Benedikt Meurer of XFce is hard at work preparing Thunar, the new XFce-focused file manager. There are four UI suggestions so far, but the first one seems to be the strongest one so far: a mix of GTK+’s file selector and Mac OS X’s Finder & PathFinder.
XFce Readies New File Manager
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I bet that one started (or will start) a huge flamewar within the XFCE community.
I don’t see why. It’s a nice effort. I like the first one. It obviously needs work, and I hope a plugin system will be supported similar to Konqueror’s kio actions or BeOS’ Tracker, but overall, it’s a good first effort.
It’s Thunar, not Thumar! lol
Glad to hear good ol’ Cholesterol is progressing at the file manager issue…
Hi,
Looks pretty sweet…I seriously like Gnome 2.10, and want to try Foresight Linxu (why isn’t a story posted about that? It’s a gnome distro with beagle, f-spot, tomboy etc.), but the performance issues, and difficulty in building Gnome is a serious pain in the behind.
This looks like uniting the best of both worlds…
Rock on!
(at least until E17 is out…hehehe…Rasterman just made a new post at rasterman.com)
cya,
Victor
I think I was the only person on the planet that didn’t mind the old FM. Since I’m here..maybe someone can shed some light into a couple of issue I have with xfce.
1.) can you tell xfce to open certain files with certain programs? (tell it to open mp3’s with xmms for example)
2.) change the color of the theme like in older versions. Say I like “plastic” theme but the title bar is blue. Can I change it to green or any other color? Or do I need to pull what I did in flux box and had up the images?
Just a couple of things I can’t seem to find answers on.
I must say, although I ignorantly doubted the XCFE project in the past, I have been trying it out from time-to-time, it’s fast and just all-round cool. I haven’t really bothered to make the switch just yet (from Gnome), but I think it has done alot to prove GTK is NOT slow (just Gnome). With the release of the new file manager, and maybe native desktop icon support I wouldn’t think twice before considering using this full, time, and migrating my existing users’ desktops (to make the most of their sub 128mb systems)…
While I like the concept of alternative 1, I’d like to know how paths that are wider than the width of the window ar e handled. Arrow buttons to scroll the path buttons left and right, perhaps?
… that the old file manager gets dumped.
This is such great news, an xfce filemanager that’s simple and strait forward ! I use nautilus with xfce4.2 right now but I would switch to this. Something about having a file manager support cd burning and such just feels wrong to me.
1.) can you tell xfce to open certain files with certain programs? (tell it to open mp3’s with xmms for example)
yes, there will be proper mime handling and associated applications.
2.) change the color of the theme like in older versions. Say I like “plastic” theme but the title bar is blue. Can I change it to green or any other color?
xfce uses gtk+-2 themes throughout everywhere, inclusing the colors for the window decorations. Change theme and you get new colours everywhere
I little suggestion that represent a big work !
There are divergences in opinion about which concept is the best one !
Why not make all of them ! (Select what you want !) I know that it is hard work but… linux is about choice !
By the way this application will look like FileCentral !
For serious file handling I really prefer a good dual pane filemanager. On my system I use Emelfm2 which is superlative, and being GTK2 based it integrates well.
I use XFce-session and XFWM4 as the basis with Rox to manage the desktop and to provide a graphical filer for lighter tasks, together with the Gnome panel. For really fast file handling I always use Emelfm2 rather than Rox. So I don’t think Thunar will replace Emelfm2 for me, but I will give it a try when it comes out.
In my opinion only a fast/lightweight dual panel filemanager like Total Commander (Windows) could be a success.
Make it happen and *unix files will be “saved” at last
Never heard of <em>Emelfm2</em>… I just downloaded it and complied it (which was easy enough, as it only has two dependencies!).
I’ve got to say, it is very cool. I especially love the command line integration with the GUI. Don’t ask me why, I feel faster with the command line.
Thanks for the great suggestion!
konqueror, ctrl+shift+l and there you have it.
It gets even better, ctrl+shift+t splits the window vertically so you can have 3 or 4 different folders open.
Not exactly lightweight though
I still like nc/mc but I don’t see the need for a simple dual pane file manager. After all you can have as many windows as you want.
I currently use XFE as my file manager on my XFCE desktops, because even though it has a decidely “Windows-centric” look, it’s much better than XFFM. I will be eager to test this new file manager when it has been released.
Leave it to the Xfce developers to reinvent the wheel. Do I hate this, no. But does OSS really need another DE? Xfce was good for what it is/was, a light DE minus fancy icons/file manger.
