end goal. Why not remove the file manager all together and let users only use the command line (wait that leaves them with a lot more options when compared to the gui app...)

[Morbius1]

If the user want's to continue to use anything that is based on Gnome he is going to have to get used to the idea of using substitutes for things.

Thunar, XFE, PCManFM, whatever for Nautilus
Leafpad for gedit
gnome-system-tools to get "Users and Groups" back
etc...

[MadmanRB]

+1 Ubuntu with Unity is great I don't want to change. One can see the end goal they are trying to get to.

Yes the same goal that the gnome team is going, a totally locked down and broken interface with every feature that you need removed because of idiots.
What needs to happen is to drop Unity, Gnome, and GTK3 and embrace XFCE or KDE as at least they have people who are smart behind them.

[sffvba[e0rt]

Will wait and see what the Ubuntu dev's decide to do. No need to stick with anything stock that Gnome is doing after all.


404

[MadmanRB]

Well the most logical thing to do is to adapt Marlin, however Marlin is still unstable and lacks a search function.
Or adapt Thunar somehow.

[vasa1]

The latest Nautilus and Marlin, side-by-side comparison (http://www.iloveubuntu.net/latest-nautilus-and-marlin-side-side-comparison)

[tomski]

after leaving Ubuntu(natty) for Xubuntu(oneric) & then moving to Arch I can understand your nightmare. However during my change i learn that
Thunar is a great Nautilus replacment
but SpaceFm is far more superior than both as it has great script integration aswell as some cool plugins add to that panels & tabs as well as bookmarks, device & tree side panel's for each panel & you get a real full on file manager.

did i also mention is supports mounting of smb,sshfs, ftp, nfs, webdav, etc etc etc

[Lymphocyte]

I dont like the direction in general in which gnome is going. This is why i switched to KDE full time a year ago and i havent looked back since =D

[irv]

Well the most logical thing to do is to adapt Marlin, however Marlin is still unstable and lacks a search function.
Or adapt Thunar somehow.

I find myself using Recoll for my search if I want to look inside files. And use Hud to search for files by name. This is if I remember the name.
221999

[BigSilly]

Switch to KDE


That doesn't solved the problem either if one wants to use Ubuntu with Unity or Gnome. There are many of us out here that don't like KDE. I have tried it a few time, and I never really like it. I would sooner use Xfce. But my real choice is Ubuntu with Unity.

It certainly solved the problem for me. I don't know why KDE gets ignored, but I could ignore it no longer, and boy am I glad of it now.


I dont like the direction in general in which gnome is going. This is why i switched to KDE full time a year ago and i havent looked back since =D

I only switched recently (about a month ago), but I am definitely the happiest I've been with a Linux desktop for a long time. I'm going to whisper it, but I think Gnome might be in a bit of a crisis.

[irv]

Gnome was the desktop that got me onto Ubuntu Linux back in 2005, and I love and used it until 11.04 came out with Unity for a desktop. During those years I tried Xfce KDE and many others but always came back to gnome 2.x. When Gnome 3.0 came along I went with Unity because 3.0 didn't cut it. I wasn't keen about Unity at first, but it was better then 3.0 and KDE for me. Now I will agree that both KDE and Xfce had a nice usable File Managers, but that wasn't enough to get be to use them.

With all that said, I will be staying with Unity and see where the file manager will go. Until then I will just keep doing what I am doing.

[Morbius1]

I was a KDE user since forever but when I saw KDE4 it just looked silly ( no offense BigSilly ) to me so I moved on to Gnome. In retrospect I may have been too hasty. In any event it now appears that the 20 or so Gnome developers that haven't moved on to iOS or Android development have been kidnapped by space aliens and have had horrible mind altering things done to them. So I moved on to XFCE.

I'm happy at the moment. The big advantage appears to be that there are only a few developers on XFCE. That might at first seem like a bad thing but even if they wanted to explore a new paradigm there simply isn't enough of them to make the change - at least not for some time.

I'm prepared to go with LXDE if they do change and when they change I guess I'll go to the dark side and start using whatever Apple tells me to buy or perhaps move to the country and devote the rest of my life to sheep herding.

