unity-design team mailing list archive

[Gregory Merchan <gregory.merchan@xxxxxxxxx>]

On Tue, Jul 3, 2012 at 10:09 AM, Brandon Watkins <bwat47@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Gnome has started tearing out nautilus features left and right during gnome
> 3.6 development:
> http://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/vyyw9/heads_up_on_changes_in_nautilus_for_36/,
> and making some very questionable design decisions, such as this incredibly
> ugly and pointless name shortening that makes the breadcrumb impossible to
> read:
> http://iloveubuntu.net/nautilus-352-landed-ubuntu-1210-new-features-and-removals
>
> I think its looking like ubuntu should start looking into a new default file
> manager, since gnome seems intent on tearing nautilus apart, something like
> marlin (https://launchpad.net/marlin) looks like it has potential.
>
> Thoughts?

I think it was my first post on this list: Nautilus needs to be replaced.

A file manager must have three basic views, IMO:
1) icon view with a spatial mode preserving place and size.
2) tree view with details
3) Miller columns

Other views, like Apple's Coverflow or a light table, are gravy; they
are nice, but not essential.

Marlin has an icon view, but I don't see that it has spatial mode.
(I'm running Windows at the moment and can't check. Sigh. Work.)

It appears to have a tree view with details. (Called a "list view",
but I found screenshots with disclosure triangles next to folders.)

It appears to be the only Gtk+ (or other) file manager with Miller
columns, besides the thing I started writing over a decade ago and
never finished. (If I could remember why I called it "Duck5", I might
have a funny story to tell.)

The original author "lost interest" and the Elementary team has
supposedly picked it up. The news item says they'll be calling it
"Files". It's bad enough that Nautilus cannot decide whether it is
"Nautilus", "File Browser", or "Files"; we don't need a file manager
known only as "Files". I recommend "Foldarr!" . . . no, just kidding.
Maybe "Filer"? "Secretary"? Just keep calling it "Marlin" because the
user base isn't that great yet?

Without the opportunity right now to try it out, Marlin seems like a
good replacement.