In my eyes Xfce is straying from it’s roots, I hope that it doesn’t stray too far though.
PS: Can we get consilidation of the panel and window list bar soon?
I think i will stick with my XFtree 🙂
Personally the XFCE FM is the only file manager I have really liked since the X version of Midnight Commander died. Views, themes, script support crap! This kind of junk is the reason why we use a light weight desktop in the first place. I have used XFCE for years, and dispite the fact that its visually lacking it’s very solid, fast, and efficiant. Want to do something with it. Give it menu capatabillity with Free Desktop so we don’t have to use the internal engine to fill menus.
Leave it to the Xfce developers to reinvent the wheel. Do I hate this, no. But does OSS really need another DE? Xfce was good for what it is/was, a light DE minus fancy icons/file manger.
I’m on the Thunar-dev mailing list, and let me tell you, there has been NONSTOP conversation about getting this thing as lightweight and simple as possible. So, no, this is not reinventing the wheel. XFCE is about simple and lightweight, and XFFM is certainly not simple (and it’s going spatial in XFCE 4.4), so Thunar is the solution. It’s a hell of a lot faster than Nautilus and Konq and is aiming to be less confusing than either as well.
Xffm has been holding them back, best news the project could have. Could put them on top of the heap if done right.
Is there a way to maximize windows over the panel in XFCE 4.2? Even if I choose to “auto-hide” the panel, application windows still refuse to maximize over the area where the panel resides. This seems like a silly waste of working space, especially since my old laptop doesn’t support higher resolutions than 1024×768.
mac os x style column view please. actually i supose its technically next step style. but it would be cool to have a better implementation on linux than the gnustep one.
Just check out workspace margin settings in XFCE control center, I am sure you have a bottom margin defined over there. Just reset that to zero.
I took a look at the the interface suggestions, and my favorite was the Spatial view. Are they going to choose just one type of interface, or will it be configurable per user prefrence? From the interfaces shown, it seems that making it configurable wouldn’t be that difficult.
It seems like it would be simple to make things optional: View Shortcuts/Don’t view Shortcuts, View address bar/Don’t view address bar, etc.
I like things simple, so the Spatial view is for me.
I’e used Linux several times since 2001 and always liked it but never been able to get it quite right.
XFCE looks like a good desktop – in fact I know it is as I’ve tried it using the FreeSBIE FreeBSD liveCD
Who can recommend an easy-to-install x86 distro with an XFCE desktop? Its about time I tried linux again…
Thanks. Changing the bottom margin to zero solved the only problem I’ve had so far with XFCE 4.2. I installed GNOME 2.10, didn’t like it and so I removed it. Then I installed KDE 3.4, didn’t like it and removed it. But XFCE 4.2 stays on my hard drive, along with Window Maker and Fluxbox. XFCE appears to be a project that is under very active development and I’m curious to see the new file manager in XFCE 4.4. 🙂
Frugalware has the latest XFCE (and the latest GNOME and the latest KDE). Don’t know if you’ll find it easy to install, though. YMMV, you know. 😉
it seems people put a lot of stock into the file manager of gnome, kde, etc
rarely do i bother with these tools, just not quite sure what the point is…for any file type/operation (photos, cd burning etc) i already have superior dedicated free tools….
For a Total COmmander lookalike you may want to try Tux Commander. It’s small, written using GTK2 bindings for Pascal, has a distro-independent binary (!) and shows much promise. Unfortunately, it doesn’t do drag-n-drop yet, but other than that, it’s pretty full-featured.
I’e used Linux several times since 2001 and always liked it but never been able to get it quite right.
XFCE looks like a good desktop – in fact I know it is as I’ve tried it using the FreeSBIE FreeBSD liveCD
Who can recommend an easy-to-install x86 distro with an XFCE desktop? Its about time I tried linux again…
Morphix LightGUI has XFCE4. It’s a LiveCD which you can easily install to your harddisk.
http://www.morphix.org
Do like some elements within XFce – the filemanager wasn’t one of them… – in fact it was largely responsible for me never feeling “comfortable” with XFce – which is unfortunate really, considering the obvious pluses – will no doubt try this out soon
XFCE is about simple and lightweight, and XFFM is certainly not simple (and it’s going spatial in XFCE 4.4), so Thunar is the solution. It’s a hell of a lot faster than Nautilus and Konq and is aiming to be less confusing than either as well.
