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mrbabbage

Have you tried Dolphin on Linux? It's absolutely the best graphical file shell I've ever used:

- integrated command line whose PWD matches the directory shown in the graphic view. This is killer.

- automatic numbering if you rename a bunch of files.

- a tab-completeable navigation bar.

- integrated context menu items (e.g. send via email, compress, encrypt, convert file type).

- pretty, Apple-style image previews.

I really think it has it all.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolphin_%28file_manager%29>

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> pretty

I'd have comments on other points as well but if there is one thing KDE apps generally aren't then they consistently aren't pretty. I know, eye of beholder, but it's almost as bad as TK. In the link you provided there are:

- grooved borders between every second UI element.

- icons are way too colorful with gradients everywhere.

- underscore hints on menus are ugly.

- places panel takes up way too much space and eats away at the tree view panel.

That said, I use Dolphin, but only because other file browsers on Linux are for various reasons bigger catastrophes.

That's an old screenshot. Here's one from KDE 5.

https://www.kde.org/announcements/plasma5.0/screenshots/apps...

Better, but it still reinforces the notion that there's some secret rule somewhere requiring virtually all aspects of any Linux UI to be ugly.

Something that is definitely wrong with Linux is font rendering, it is really hard to get something decent, even when using tools like Infinality.

Is it me or does that look like GNOME2-era Nautilus? I always thought Nautilus was trying to be OSX' Finder too!

Most of the principals at Eazel the company that originally developed Nautilus were involved in the early development of the Macintosh.

I never knew that, thanks!

underscore hints on menus are ugly

Turn off that option in the OS; it's not an app thing. One of the nice things about KDE is that it still gives you old-school configurability.

I did that. It's still the wrong default.™ That's why I use KDE/Dolphin, you can beat it into something usable but you still have to eat the ugly which bothers me more than it should.

The default is usable by everyone. Having hints hidden by default means that it's not usable for everyone by default.

It's a matter of accesibility, not taste.

Most of those complaints seem to be down to fashion, rather than usability. In five years, people will be moaning about icons being "too monochrome" or "undifferentiated".

If you care deeply about the latest fashions and what the new black of UI design is this season, then KDE is definitely not for you. If you just want something that works then it can be fine. I don't find any of those things to hinder my actual use of KDE, quite the opposite.

> to be down to fashion

The bad design isn't of this trivial sort. If you think of stereotypical web pages from 90's you don't think that their design isn't current, you think that that their design is intrinsically bad.

> the latest fashions

KDE's analogue in clothing fashion is wearing potato sack. That is - this isn't even a mater of fashion. This isn't like ror, node or react.

> rather than usability

Nobody denies potato sacks can have nonzero usability. Visual clutter affects usability. That they completely fucked UI, even if usability were perfect, doesn't give users needed confidence that other areas were done competently either.

KDE apps can look very pretty if you find the right colorscheme, icon theme and widget style.

I love the sheer amount of customizability and options KDE offers.

I recommend Flattr icons[0] and the Hex QtCurve Style[1]

[0]: http://deviantn7k1.deviantart.com/art/Flattr-376383397

[1]: http://garthecho.deviantart.com/art/Hex-439924084

I am picky about file managers. Since switching to Linux on my primary desktop a few years ago, a file manager remains the only thing I miss from Windows. I used Directory Opus. It wasn't perfect, but was damn close for me (admittedly a power user as far as file management tasks is concerned). The one key feature that I have been unable to find in any Linux file manager is extensibility. I also dislike the lack of a queueing mechanism. I shouldn't have to sit around and wait for a 40GB copy to move from one network location to another before I can start another bit of data movement. And I should definitely be able to create a custom button that launches tools or performs certain common operations like flattening a directory tree or creating an ISO from a VIDEO_TS folder. In Linux I rely on the commandline, and don't mind that terribly, but if I had the time I would create a file manager that was easily extensible with Python taking design cues from something like Sublime Text. Should anyone do this I am certain it would be a successful product. I paid something like $95 for Directory Opus, and Opus is a fairly successful product despite its high price (a good bit of that high price comes from the company being based in Australia). I contacted them when I switched, telling them that a Linux port would be profitable for them, but they are not interested.

> I shouldn't have to sit around and wait for a 40GB copy to move from one network location to another before I can start another bit of data movement.

KDE and Dolphin send the transfer into the background immediately. You can track the progress in the system tray. Meanwhile, you can begin your next operation.

I think what he means is that transfers wouldn't be concurrent but sequential - quable. For example - you start transfer from A to B (in KDE and Dolphin it goes to background), then you would like to do a transfer from C to B - in reality they would be transferred simultaneously, but what the author above wants is queue - that transfer from C to B would start automatically AFTER A to B finishes.

At least I'd like this feature..

Yes, that is precisely what I mean. I should have been clearer. Ideally if a copy operation involved busy devices that would be the only time they would queue, but I would settle for a background processing queue that prevented long-running operations from running concurrently. I've never seen anything smart enough to base 'concurrent or not' off of what device a piece of the filesystem is on though, so I'll give that a pass. I'd also really like a file manager that had a little daemon (or interacted with an rsync daemon or such already running) on boxes over the network so when I say 'copy from network share A to share B' the data never has to transit my desktop but goes directly from A to B. I think about file manager a lot. I have a long wishlist...

Fixed link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolphin_%28file_manager%29

> integrated command line whose PWD matches the directory shown in the graphic view. This is killer.

This does sound good. I have a keyboard shortcut which launches a terminal in the current directory so that is kind of a workaround.

>- automatic numbering if you rename a bunch of files. >- a tab-completeable navigation bar. >- integrated context menu items (e.g. send via email, compress, encrypt, convert file type). >- pretty, Apple-style image previews.

Finder has all of these things.

It's also pretty extensible and integrates with KDE Connect very well.

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