Alternatives for Thunar

Peter_Ziegler · 2009-11-25 15:16:04

Hello friends,
I don't like Thunar because it does not feature neither tabs nor the possibility of split-window and no ftp support but what is a good alternative? PCManFm is a good tool with tabs but without ftp support. Does someone have experience with Rox-Filer? (I'm searching for a file manager like dolphin for kde)

Greetz
Peter

Squall · 2009-11-30 17:33:14

Then why don't you use Dolphin? I think Qt apps fit quite well in an Gtk environment like Xfce! smile

scarecrow · 2009-12-19 21:02:50

Thunar will have ftp/virtual filesystem in XFCE 4.8
For now, you can use it with an application named "Gigolo" - they fit very well together.

brain)(vision · 2010-01-18 07:52:14

Peter_Ziegler wrote:

Hello friends,
I don't like Thunar because it does not feature neither tabs nor the possibility of split-window and no ftp support but what is a good alternative? PCManFm is a good tool with tabs but without ftp support. Does someone have experience with Rox-Filer? (I'm searching for a file manager like dolphin for kde)
Greetz
Peter

I've tried Rox-Filer for a day but then I've forgotten about it.. Now that I've read this post I'm remembering that the package is still installed in my Slackware.. I don't like it at all: too many configuration to make it work as I need; too much confusing; not eyes-candy (but this really isn't a bad thing); less intuitive than Thunar..
That's what I think of Rox.. It could much better, in a future.. but for now I must remember to remove the Rox-Filer package!

DMcCunney · 2010-01-29 20:59:31

You might want to look at Xfe, modeled after the no longer available X-Win Commander. It uses the Fox Toolkit libraries.

It's a dual pane file manager with a tree view. In dual pane mode with tree, it looks like this:

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

The project files are hosted on SourceForge. There are pointers on the home page to RPM, DEB, and Slackware packages.
______
Dennis

brain)(vision · 2010-01-29 21:08:45

Yes man, thank you!

I knew Xfe when I had the 12.2 version of my slackware.. good piece of software! Not so good the integration with the icon theme (I remember there were 4 or 5 icon theme on the program itself but it hadn't a real integration with the new standards).

I think I'll try it again.. When I was a windows man, I loved xplorer2, it was a dual pane replacement for the fucking shit Windows Explorer! The 2 pane is an experience that everybody should try!, isn't it?

thank you again, man.. see you!!

DMcCunney · 2010-01-29 21:20:09

brain)(vision wrote:

Yes man, thank you!

You're quite welcome.

I knew Xfe when I had the 12.2 version of my slackware.. good piece of software! Not so good the integration with the icon theme (I remember there were 4 or 5 icon theme on the program itself but it hadn't a real integration with the new standards).

I don't know if it's improved in that area, but it it does something I need, whether or not it integrates with an existing icon theme is a minor detail.

I think I'll try it again.. When I was a windows man, I loved xplorer2, it was a dual pane replacement for the fucking shit Windows Explorer! The 2 pane is an experience that everybody should try!, isn't it?

I've used the predecessor to xplorer2 under Windows. I also liked Servant Salamander. But there are a plethora of Windoze file managers, and you can spend a week just looking at them all.
______
Dennis

herd · 2010-02-01 22:35:53

I can't quite grasp why anyone would prefer any other file manager to Thunar:
- It runs in circles around nautilus and dolphin
- It is a million times more stable than PCManFM
- It integrates better into xfce than rox filer
- It looks better than those with weird, non-gtk toolkits
- It does not suffer from being a web browser
- It does not fall back into NCN (Norton Commander Nostalgia)
- It does not clutter its UI with zillions of buttons and sliders

I just felt this needs to be said in favour of thunar.
Being a one-man job, its an excellent piece of software. Chapeau!

brain)(vision · 2010-02-01 22:46:49

Chapeau!!

gnome_refugee · 2010-02-01 22:50:04

...and that other fantastic feature:

http://forum.xfce.org/index.php?topic=5328.0

ManOfSteel · 2010-02-01 23:57:00

I completely agree with herd. The only feature I think is missing is the multiple-directories/files properties (to get the size). It's available in PCManFM.

After years of trying different file managers, I can say Thunar is the best.