Or maybe check out where KDE is at that point :)

[BigSilly]

I just feel that often KDE gets dismissed by many Linux users, and I know this is the case because I used to dismiss it myself. People really need to rediscover it, especially nowadays, as Gnome is just intent on removing feature after feature.

[Lymphocyte]

I just feel that often KDE gets dismissed by many Linux users, and I know this is the case because I used to dismiss it myself. People really need to rediscover it, especially nowadays, as Gnome is just intent on removing feature after feature.



I know right! I used to use KDE 3.5 and i got turned off by KDE 4 and moved back to gnome. Then i saw gnome 3 an unity and i knew KDE was calling me =D It wasnt until 2010 that i returned to KDE after 2 year break from it. I just forgot that KDE 4 under went big changes for innovation and stuff and i love KDE!



But for plan B, install Dolphin if you use gnome. It still has that F3 function people talk about.

[irv]

I just feel that often KDE gets dismissed by many Linux users, and I know this is the case because I used to dismiss it myself. People really need to rediscover it, especially nowadays, as Gnome is just intent on removing feature after feature.

I understand what you are saying. I really did try it. I really really did. But after using it for awhile, I had to come back to Unity. Now I know this thread is not about KDE vs Gnome or anything else. So I will say I agree that Gnome is loosing ground because of the lack of ... And we can leave it right there.
By the way I am glad you like KDE just like I like Unity. Isn't it great we have all these desktops to choose from?

[jwbrase]

I just feel that often KDE gets dismissed by many Linux users, and I know this is the case because I used to dismiss it myself. People really need to rediscover it, especially nowadays, as Gnome is just intent on removing feature after feature.

I may well check it out when I replace my current Lucid system (which is still chugging along just fine with Gnome 2, though it's hard to keep applications current even with backports and getdeb now that Lucid is no longer the current LTS).

I tried it out when I first started experimenting with Linux, but Gnome at the time hadn't yet gone off the deep end and was more customizable.

[pb3]

Not to repeat but similar here. I have gone from gnome 2 to unity to KDE to gnome 3 and then over to mint. I don't have a problem with change but functions seem to disappear left and right lately (or at least get more confusing).


I'm prepared to go with LXDE if they do change and when they change I guess I'll go to the dark side and start using whatever Apple tells me to buy or perhaps move to the country and devote the rest of my life to sheep herding.

Agreed, sheep herding is probably no longer out of the question.

[vexorian]

I am already pretty mad they removed emblems.

GNOME is getting so lame lately. So many people worked hard to think of and add features. But now they are all getting dumped. Jay.

As for plan 2. Sure, Ubuntu's plan 2 is to make unity do it all. Soon Unity will also replace LibreOffice, Firefox and grub too.

I gave KDE a serious try some years ago - it got old fast. Now I just try it to see what it is doing and to install k3b... KDE4 still feels a tad slow. Not like GNOME3 is much better. That's why I stick to fallback. Cinnamon is cool too, but I dunno, I prefer fallback.

I was testing DEs the whole week and Cinnamon is the only one that seemed like the developers actually kept their common sense.

[KiwiNZ]

I am already pretty mad they removed emblems.

GNOME is getting so lame lately. So many people worked hard to think of and add features. But now they are all getting dumped. Jay.

As for plan 2. Sure, Ubuntu's plan 2 is to make unity do it all. Soon Unity will also replace LibreOffice, Firefox and grub too.

I gave KDE a serious try some years ago - it got old fast. Now I just try it to see what it is doing and to install k3b... KDE4 still feels a tad slow. Not like GNOME3 is much better. That's why I stick to fallback. Cinnamon is cool too, but I dunno, I prefer fallback.

I was testing DEs the whole week and Cinnamon is the only one that seemed like the developers actually had common sense.

You could contribute

[cariboo]

As for plan 2. Sure, Ubuntu's plan 2 is to make unity do it all. Soon Unity will also replace LibreOffice, Firefox and grub too.


Citation please.

[lads]

Thank you all for the multiples replies.

Interesting how this thread morphed into a discussion on graphical environments, when my intention was simply a discussion on the obvious replacement for Nautilus that Canonical will certainly be forced to find.