To be fair, while XFFM is not simple (it aims more for the natilus/konq users), it is quite fast – especially the latest 4.3.1. Regardless, it is nice to see some (friendly) competition within the XFCE camp regarding a file manager. I realize that they are aiming for different users with the two approaches but there are surely many users like myself who find themselves in a gray area
I do currently use and like Xffm but I’m also anxious to see where Thunar ends up as well. Competition always benefits the end user 
Very good UI design! Clever and clean. Other projects may also take a look!
And a little sugestion. Using this picture as reference [1], I want to click the “ui” path button and type ‘CVS’ or ‘spatial’ to be able to change directories (probably, with auto-complete too).
Following this idea… I should be able to click “Projects” path button and type ‘xfce’ (example)… and so on… similar too a go to location dialog, but much more intuitive IMHO.
MetaKEY (also know as “Windows” or “CMD” in PCs/Macs)+1/2/3 changing view mode’s also a good thing.
[1] “Shortcuts in the sidebar with path buttons”
http://thunar.xfce.org/wiki/ui:suggestion-20050320
Sorry… on a hurry… instead of “(…)click “Projects” path button(…)”, read “hold-click “Project” path button(…)”
(As the first one is valid too, but it’s the way the /buttons/ should work… the click-hold thing is more like a way to type the new path from this point wwith changing to this path first…)
sorry about the confusion…
Finally, a lightweight file manager you can adapt to your own tastes! Path field, buttons…I don’t care what the default is, but having the option of using it the way I’m comfortable and efficient with (navigational) is worth a pound of gold to me.
There really are 3 paradigms for file management it seems: spatial, navigational and mix & match (I’d throw ROX and dual pane styles in there). By all means, making it possible for people to choose between them is what I call being fair and caring for the user.
This is a total quantum leap over their current ugly kludge for an excuse for a file manager. ;-P I may have to reconsider XFCE in light of this new development…
I’e used Linux several times since 2001 and always liked it but never been able to get it quite right.
XFCE looks like a good desktop – in fact I know it is as I’ve tried it using the FreeSBIE FreeBSD liveCD
Who can recommend an easy-to-install x86 distro with an XFCE desktop? Its about time I tried linux again…
XFLD is an xfce live distribution that can be installed to your hard drive (it uses the Knoppix installer). It will provide you with the latest stable version of Xfce, and will also work with the Debian repositories so that you can easily download just about anything else you want.
It uses Firefox for it’s browser, Thunderbird for its email client, and Rox for its file browser (which is has a better layout than the current standard browser XFFM).
Thunar looks very exciting for Xfce. I’ve written articles in the past that commented on the poor layout of XFFM.
I think this screenshot is the best idea yet:
http://www.xfce.org/%7Ebenny/tmp/20050318-thunar-open_location_…
… if anything I would let there only be either a button or the word “Go” but not both.
http://www.xfce.org/%7Ebenny/tmp/20050318-thunar-open_location_…
People always show pics of nautilus or whatever file manager with big icons. This was the first thing i used to turn off in my windows days. I really use a details view a lot and hope this has it.
Btw, I think the option to be able to turn on dual pane would be great but I’m not holding my breath.
For an example here is what I used to use in windows:
http://netez.com/2xExplorer/snapshot.html
Dual pane optional. could create hotkeys for favourite directories.
Perhaps they could add support for app bundles while they are thinking about a file manager. It says many people with xfce use rox-filer to begin with so this would be a natural extension. Appbundles are easier to install for end users, no install program required.
I agree. If they choose the first suggestion they need to have a text field where people could enter a path directly. It’s much faster in many cases than navigating using a mouse.
Preferably it should support tab-completion and include support for ~/directory and ~user/directory paths.
I think people want a nice, crossplatform, 2-plane Total Commander clone! With all the possible features, that it has on windows.
Not that single plane “10 icons fills my whole 1600×1200 desktop” nightmare. Oh, you can choose among 4 “different” outlook. Why do i feel that all are the same: incapable of doing anything except of finding some well-known files.
Let me ask. Can one do file operations fast in this? Anything more complex than klicking on xy.jpg in my home dir cant be done with Thunar efficiently. I can understand why hardcorelinux users flee from X, if they should use Filemanagers like this.
Tuxcommander would be great, but it runs only under linux (no BSDs). TC funs should really try it!
Luit linux ( http://luitlinux.sarovar.org ) is a decent live cd with XFCE. Not sure if you can install it, though.
i’m in that minority that actually likes xffm, not just puts up with it but likes it. of the half a dozen (konq, rox, emel, nautilaus..) file managers i’ve tried over the years Xffm is the only one that feels like it actually does anything beside just display my files. i mean i’m sure others are plenty powerful but i am at least as productive in xffm as i am in any other manager and i FEEL more productive.