KitchM · 2010-02-28 21:46:41

The X File Explorer is so far ahead that Thunar will not be able to catch up.

In response to herd:
- No one should care about nautilus or dolphin or PCManFM or rox filer
- Xfce looks better than not having a good file manager at all
- It is customizable
- It has the capability to have a split screen
- etc., etc.

The big problem with thunar and other file managers is that they forget the fundamental reason for their existence. They are not for file associations, nor for forcing users into a particular philosophy of useage, nor for any of a number of arcane ideas. They are to be a window upon the files system(s) of one's computer. They should allow proper drag-n-drop of files or groups of files with standard Shift and Crtl key functions. Right-click context menu functionalility should be present. One should have a directory tree, as well as the ability to see the source file(s) and the final location for it. The user must be able to find out information about the file by hover, context menu and/or selection of viewable columns in the display. Thumbnails should be an option. An embellishment would be a tie-in with one's viewer of choice.

There are other fine works by individuals who also deserve a tip of the hat. Xfe is one. What I don't understand is the desire to continually reinvent the wheel. Can't a coder just take an existing effort, port it to the toolkit of choice and go from there? In the current landscape of file management, the end user has been left with unfinished products strewn all over the place, and hardly a one does what it should.

Right at this point in time I can name you at least a dozen file managers that aren't worth anything. Of all of them that I could lay my hands on for review (and that's a lot), nothing was as good as Xfe. It is not perfect; nothing is. But it is the very best place to start. And best of all? It stands alone, and does not require any dependencies on the DE. Pretty slick.

Oriel · 2010-08-30 17:27:00

I just want to praise Thunar. It is a major reason for preferring Xfce to KDE or Gnome. Dolphin compares to Thunar like a big steam boat to a small fast racing boat. If I need another pane, I just start another instance of Thunar. First I did not know how to search files with Thunar, but now I found Catfish.

KitchM · 2010-09-02 17:10:57

A tip of the hat to Oriel. That Catfish idea looks pretty good. Thanks. cool

Oriel · 2010-09-02 18:10:53

KitchM wrote:

A tip of the hat to Oriel. That Catfish idea looks pretty good. Thanks.

In case you haven't seen it: HERE (with German links) and HERE and HERE is a description how one can integrate Catfish in Thunar. At the beginning of my Linux life I was surprised that my OpenSUSE contained no GUI for simple file search (which I was used from FreeCommander in Windows). There was some search function for Nautilus, but I could not make sense of it. Just today I found that Catfish is even not contained in the OpenSUSE 11.3 DVD. I have no idea what GUI they imagine one uses instead. The only alternative I know is kfind. (And somewhere I heard that Sagasu is a GUI for grep.) Perhaps they want us use a shell. There are 'desktop search' machines like beagle, but I never found them useful. (Other options: strigi; tracker; docfetcher for text documents.) I am not so disorganised that I would not know in which directory I have to look.
Well, now I have written down in this post what I would have needed to know about file search when I started with Linux.
Daniel

PS. Just today Josh Saddler wrote about Searching the Desktop with Pinot and Catfish and how to integrate it in Thunar.

pastoredb · 2011-02-23 20:52:44

Hello, all -

I've been an XFCE user for a while, but I've not been on the forums for a *long* time. I registered today because I figured out a quick-and-dirty solution to a frustration I've had with Thunar for a long while.

I'm a big fan of dual pane file managers; for most of my time in XFCE, I've ignored Thunar in favor of PCManFM2. But it really irked me that I was ignoring the already installed file manager in favor of one I had to separately install, just to get a dual pane/new tab function.

Then it hit me... if I really NEED a dual pane function out of Thunar, I could just run twin instances of Thunar, and set them up side by side.

I wrote a *really* simple script; I simply replaced the lower case "thunar" symbolic link with a script that ran this command:
Thunar && Thunar &

So, when I run the lower case "thunar" command, I get a dual-pane Thunar which easily allows me to navigate and drag-drop files (my preferred method).

Anyway, I was pretty excited to figure out this little tip, so I thought I'd share it with the XFCE community, figuring that you would be most interested.

Hope that helps someone else...!