I started using GNome back in the 1990s. Along the road I tried, KDE, Xfce, etc, but always stuck to Gnome; until Unity came out. Indeed Unity seemed awkward in the beginning, but after the main bugs were corrected and the customisation made possible it became really addictive. On my office laptop I have Xfce installed, at one point I realised I was just customising it to work like Unity...

So in all it is sad to see GNome slowly dying, but now the move to Unity makes much more sense.

[lads]

So as I initially wrote, I'll mostly likely be forced to drop Nautilus. From the suggestions folk have left in this thread, Marvin looks as a great candidate for replacement. But I have a particular requirement that may restrain the choice a bit, I use the RabbitVCS extension for Nautilus quite a lot. How do the various file managers here proposed deal with Git/SVN clients?

Thanks.

[vasa1]

... On my office laptop I have Xfce installed, at one point I realised I was just customising it to work like Unity...
...
Do share! It would be a nice thread to have :)

[malspa]

But for plan B, install Dolphin if you use gnome.

That's what I do. Nautilus has never been my favorite file manager. Back before Dolphin, I'd install Konqueror and Krusader to use in GNOME. I've never been one who felt any need to stick only with any DE's default apps, though.

[Gone fishing]

It will be interesting to see what Ubuntu do the drive seems to be to make Nautilus more touch friendly, but Unity is increasingly Keyboard driven - so there would seem to be a difference in purpose between the two. Perhaps the Unity devs will be customising it adding some new Unity features?

[forrestcupp]

Can you set Marlin up to be integrated with the system in place of Nautilus? The problem with replacing Nautilus is that it is more than just opening a filebrowser app; it is actually integrated with the system. I wonder how hard it is to drop in Marlin in that functionality.

Also, with Marlin, can you set a custom "Open With" command like you used to be able to with the old (better) Nautilus?

[ssam]

i am sticking with Gnome2 (MATE). They are adding useful features like undo/redo to nautilus (caja).

[irv]

i am sticking with Gnome2 (MATE). They are adding useful features like undo/redo to nautilus (caja).

What version of Nautilus are you using in Gnome2.
222047

[ssam]

What version of Nautilus are you using in Gnome2.
222047

caja 1.4, based of nautilus 2.32, but with some extra features like undo/redo, and the button to switch between path and breadcrumbs brought back.

[Copper Bezel]

Interesting how this thread morphed into a discussion on graphical environments, when my intention was simply a discussion on the obvious replacement for Nautilus that Canonical will certainly be forced to find.
It's highly unlikely that they will feel forced to do any such thing, though. Again, Marlin is almost identical to the new Nautilus, and it's fairly popular; why do you feel that there would be universal opposition at Canonical to the new Nautilus? Unity also does things with lenses and searching that Gnome doesn't that reduce the role of the file browser.

You can't assume that Canonical's reaction to Gnome's decisions will be the same as your own.


Can you set Marlin up to be integrated with the system in place of Nautilus? The problem with replacing Nautilus is that it is more than just opening a filebrowser app; it is actually integrated with the system. I wonder how hard it is to drop in Marlin in that functionality.
Marlin can act as the default browser, so that locations from browsers and file rollers and system dialogues and so on open in Nautilus. Last I checked, built-in Unity features (locations in the Dash, the Trash) don't respect the default browser setting and simply open in Nautilus, and some other apps, like Dropbox, have the same problem. Marlin can't serve as the desktop wallpaper if you have that enabled. Many other background features that seem to be features of Nautilus are actually features of Gnome that work regardless, like automount.

So under Shell, I never see Nautilus unless I launch it specifically (or click on my Dropbox tray icon - but Marlin is otherwise fully compatible with the Dropbox integration plugin by itself.)


Also, with Marlin, can you set a custom "Open With" command like you used to be able to with the old (better) Nautilus?
No, the "Open With Other Application" dialogue from the right-click menu is identical to the current Nautilus except that it retains the checkbox to set the current handler as the default. "Open With" is a drop-down menu instead of a tab in the Properties dialogue, with a button for "Other Application" that leads back to that same dialogue.

[irv]

I remember there was a scrip to change the default file manager to use Thunar, so I went out and found it.
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/DefaultFileManager
With some modification one could change it to work with Marlin. Now, I have not tried it so if one does want to try it you would have to do it at your own risk.

