Thundar File Manager
Hi I have problem with automounting NTFS partition in KDE. Or thundar, or whatever file manager that I. The mount command attempt to mount NTFS file.
Nautilus, the default file manager in Gnome, is extremely popular among Linux users. Not only is it easy to use, but it’s pretty common to find as it’s on all Ubuntu and other Gnome-based systems. However, Nautilus isn’t the only kid on the block.
Just recently, I took a look at Dolphin, the default file manager for KDEWhich Linux File Browser Is More Productive: Nautilus or Dolphin?Which Linux File Browser Is More Productive: Nautilus or Dolphin?Wsers of competing desktop environments will notice that they're using different file managers -- an important part of desktop productivity. Surprisingly, there are a lot of things that can go right or wrong with a...Read More, and found that it offers a lot of extra functionality compared to Nautilus. But Dolphin isn’t the only file manager Nautilus has to be worried about – there’s also Thunar, the Xfce file manager, to complete the big three. Is it better than Nautilus as well?
Nautilus
Nautilus is the default file manager for the Gnome desktop. It has a handful of derivatives, including NemoGnome-Based Desktop Environments Explained: MATE vs. Gnome Shell vs. Unity vs. CinnamonGnome-Based Desktop Environments Explained: MATE vs. Gnome Shell vs. Unity vs. CinnamonEver since Gnome went ahead with their Gnome Shell idea, the Linux community has been at a frenzy to find a new desktop environment that is right for them. A majority of users used Gnome...Read More found in Linux Mint (Cinnamon), CajaA Review of MATE: Is It a True GNOME 2 Replica for Linux?A Review of MATE: Is It a True GNOME 2 Replica for Linux?The world of Linux desktop environments has dramatically changed since then. Gnome 3 was born, Gnome 2 was essentially thrown to the side, Gnome 3 was forked to create Cinnamon, and so on. However, Gnome...Read More found in the MATE desktop environment, and Nautilus ElementaryNautilus Elementary Simplifies File Browsing on LinuxNautilus Elementary Simplifies File Browsing on LinuxRead More, but we won’t be looking at those in this comparison.
The file manager offers a handful of nice features to make navigating very easy. It includes a panel on the left side for easy access to bookmarks and important locations, and the rest of the window is given to an actual view of the files and folders. Nautilus has recently consolidated all of its settings (for the most part) so that you can access all of its advanced features from just one location. For a more detailed look at Nautilus, you can take a look at its comparison against DolphinWhich Linux File Browser Is More Productive: Nautilus or Dolphin?Which Linux File Browser Is More Productive: Nautilus or Dolphin?Wsers of competing desktop environments will notice that they're using different file managers -- an important part of desktop productivity. Surprisingly, there are a lot of things that can go right or wrong with a...Read More.
Thunar
Thunar, the default file manager for the Xfce desktop environmentXFCE: Your Lightweight, Speedy, Fully-Fledged Linux DesktopXFCE: Your Lightweight, Speedy, Fully-Fledged Linux DesktopAs far as Linux goes, customization is king. Not only that, but the customization options are so great it might make your head spin. I have previously mentioned the differences between the major desktop environments...Read More, is the third of the major three file managers (derivatives excluded). If you know anything about Xfce, it’s that the desktop environment focuses on using a small amount of system resources (although arguably LXDEUsing An Old Computer? Give It New Life With LXDEUsing An Old Computer? Give It New Life With LXDEAs Linux is arguably the most customizeable operating system between it, Windows, and Mac OS X; there's plenty of room to change just about whatever you please. Proper customizing can potentially lead to massive performance...Read More is better at this), so you can easily assume that Thunar will follow the same goals and principles. However, can it still compete with Nautilus even with its focus on being lightweight?
In case you don’t have Thunar installed and are interested in trying it out, it should be easily found by searching in your respective package manager for “thunar”. Xfce users should already have this installed, and Gnome users can install it rather easily as both Gnome and Xfce use the GTK toolkit. KDE users should expect to see GTK-related dependencies slated for installation if they are not already installed.
When you first launch Thunar, you’ll discover that it looks very much like Nautilus. There’s a panel on the left side of the window which holds bookmarks and important locations, and then a simple view of your files and folders.
Thunar doesn’t have a single button to access all of its files, but rather maintains the traditional menu bar. The navigational panel is simplified relative to Nautilus, as it only includes back, forward, up, and home buttons as well as the folder path.
It’s similar to Nautilus, however, in that you can change this in the View menu from Toolbar Style to Pathbar Style – which shows the most recent few folders as clickable buttons. Overall, it looks like Thunar offers roughly the same features as Nautilus. Someone has mentioned to me that Nautilus does have a way to have a “split screen” effect to show two folders at once – Thunar doesn’t seem to have this option.
Thunar also offers a way to configure custom actions. These allow you to manipulate the files or folders selected in whatever manner you choose. The window also displays a list of command parameters which you can use in your custom commands.
One curious thing about Thunar is that one window takes up 18MB of RAM. Nautilus, on the other hand, takes about 9MB of RAM, which is certainly a lot less than Thunar. This comparison would even tend to favor Thunar, as I believe Nautilus also has the role of managing the desktop files on Gnome desktops while Thunar doesn’t have that responsibility on Xfce. However, if you run Nautilus in a non-Gnome environment, it has to load Gnome-related libraries – bringing the total to almost 24MB. Generally speaking, neither one has an outright advantage in memory usage – it depends on which environment is being used along with it.
Thunar also includes other nice features, including:
File Manager Apk
- Customizable appearance
- File properties
- Manage actions for removable media (auto run programs, warn about unwritten data, etc.)
- Mouse gestures
- Keyboard shortcuts (no surprise there)
- Plugins (includes “Send To” menu, bulk renamer, custom actions)
Conclusion
So which file manager is ultimately the better choice? I’d have to call it a draw. There are simply too many areas where both file managers are on par. While Thunar may benefit from a few extra minor features, it doesn’t get the same love by third-party developers that Nautilus does. There are tradeoffs by using either of them. Ultimately, I’d have to just recommend to use the file manager that comes with your desktop environment unless there’s something that you absolutely like in the other one.
Which file manager do you use? Which feature is most important to you? Let us know in the comments!
Image credit: King Penguins
I just installed a fresh version of the Cinnamon spin of Fedora 23. As much as I love Nautilus/Nemo, I want to Set Thunar as my default file browser. I have tried commenting out the lines referring to nemo in the file x-cinnamon-mimeapps.list in /usr/share/applications and add the same line but pointing to Thundar.desktop. I also took a look at the mimeapps.list and gnome-mimeapps.list file lists as well.
I have Thunar installed and can manually launch it. However, neither Thunar nor Nemo show up in alacarte or gnome-tweak-tool. I haven't been able to locate the default.list system file to change that either.
Any ideas?
Right Networks File Manager
1 Answer
Unfortunately I have neither installed Cinnamon nor Thunar. But here is the solution for Gnome desktop. It should be very similar to Cinnamon.
First you should know the package name of the file manager that you want to set as new default. Open the *.desktop file laying inside your application folder e.g. /usr/share/applications/Thunar.desktop. There should be something like X-DBUS-ServiceName=org.thunar.
Thunar File Manager Settings
Here a few helpful commands that work for Gnome:
- Open the current default file manager for testing:
xdg-open $HOME - Print the current default file manager's name:
xdg-mime query default inode/directorywith an output likeorg.gnome.Nautilus.desktop - Change the default file manager to Dolphin:
xdg-mime default org.kde.dolphin.desktop inode/directory application/x-gnome-saved-search
Good luck!