Havoc · 2011-02-24 18:57:47

Well so far I have to side with those seeking a replacement for Thunar. Think I'll go with Xfe (emerging right now). Thanks for remembering this. I seem to remember I used it before on a very slow Via Epia board.

I agree that Thunar might be better than Nautilus and Dolphin, I dislike both. But I cannot like Thunar at all. It insistance of showing non mounted partitions and making them accesible is a no-go. Also I'm missing the . and .. entries, there is no clear relation between directories in the tree view (problem with all gtk apps), you have to double click to open a directory in the tree view even if the mouse is set for "single click to open", no double pane view etc. Yes, it is basic, it is reasonably fast and you can get a job done with it. But it isn't faster than a better featured file-manager because you need more steps to do the same. The only positive thing so far is that it doesn't use the breadcrumbs horror.

And I don't see a filemanager as a reason to use a particular window manager. You can use whatever filemanager you want on whatever windowmanager you want.

Anzhr · 2011-03-14 11:41:11

I'm using 4.6 so until 4.8 comes into Debian testing I just run nautilus --no-desktop for smb shares.

factor-h · 2011-03-21 00:07:21

One thing we might agree.
The 2 pane system is more desirable... than a multi tabbed approach.
Tough they are not mutually exclusive.

And yes, I miss the 2 pane too.

jeanpierreaubry · 2011-03-25 13:31:48

hello

i cannot live without a 2 panes
gnome-commander does the job very well
and sometimes midnight commander when one wants to have a real control on basics!

jean pierre aubry

Last edited by jeanpierreaubry (2011-03-25 13:32:10)

Holger · 2011-04-03 03:16:33

Hi Guys,

Just spend half a day on trying to switch from Thunar to XFE (XFCE 4.8 on OpenSuse 11.4), but to no avail.

No matter what I set for "File Manager" in "Settings" => "Preferred Applications", it is always Thunar that starts after double-clicking any file icon on the desktop (I also created "Xfe.desktop" files in /usr/share/appliactions/ and /usr/share/xfce4/helpers, but that did not make any difference either).

Is this a bug in XFCE, or is there some other "magical" setting under the bonnet somewhere?

Many thanks,
Holger

PS: @KitchM: could not agree more. After looking at a plethora of file managers, XFE is the one that comes closest to perfection. At least, if someone actually wants to copy files from A to B, that is. ;-)

payasam · 2011-04-09 16:38:46

I do not mean to disparage Thunar, but I am accustomed to the way in which Dolphin does certain things (including one that Thunar cannot do). I have Dolphin installed and can call it up when I wish -- but I do not know how to make it the default file manager.

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#1 2009-11-25 15:16:04

Alternatives for Thunar

#2 2009-11-30 17:33:14

Re: Alternatives for Thunar

#3 2009-12-19 21:02:50

Re: Alternatives for Thunar

#4 2010-01-18 07:52:14

Re: Alternatives for Thunar

#5 2010-01-29 20:59:31

Re: Alternatives for Thunar

#6 2010-01-29 21:08:45

Re: Alternatives for Thunar

#7 2010-01-29 21:20:09

Re: Alternatives for Thunar

#8 2010-02-01 22:35:53

Re: Alternatives for Thunar

#9 2010-02-01 22:46:49

Re: Alternatives for Thunar

#10 2010-02-01 22:50:04

Re: Alternatives for Thunar

#11 2010-02-01 23:57:00

Re: Alternatives for Thunar

#12 2010-02-28 21:46:41

Re: Alternatives for Thunar

#13 2010-08-30 17:27:00

Re: Alternatives for Thunar

#14 2010-09-02 17:10:57

Re: Alternatives for Thunar

#15 2010-09-02 18:10:53

Re: Alternatives for Thunar

#16 2011-02-23 20:52:44

Re: Alternatives for Thunar

#17 2011-02-24 18:57:47

Re: Alternatives for Thunar

#18 2011-03-14 11:41:11

Re: Alternatives for Thunar

#19 2011-03-21 00:07:21

Re: Alternatives for Thunar

#20 2011-03-25 13:31:48

Re: Alternatives for Thunar

#21 2011-04-03 03:16:33

Re: Alternatives for Thunar

#22 2011-04-09 16:38:46

Re: Alternatives for Thunar

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