[Copper Bezel]

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/17749392/Screenshots/2012-06-14/Screenshot%20from%202012-07-31%2018%3A09%3A36.png

= )

[irv]

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/17749392/Screenshots/2012-06-14/Screenshot%20from%202012-07-31%2018%3A09%3A36.png

= )

Thanks that was simpler then making a script file.

[irv]

Ever since Canonical when with Unity and moved away from Gnome I always had in the back of my mind that all the apps that have Gnome attachments with them would be somehow done away with.
Just thinking about Nautilus which is one of those apps that is attached to Gnome would someday be replace by a file manager that would work seamlessly with Unity. I believe it will have some great Dash features. It may look something like Marlin.
222070
There will be other apps also but I will stick with just Nautilus in this thread.

[lads]

It's highly unlikely that they will feel forced to do any such thing, though. [...] why do you feel that there would be universal opposition at Canonical to the new Nautilus?

Hi Copper Bezel, I observe that:

a) Canonical has already started moving away from GNome with Unity;

b) The reception to Files (the new Nautilus) is really bad, 18% approval rate in a survey with 5400 participants (http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2012/07/is-the-new-nautilus-a-step-in-the-direction-poll);

c) The proposed changes will render Files useless to many people, of which I'm sadly one.

In conclusion, if Canonical chooses to stick with Files, something like installing an alternative file browser will start featuring in the popular "10 things to do after installing Ubuntu" blog posts.

[xedi]

b) The reception to Files (the new Nautilus) is really bad, 18% approval rate in a survey with 5400 participants (http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2012/07/is-the-new-nautilus-a-step-in-the-direction-poll);


You have to keep in mind what that vote measures: users reactions about the new nautilus after reading a negative article about it and probably without having used it.

[vasa1]

You have to keep in mind what that vote measures: users reactions about the new nautilus after reading a negative article about it and probably without having used it.

+1.

No point in worrying prematurely especially when the fix is so simple.

[mastablasta]

about KDE that was discussed earlier.... i too couldn't get used to it. so i switched to classic view in menu. looks just like WinXP (installed on another mashcine) now, only KDE has more featuers.

i am not sure what you needs to get used to in classic menu. it's just a menu where oyu start porgrammes and then the icon next to it has favourites for browsing. preety much like the old gnome. only the setting here are under system settings which opens a panel that looks like control panel in windows. but oyu can also change how that one looks.
but with latest KDE's more and more bugs were ironed and good features were added in KDE applications as well.

the only issue are various unnecessy services. but i guess you can turn the off for the most part.

[houseworkshy]

Interesting discussion, even slightly familiar; the gnome team are dropping something many people like in favour of something many don't. Perhaps something which has such an impact on the distro should be in-house so changes can be the result of market research among users instead of an external headstrong team stubbornly enforcing their ideas.
Few businesses or people in education can afford the interruption in work flow that pc hobbyists can, time is money, meeting deadlines is crucial and the freedom to focus on study material, rather than the tool, affects grades. Even domestic "just want it to work for media, games and applications" types hate enforced learning curves.

For any machine which isn't a toy full backwards compatibility is also crucial. So is the modularity of new extras. If integrated then machines which used to be fine with version1 suddenly can't use version2 because of support for a hardware or web features which they don't have or want to use anyway clogging up resources. For example if you have a touch screen, only as an example, there would be something you can install or which only goes in via auto detect during an install of versions2's. If you don't there is no need and anything which ran well under version1 will still run equally well under version*. Many businesses simply can't afford to replace all their machines or pause and pay for retraining regularly. Commercial OS's use software to drive the hardware market, it would be nice if open source OS's didn't.

I rather like nautilus but as I have a little slack time it's not crucial because of the others. http://ignorantguru.github.com/spacefm/screenshots.html looks very nice so far, and it's debain compatible so will fit my serious work HD; a stable debian derivative, stop gapping until I know enough to set pure debian up properly, with KDE mainly because the new maintainers have promised to favour stability over new features. Ubuntu is just what happens to be on the playtime drive now, from 7.04 till now it was the serious one, though it may stay there until Lucid support runs out as I may as well enjoy the last of the vintage.

