Nautilus Or Thunar? [Archive]

ahaslam

October 20th, 2006, 11:12 PM

Which do you prefer, Nautilus or Thunar? If you prefer a different gtk file browser, let us know what it is & why you use it.

My preference is Thunar because it's quick, simple and in my opinion, better looking.

Here's a screenie of my Thunar:

17901

Tony ;)

K.Mandla

October 20th, 2006, 11:15 PM

Thunar, although to be honest, I find myself gravitating toward XFE (http://packages.ubuntu.com/dapper/x11/xfe) lately. If only I could dump the icons and use the Tango ones. ...

http://roland65.free.fr/xfe/index.php?page=home

skymt

October 20th, 2006, 11:21 PM

Rox, definitely. I've never found another file manager that's even close.

I don't really like the Windows Explorer (Nautilus, XFE) or Mac Finder (Thunar) copycats. Rox is just so small, but it does so much.

John T. Monkey

October 20th, 2006, 11:24 PM

I was never a very big fan of Nautilus for some reason.

Since I started using Xubuntu though, I've started using Thunar, and it does the job it's there for, and it does it very quickly and easily. :)

You couldn't ask any more from it really...

gorilla

October 20th, 2006, 11:55 PM

Dolphin is my favourite

fuscia

October 20th, 2006, 11:59 PM

until thunar, i did everything through the cl. it's not that i'm hardcore (i'm just a humble end user). it's just that i hated file managers. thunar is one of my very favorite apps. it's so cute.

Wolki

October 21st, 2006, 12:01 AM

ROX is a fantastic file manager, I really enjoyed it when I used it (it's best inside the ROX desktop environment).

That said, Nautilus' spatial mode is the best modern file manager I ever used. I simply could not live without it anymore, everything else feels cumbersome. And the amazing extensibility with scripts, plugins, templates and Nautilus-actions only enhances that.

IYY

October 21st, 2006, 12:55 AM

I prefer just using the terminal, but Nautilus is what I use when in Gnome, and Thunar in IceWM.

mssever

October 21st, 2006, 01:04 AM

ixus_123

October 21st, 2006, 01:11 AM

Thunar - nautilus takes ages to open some windows on my machine

hanzomon4

October 21st, 2006, 03:17 AM

I spent a few weeks trying out Rox-filer and it was pretty nice. It would be great if I could make regular apps act like the Rox app dirs, its kinda OSX like.

Never heard of Thunar... sounds interesting. XFE kinda looks ugly, looks go a long way for me.

banjobacon

October 21st, 2006, 03:29 AM

I'm trying to install Thunar to give it a try, but I can't run the graphical installer.

leo@jimothy:~/Desktop$ ./Thunar-0.4.0rc1-installer.run
bash: ./Thunar-0.4.0rc1-installer.run: cannot execute binary file
leo@jimothy:~/Desktop$

Anyone know how to get about this? I've already made the fire executalbe. Trying sudo results in the same.

ice60

October 21st, 2006, 04:08 AM

i like them all for some reason :rolleyes: i also downloaded tux commander the other day (it comes as a ready made binary - just click it to run) it looks so good, and gnome-commander too. and on my suse install i can run 'mc' to use Midnight Commander. :D

they're all got a CLI thing at the bottom.

Ocxic

October 21st, 2006, 04:09 AM

Rox, definitely. I've never found another file manager that's even close.

you just converted me to rox, it's great:)

ice60

October 21st, 2006, 04:10 AM

banjobacon

October 21st, 2006, 04:57 AM

try -
sh Thunar-0.4.0rc1-installer.run
Same result.

rocknrolf77

October 21st, 2006, 05:08 AM

No one else here who have tested the pcman file manager? It has tabs. Have tested. Thunar, nautilus and pcman. Have to check out the other ones too. Aaaah, Freedom. Gotta love ubuntu. :-D

ice60

October 21st, 2006, 05:10 AM

Same result.

sorry, i would have thought it would work the way you tried first time.

put it on your desktop and do this -
cd Desktop/
chmod +x Thunar-0.4.0rc1-installer.run
./Thunar-0.4.0rc1-installer.run

banjobacon

October 21st, 2006, 05:37 AM

sorry, i would have thought it would work the way you tried first time.

put it on your desktop and do this -
cd Desktop/
chmod +x Thunar-0.4.0rc1-installer.run
./Thunar-0.4.0rc1-installer.run
That's exactly what I've done.

Maybe I'll get around to asking in the support forum later.

Tamil

October 21st, 2006, 05:44 AM

Nautilus because there is no Trash in Thunar.

andiii

October 21st, 2006, 06:37 AM

Maybe I will consider using XFE, with the new version they reintroduced a "Tree+two Panels" mode. Looks nice:

http://roland65.free.fr/xfe/images/screenshot-s5.png

pmj

October 21st, 2006, 07:39 AM

Thunar doesn't work very well in Gnome (no "Computer" location and steals association with folders among other things) and thumbnails are too small to really be very useful.

The only thing it does better than Nautilus is that it's faster, but I choose functionality over speed.

