unity-design team mailing list archive

[nick rundy <nrundy@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

The DASH is my least fav part of Unity. I hope it doesn't replace file-browser.

I like Nautilus, it's just been abandoned by GNOME for what I think are a total waste of time, those single purpose apps.

seems like the only sensible thing is to replace Nautilus. Unfortunately. I've already tried to get Ubuntu developers to fix Nautilus but they all expressed no interest in the idea of Ubuntu people working on a Gnome thing--maybe just not enough Ubuntu developers to do it.

Date: Thu, 10 May 2012 11:52:28 +0200
Subject: Re: [Unity-design] Replacing Nautilus
From: cyber.druif@xxxxxxxxx
To: rtgkid@xxxxxxxxx
CC: nrundy@xxxxxxxxxxx; unity-design@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Hi Ryan and the rest,
I'm not even going to comment on those others that replied, but why exactly can't we do anything if it's a GNOME app? We can modify it, make patches and send those upstream. However, what would be needed to update is the question we should ask. Should we try to update it if it's abandoned by the source? Would it be easier/better maintainable if we switch to a different file manager or let the Dash take over it's place? Those are things to consider. In my honest opinion it will be foolish to completely remove the file manager, because I will not (nor will the rest of the world) remember all the files he/she added to the system so you need a method to navigate your content. I know my way about in the terminal, but I thought the objective was to use it less and less?

With metta, Chris

On Thursday, May 10, 2012, Ryan Gauger  wrote:

Actually, I think if Nautilus was updated and was a lot more advanced than it is now (if this is a GNOME application, we can't do anything). If it was updated as I stated, i would be happy for it to stay. IMHO, Dolphin would suit Ubuntu, but it's too bad it's a KDE app. Thanks!

In Christ,Ryan

On May 9, 2012, at 6:24 PM, nick rundy <nrundy@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:









I agree, Nautilus should go. Frankly, I'd like to see Nautilus go solely for the fact that this bug still exists:  https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=552093


It's only logical to assume that GNOME is abandoning Nautilus--why else would they devote resources to those stupid "single purpose applications" when Nautilus is so plagued with bugs and needs much improvement?


The other thing that makes Nautilus unusable is the fact that it doesn't display content of mp3 tags when in details view. When I'm managing/deleting things that have mp3 tags (like podcasts), the inability to read the mp3 tags in Details view makes Nautilus incapable of effectively managing a digital walkman or ipod. I'm always forced back to the Windows-Explorer file-browser when I need to deal with ipod, walkman etc. 


So hopefully a new file-browser will fix Nautilus-bug-552093 and display mp3 tags in Details view but keeps all of Nautilus' strengths. Some have complained about looks, but I think Nautilus looks good in 12.04. Best it's ever looked IMHO.




Date: Sat, 5 May 2012 17:32:39 -0500
From: gregory.merchan@xxxxxxxxx
To: unity-design@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [Unity-design] Replacing Nautilus

Hi,

I've been reading this list for a while, but only joined recently because I somehow missed that subscription was open. I wish I'd joined earlier, because there were times I wanted to offer solutions. I'll have to start by offering a problem.


Nautilus has been becoming less useful with each release. One of the most recent offenses to all taste and sensibility was the removal of the background setting options for folders. I believe emblem settings were removed at the same time with the unfortunate side effect of my temporarily emblem-marked folders becoming permanently so.


Nautilus was never really complete. It's never had a Miller column mode. Its spatial mode didn't have the toolkit or window manager support to work properly: missing were at least proper focus handling and something like _NET_WM_URL for a title bar path menu. The file property panels were in many cases anemic. While emblems allowed some distinction, a tweak to the icon color would have allowed distinctions that carried over into the modes with smaller icons. The views for collections were never well developed and seem to have been dropped altogether. Probably a hundred other things that could have been done were not done. It seems headed to becoming one of the worst file selection dialogs I've ever seen; I expect a "Close" button in the bottom right corner any day now.


Mainstream GNOME has all but abandoned Nautilus in favor of single-purpose applications. That could be just an implementation detail, but I don't think I've seen the kind of cohesion that you'd get from a good workplace shell, like Nautilus could have been. Unity development seems to be proceeding on the premise that a file manager is not needed. While files and folders may not be the best way for me to organize my work, I really can't afford to hire a design and programming team to create the special purpose applications I need. I'll have to settle for the UNIX philosophy of using good single-purpose tools together to "roll my own" applications, but the available desktop environments don't seem to support that. GNUstep probably does, but there's too big of a "get it working right" curve for me. KDE might, but I can't use it for very long without getting dizzy and nauseated from all the roll-over effects. XFCE seems to have broken Gtk+ to achieve a look-and-feel on par with Xaw3d; maybe I just tried a buggy release? GNOME's single-purpose applications are not the same thing as single-purpose tools. And, really, only Unity has gotten rid of all the extra menu bars and put the one in the place where it belongs.


As I see it, there's a need for Unity to have it's own file manager. I haven't seen any designs for this, at least none I liked enough to remember. Is anyone else giving this any thought? What's going to replace Nautilus?


Needing at least a proper folder system,Greg


-- 
Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~unity-design
Post to     : unity-design@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Unsubs