One simple idea for future releases is obvious. As one can choose the GUI at start-up, the default GUI and file manager on a distro should be what people are used to from last time or something very simple which barely changes bar the occasional essential addition, with the funky new baby as an installable choice. In times to come the funky baby grown up might be on the default install but even then one could go back. It's not as if the work hasn't been done, it's simply a matter of not throwing it away and enough maintenance to keep it safe in the new web environment and making modules for hardware which may become the new standard.
That may well mean taking major things in-house. Should a Linux distribution arise which does that and should it become popular it will stay popular for keeps.

Debian do it well with their four branches keeping all types, both developers and users except perhaps novices, happy. Add the same philosophy to a file manager and graphic user interphase team, in fact all the critical bits, thinking of offices and educational establishments that would also include the office suit, and one would have a perennial market share winner.

One would also need strong overseeing as some large concerns do think in terms of combating "pressure from below", those are the current buzz words for it so you can look them up if puzzled by the phrase, and open source is by definition open to all. Definitely NOT suggesting that has anything to do with what is going on at the gnome team right now ( it'd make a good evil conspiracy theory though) but it is a danger that will become greater if Linux pushes the market harder, R & D is very expensive in the commercial sector. So much so that open source methods are often used to do much of it now, with the proviso that a few customer benefits are held back so the commercial product still has something to sell on.

The trouble is financing the thing as commercial hardware and software makers tend to work in tandem and both need to shift new stuff so backwards compatibility and durability are less desirable factors than they are for users or the species as a whole, considering our dwindling finite resources. Of course any hardware firm which adopted those principle would gain top market share in exchange for re-sales very quickly.
Which box would you buy, the latest of the time which has to be replaced in a few years or the one which can be infinitely upgraded and decades later would still be running albeit, by then, with no original bits left because they've been replaced one at a time as needed? Well maybe some would keep the occasional box as a retro-fashion statement about the old binary machines of yesteryear.

Thinking again, I am wrong about lower re-sales. Especially in sell down economic phases customers would find small lumps of money easier to find and buying a temporary all-in-one would be the luxury. Only full setups would be sold less often, upgrades would pick up the slack. Within a short time of purchase the machines could easily be more modern in function than the all-in-one-disposable competition would have been by then anyway.

IBM once famously got the importance of software wrong, maybe the time is ripe for a hardware manufacturer to get the software/hardware combo right. The software could easily be a free open source Linux and associated crucial bits, to save on R&D and increase the speed of development, done as suggested above. A stable long term product like that would be something any potential business client would find very attractive.

[lads]

Just in: Mint forked Nautilus (http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2012/08/linux-mint-fork-nautilus).

If you haven't done so, please vote on the poll on what Canonical's reaction should be to the new Nautilus (http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2036500).

[MG&TL]

GNOME aren't idiots. They know where they're going, even if it's not clear to the rest of us. I fully intend to keep using nautilus unless Canonical switches the default, in which case I'll use that one. (Admittedly, I'm not picky when it comes to file browsers)

My point being I think we should at least give GNOME a chance before condemning it. I think nautilus looks okay, although it could do with more polish.

[Primefalcon]

Honestly I am already using dolphin, its kicks nautilus's but...

Just installed a couple of plugs ins so it has comprehensive thumbnail previews and such as mplayerthumbs and kdegraphics-strigi-plugins

also installed kde's terminal so you can hit F4 and have an in-windows terminal....

Features wise it rocks.... nautilus is also laggy with loading folders that have a huge amount of files in there.... dolphin is not....

[MadmanRB]

GNOME aren't idiots.

No but they are insane

[irv]

We all know that Canonical went with Unity in place of Gnome 3 as their default DE, but Unity came so fast in such a short time that many of it's hooks are still in Gnome. Gnome is a big part of Unity but I would think that Canonical would be moving away from Gnome more and more and this might include Nautilus. Again, we all know that Nautilus is part of Gnome not native Unity.
I guess only time will tell where we are going with a good file manager.
My guess is we haven't seen it yet!