Kindred

October 21st, 2006, 08:13 AM

Nautilus because there is no Trash in Thunar.

Thunar has had trash for some months now.

I use Thunar, I love the 'Compact List' view which I doubt Nautilus will ever have. If I used Gnome i'd be using Nautilus though...

zek725

October 22nd, 2006, 05:01 AM

THUNAR! even if it cannot browse for network shares I still like it because it's faster! :mrgreen:

Workaround: :idea:
Mount network shares automatically in /etc/fstab then put shortcuts in the left pane of Thunar. :rolleyes:

Problem:
It would take longer to load and would load 2 Thunars if unsuccessful in mounting network shares (i.e. network is offline). :frown:

bonzodog

October 22nd, 2006, 11:54 AM

Thunar, definately. Nautilus just seems so..bloated in comparison.

3rdalbum

October 22nd, 2006, 12:33 PM

Thunar is a nice file manager. I occasionally use it on Gnome. It's easy to find the right menu items, it's quick, it fits right into my desktop.

One feature of Dapper's Thunar which isn't available on Dapper's Nautilus is recursive permission changing, but I heard that the Gnome developers have since added it to Nautilus.

Minyaliel

October 22nd, 2006, 01:32 PM

I'm using Thunar at the moment, and like it much more than Nautilus.

ahood

October 22nd, 2006, 02:49 PM

Cool thread,

I use Nautilus or the command line. I use Nautilus because it ships with Gnome and it works. I also use Nautilus in the object/spacial mode because it is simple (not a big fan of lots of icons/buttons). I never heard of Thunar or Rox, so I have no preference of Nautilus over these (possibly preferred) alternatives.

mssever

October 23rd, 2006, 02:30 AM

I'm trying to install Thunar to give it a try, but I can't run the graphical installer.

leo@jimothy:~/Desktop$ ./Thunar-0.4.0rc1-installer.run
bash: ./Thunar-0.4.0rc1-installer.run: cannot execute binary file
leo@jimothy:~/Desktop$Anyone know how to get about this? I've already made the fire executalbe. Trying sudo results in the same.

sudo apt-get install thunar This works great for me.

zek725

October 23rd, 2006, 03:17 AM

Thunar has had trash for some months now.

How do you activate it?

coder_

October 23rd, 2006, 03:58 AM

Thunar and mc.
I despise stupid Nautilus now.

Actually, now, two things are setting me off from Thunar (otherwise I love it):
No Trash (As stated above, in the case that I accidently delete something I need later on) No smb:// protocol support (For my dad's network)

Also, I need to try to get XFCE working... I installed xubuntu-desktop, but for some reason it wasn't working.. :'( I really wanted to use XFCE.

Kindred

October 23rd, 2006, 04:09 AM

How do you activate it?

I believe it should be enabled by default.. (in fact I don't even think it can be turned off yet), provided you are using a relatively recent version - i'm using 0.4.0rc1 and I think that was when trash was added, sometime in July.

coder_

October 23rd, 2006, 04:11 AM

Whoah! I'm running Thunar 0.3.1svn-r21789! Prolly 'cos I'm on Dapper and that's the newest one from back then, but I'm afraid to upgrade above Dapper :S Should I?

Don't want to break my dual screen nvidia twinview settings or anything...

zek725

October 24th, 2006, 03:42 PM

I believe it should be enabled by default.. (in fact I don't even think it can be turned off yet), provided you are using a relatively recent version - i'm using 0.4.0rc1 and I think that was when trash was added, sometime in July.

that, i do not know. all i know is i had it from xubuntu-desktop.

ofek

January 12th, 2007, 05:11 PM

You all should really try pcman (around 3mb of ram )its way faster than nautilus (around 8mb of ram) and thunar (about 5 and a half mb of ram) and it has tabs and it looks much like thunar but with back and forward icons. Faster than any of the others and has tabs support what else can u ask?

Quillz

January 12th, 2007, 05:20 PM

I like Nautilus. It gets the job done for me.

aktiwers

January 12th, 2007, 06:37 PM

I use Thunar.. its much faster!

Johnsie

January 12th, 2007, 06:47 PM

I'm afraid to upgrade above Dapper :S Should I?

Don't want to break my dual screen nvidia twinview settings or anything...

It might do... Dapper is great but do you want to be stuck with it for the rest of your life? I guess there arent really that many reasons to upgrade to Edgy. I actually find dapper a lot more stable and the only problem I have is that dapper comes with an old firefox.

shining

January 12th, 2007, 07:09 PM

I like the sftp / ftp / samba support in konqueror, does any other file manager incorporate these?
When I'm not in kde (like right now), I generally don't use any graphical file manager since konqueror takes too long to start the first time, and I don't find that the others add much over CLI.

Pobega

January 12th, 2007, 08:31 PM

Thunar or MC, depending upon what I'm doing. If I'm mass moving a folder usually I'll use MC, I find the command line simpler and quicker. But for speed purposes, I tend to lean towards Thunar for a GUI File Manager.