[kurt18947]

We all know that Canonical went with Unity in place of Gnome 3 as their default DE, but Unity came so fast in such a short time that many of it's hooks are still in Gnome. Gnome is a big part of Unity but I would think that Canonical would be moving away from Gnome more and more and this might include Nautilus. Again, we all know that Nautilus is part of Gnome not native Unity.
I guess only time will tell where we are going with a good file manager.
My guess is we haven't seen it yet!

"We all know that Canonical went with Unity in place of Gnome 3 as their default DE, but Unity came so fast in such a short time that many of it's hooks are still in Gnome."

If my understanding is correct, Unity runs on Gnome 3. What's different is Unity vs. Gnome-shell.

[houseworkshy]

In that case, as Unity is aimed at mobile devices, the one with the lowest power consumption would make most sense, 12.10 has done a lot to reduce the horrendous battery drain of 12.04 but the further the better. The ram on new machines will increase much faster than battery capacity is likely too.

12.04;-
http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=ubuntu_precise_desktop&num=1
http://openbenchmarking.org/result/1207296-SU-ARCHLINUX98


12.10;-
http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=ubuntu_1210_power1&num=1

[irv]

If my understanding is correct, Unity runs on Gnome 3. What's different is Unity vs. Gnome-shell.
Yes Unity is a shell interface for Gnome, and Canonical developed Unity instead of using the Gnome interface. What I am saying is Unity is a different interface then Gnome, and my way of thinking is if Canonical wants it's own interface (Unity) (and not Gnome) why not move away from Gnome completely in favor of a desktop that works seamlessly with Unity (their interface). I would think that Nautilus would not be part of that interface someday.

In Wikipedia it is said, that “Unity is not a collection of applications but is designed to use existing programs.” If that be the case then my way of thinking is wrong. But deep down in me, I keep thinking that this environment (Unity) will become an entity of it's own someday completely separated from Gnome. And again, this is just my gut feeling.

I wanted to add this EDIT to this post: Awhile back Mark Shuttleworth made this statement about the Gnome approach,

Unity is a shell for Gnome. Now Gnome leadership have to decide if they want the fruit of that competition to be an asset to Gnome, or not.
This is why I am thinking the way I do.

[irv]

By the way this is worth reading.

Desktop environment or interface? (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Unity_(user_interface)#.23)

[dyltman]

Anyone knows the design reasons for removing Go? I used that all the time...

[vexorian]

It was too useful to meet gnome's standards.

Edit:
https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=676531


The search interface doesn't quite fit our GNOME 3 search patterns. I think we
can improve it.

Then someone posted:


Remove the Go menu
And everyone was very happy about the idea.

Edit: Hmn, and no, it does not affect the Go button, if that's what you use.

To be honest I don't use the Go menu and it is actually already gone from my nautilus (I guess because I get GNOME 3 from ppa).

[Morbius1]

Concerning the bug report linked to above, I wonder why no one has responded to the last post :wink::

Why is this an appropriate ground on which to *remove* the tree view? Some of us still have a mouse.

If you want to know why it's a bad idea to completely remove features which "don't work on touch", I suggest you install the Windows 8 preview.

[Kreaninw]

Gnome 3, I have installed it side by side with Unity and it's smoother than Unity, but I like Unity more, I think Unity is more polish. The main problem of Gnome 3 is that many icons still look pixelate. I really like to work in Gnome 3 and the art styles are a lot cooler there, but it's still in beta stage(IMO) unlike Unity which never let me down.

For the new Nautilus, as soon as it became default file manager for Ubuntu, I will switch over to something else. The simply concept is great, but to make it more useless is unacceptable. Especially bookmark feature, please reconsider adding it again.

[kurt18947]

Gnome 3, I have installed it side by side with Unity and it's smoother than Unity, but I like Unity more, I think Unity is more polish. The main problem of Gnome 3 is that many icons still look pixelate. I really like to work in Gnome 3 and the art styles are a lot cooler there, but it's still in beta stage(IMO) unlike Unity which never let me down.

For the new Nautilus, as soon as it became default file manager for Ubuntu, I will switch over to something else. The simply concept is great, but to make it more useless is unacceptable. Especially bookmark feature, please reconsider adding it again.

My gnome shell graphics are fine. I'm using a few years old Nvidia video which may help. I agree with rethinking the 'dumbing down' of Nautilus. I'd have no problem with 'simplifying' the interface by default but make it easy to add back or unhide the removed items for those that do use them. That is pretty much what gnome-shell extensions do and I would not like to give up a few extensions. Having to hold the 'alt' key to power down or restart? Seriously? If Mint's Nemo can be installed independent of Cinnamon that might constitute a 'plan b'.

[BigSilly]

Now the discussion is, does Ubuntu keep the older version of Nautilus for 12.10, or move to the stripped down newer one? (http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2012/08/ubuntu-12-10-may-ship-with-older-but-more-featured-nautilus) My personal thoughts are, for 12.10 move to the new version, but long term I can envisage a situation where Ubuntu creates their own file manager as they have created their own desktop interface. Maybe they ought to join up with Mint and assist the development of Nemo?

[irv]

Now the discussion is, does Ubuntu keep the older version of Nautilus for 12.10, or move to the stripped down newer one? (http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2012/08/ubuntu-12-10-may-ship-with-older-but-more-featured-nautilus) My personal thoughts are, for 12.10 move to the new version, but long term I can envisage a situation where Ubuntu creates their own file manager as they have created their own desktop interface. Maybe they ought to join up with Mint and assist the development of Nemo?


UBUNTU 12.10 MIGHT SHIP WITH NAUTILUS 3.4 INSTEAD OF 3.6 (http://www.webupd8.org/2012/08/ubuntu-1210-might-ship-with-nautilus-34.html)

[Copper Bezel]

Thanks for the link. The bit from this Sebastian Bacher makes sense:


The lesson that we learned this cycle is that GNOME is not planning their work enough in advance or communicating enough for us to keep basing our distribution on the current unstable GNOME versions. If that situation doesn't change we might well start following GNOME with one cycle delay (i.e building our next version on the current stable rather than following the current unstable), we can't really build a solid product on shifting code where the direction is not communicated in advance. The issue is not specific to nautilus though and this list might not be the best place to discuss that...

This isn't the first time there's been question as to which version of Gnome or a particular Gnome application would ship in the next version of Ubuntu, and they've delayed Gnome updates piecemeal in the past. This would allow them a bit more control over how the desktop works and how smoothly everything works together with Unity, and I could really see it happening regardless of this particular issue with Nautilus.

[MadmanRB]

UBUNTU 12.10 MIGHT SHIP WITH NAUTILUS 3.4 INSTEAD OF 3.6 (http://www.webupd8.org/2012/08/ubuntu-1210-might-ship-with-nautilus-34.html)

Good decision there, at least until Marlin becomes stable or Mints fork is up and running.

[practic]

Like a few others who already posted here, after a few years with Gnome (mostly Unity, although I tried Gnome Shell also), I've finally made a switch to KDE.

The news about more features being stripped from Nautilus was distressing to me. Users should be given the option to turn off features, not have them wrenched out of their hands.

Someone mentioned SpaceFM, and it looks very powerful. I thought of switching to it, but having to do more configuring to get another file manager integrated is always a lot of work, and sometimes it never fully integrates as well.

So I looked at KDE again. Dolphin is pretty nice. I bumped up the font sizes of the KDE configuration a couple of points, and found it much nicer...closer to the Gnome look. The use of transparency is quite nice in Kubuntu 12, and the desktop effects under KWin have come very close to matching Compiz.

But what blew me away (and perhaps the main reason for switching) was the amazing (and almost insane) amount of configurability! It's quite possible to turn the KDE Desktop into something very close to any other kind of desktop out there. In fact I'm currently running my main launch bar on the left side of the screen, similar to Unity. There's a widget (Icon-Only Task Manager) that imitates the behaviour of Unity's launch bar icons.

I also really liked how you could download new customizations right within various KDE programs. No need to browse to websites, etc. That's real service!

There are eight (yes, eight!) different ways of displaying the desktop, quite apart from the multiple virtual desktops, and the "activities", something even more revolutionary, that can totally change the look of the desktop in an instant, to suit a particular task. There are so many options here that I'm still in a bit of a daze, but now I'm wondering what it was I found unlikable about KDE in the past? It may have been their start menu (although that is easily replaced with about 3 or 4 different options, or you can discard it altogether!).