Rui Pais

January 12th, 2007, 08:49 PM

Some times i wonder why nautilus is so heavy and slow...

thunar even offer some file managing utilities over nautilus, like batch rename for multiple files or restore files from trash.

I find rox faster but a little too much claustrophobic for my taste. The windows are so close over the icons and those so close to each other that it looks strange... even in thunar i would prefer a larger space between the icons...

Mateo

January 12th, 2007, 08:51 PM

Is it possible to uninstall nautilus in ubuntu? I would like to try thunar but I won't even bother if i can't uninstall nautilus. I don't want both clogging up my hard drive.

Rui Pais

January 12th, 2007, 08:56 PM

Is it possible to uninstall nautilus in ubuntu? I would like to try thunar but I won't even bother if i can't uninstall nautilus. I don't want both clogging up my hard drive.

it will probably take a lot of other stuff, but essentially it leave you without a "desktop", no icons or menu, since is nautilus who does that.
You can configure rox to do it instead or use the xfdesktop from xfce, but i don't think thunar have that functionality...

Mateo

January 12th, 2007, 09:00 PM

Rui Pais

January 12th, 2007, 09:03 PM

well you got both :lol:

and you could always make a link or an alias...
(rox it will show you files faster then you can type nautilus ;))

Mateo

January 12th, 2007, 09:06 PM

ok, i'm trying it since on synaptic it didn't want to install any depedencies (meaning it's easy to uninstall if I don't like it.

shining

January 12th, 2007, 09:13 PM

Ok, thanks.

Does anyone know the Rox command line? if it's "rox" i might try it. but if you have to type "rox-filer" every time, i'm not going to bother, i'm already used to typing nautilus real fast :)

$ ls -l /usr/bin/rox*
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 483764 2006-08-03 15:55 /usr/bin/rox
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 3 2007-01-07 23:49 /usr/bin/rox-filer -> rox

But, first, didn't it go in the application menu? If it didn't, you can add a shortcut manually.
Secondly, rox-filer, doesn't take much more time to type.
If the application was only installed as /usr/bin/rox-filer, you could use command completion:
rox<tab> and it would complete to rox-filer
Otherwise, for a long command line, which is long to type even with completion, make an alias.
I just found a nice list of alias there: http://wehavenoproduct.com/~cayla/.bashrc.html

Mateo

January 12th, 2007, 09:17 PM

$ ls -l /usr/bin/rox*
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 483764 2006-08-03 15:55 /usr/bin/rox
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 3 2007-01-07 23:49 /usr/bin/rox-filer -> rox

But, first, didn't it go in the application menu? If it didn't, you can add a shortcut manually.
Secondly, rox-filer, doesn't take much more time to type.
If the application was only installed as /usr/bin/rox-filer, you could use command completion:
rox<tab> and it would complete to rox-filer
Otherwise, for a long command line, which is long to type even with completion, make an alias.
I just found a nice list of alias there: http://wehavenoproduct.com/~cayla/.bashrc.html

i didn't know about that tab trick, thanks, that will be useful for stuff. i mostly meant when i'm in terminal and a lot of times i'll go directly to the folder I want like "sudo nautilus /usr/share/pixmaps" and it would be nice to just go "sudo rox /usr/share/pixmaps"

Pobega

January 12th, 2007, 10:17 PM

Is it possible to uninstall nautilus in ubuntu? I would like to try thunar but I won't even bother if i can't uninstall nautilus. I don't want both clogging up my hard drive.

http://psychocats.net/ubuntu/nonautilusplease

That should be able to help you out.

spockrock

January 12th, 2007, 10:31 PM

CL for depending, but Nautilus is my favourite, and thunar when I go for a lightweight desktop.

Granted if I cannot tell the difference between nautilus and thunar on my main desktop in terms of speed, both are quick, on my tertiary machine, yes thunar is much much faster.

One thing I hate about thunar is there is network browsing, I have three computers in my room alone and two more and a laptop on the network, I hate having to logout, and then log into gnome, grab stuff off the network and then log back into xfce, I know I can just bring up nautilus, but once you do gnome I believe starts taking over the desktop if I am not mistaken.

LOL I guess while we are at it whats a good lightweight network browsing application??

Rui Pais

January 12th, 2007, 10:38 PM

... I know I can just bring up nautilus, but once you do gnome I believe starts taking over the desktop if I am not mistaken.

launch it with or make a launcher:

nautilus --no-desktop
and it will not draw the desktop on xfce

spockrock

January 12th, 2007, 10:41 PM

launch it with or make a launcher:

nautilus --no-desktop
and it will not draw the desktop on xfce

thanks!!! :mrgreen:

Onyros

January 12th, 2007, 10:41 PM

PCManFM is my favourite, no doubts there, I've been using it for a while now.

Thunar isn't bad, it's actually very similar to PCManFM, but the latter has tabs and all, which are really useful.

I can't even compare it to Nautilus... PCManFM is lightweight, fast and truly functional. And apart from its (frustrated) attempt of rendering desktop icons, it's perfect for my needs and doesn't try to do too much.