I actually didn't mind Unity, but the lack of configurability, and the relative slowness of the development of configurable options, was disappointing.

There's only one thing that Dolphin is not doing as well as Nautilus right now, and that is the thumbnail preview of video files...for some reason it's taking forever, but I think it's just a bug, and will be ironed out in due time. So for the time being, I'm with the minority on the KDE side, and enjoying it very much.

[lads]

In a sort of conclusion to this thread, it seems the dev team is now being forced to design that plan B. It is quite apparent that the new course taken by GNome, coupled with the lack of communication, is faithing it to extinction. Unity and Cinamon are simple reflexes of this self-destructive trend.

Personally I'd prefer 12.10 to ship with Nautilus 3.4, avoiding user backlash and the ensuing multi-directional pursuit for a proper file manager.

The following logical step is to join forces with a product that's already out there with its own development team. Indeed Nemo and Marlin look the best candidates for that.

[lads]

Like a few others who already posted here, after a few years with Gnome (mostly Unity, although I tried Gnome Shell also), I've finally made a switch to KDE.

Thanks for this account practic. In these discussions a lot of folk have suggested a switch to KDE; your post finally made me realise why. I'm getting curious to try it, though as I wrote before, Unity is quite addictive.

[irv]

Thanks for this account practic. In these discussions a lot of folk have suggested a switch to KDE; your post finally made me realise why. I'm getting curious to try it, though as I wrote before, Unity is quite addictive.

I have been one who switches between different DE in Ubuntu, but here lately I have been sticking with Unity. Yesterday I decided to move up to 12.20 Alpha and do some testing. The upgrade did not go well so I am back to 12.04 with Unity still. I think I am going to stay with the LTS. I have try KDE within the last year and still like Unity the best.
Going to wait to see where Nautilus goes now that I have another clean install. Back to 3.4.2.

[philinux]

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2039625

Quantal might ship with nautilus 3.4

[pete04]

I'm glad Ubuntu is not going to stick us with a Nautilus that is far less feature-rich. At least I hope not.

I can appreciate GNOME's looking towards the future, but don't get why that means torching the present.

I'm a Unity user and think they just got it right with looking ahead while keeping the desktop sane -- I still get files and shortcuts, etc. It is after all a desktop. I want to have files I'm working on right there and I can file them away later.

Obviously, this is a problem for Ubuntu. They're relying on a GNOME base that seems increasingly unpredictable. I think that means they will likely park on Nautilus 3.4 and work on their own file manager. It's too essential to leave outsourced.

[lykwydchykyn]

But what blew me away (and perhaps the main reason for switching) was the amazing (and almost insane) amount of configurability! It's quite possible to turn the KDE Desktop into something very close to any other kind of desktop out there. In fact I'm currently running my main launch bar on the left side of the screen, similar to Unity. There's a widget (Icon-Only Task Manager) that imitates the behaviour of Unity's launch bar icons.

This is what so many people miss about KDE; they look at the default layout and think "it looks like Windows", and don't dig any deeper.

The Unity interface could easily have been created in KDE by developing a handful of simple plasma widgets. I wonder if this possibility was ever considered when Ubuntu decided to create its own DE? I wonder if it might be worth considering if Gnome keeps going off on a tangent, instead of forking Gnome applications one by one?

Not that I really care, but at some point you have to wonder if there isn't a simpler way to get the kind of interface they want for Ubuntu.

[MG&TL]

This is what so many people miss about KDE; they look at the default layout and think "it looks like Windows", and don't dig any deeper.

The Unity interface could easily have been created in KDE by developing a handful of simple plasma widgets. I wonder if this possibility was ever considered when Ubuntu decided to create its own DE? I wonder if it might be worth considering if Gnome keeps going off on a tangent, instead of forking Gnome applications one by one?

Not that I really care, but at some point you have to wonder if there isn't a simpler way to get the kind of interface they want for Ubuntu.

Mandriva seem to have done something similiar with whatever they call the patched KDE they ship. With all due respect to Mandriva, unless I missed the point somewhat, it just doesn't work as well as the dedicated solution (i.e. unity).

[vexorian]

unity is after-all just a compiz plugin.