Xfce Forum

markling

Member

Registered: 2012-01-19

Posts: 37

Alternatives to Thunar that can tab & seemlessly integrate with xfce?

Can anyone advise if there is an alternative file manager that will integrate well with xfce and provides tabbed views?

I've been looking but the answer does not seem straightforward.

I was using Nautilus till very recently, but it gets panned quite a lot,  is designed for Gnome, and I have read it said that it doesn't integrate very well with xfce. (So much for the modularity of linux <excuse me>).

(Having said my piece about tabs here: http://forum.xfce.org/viewtopic.php?id=6726 ...)

markling

Member

Registered: 2012-01-19

Posts: 37

Re: Alternatives to Thunar that can tab & seemlessly integrate with xfce?

I've narrowed it down to a couple of possibilities after looking at the Wikipedia comparison of file managers. I ruled Konqueror and Dolphin out because it said they were produced by KDE(?). I assumed that means they wouldn't fit too well here.

But Krusader and PCManFM look like possibilities.

Krusader's FAQ page throws up a question, though: http://www.krusader.org/handbook/faq.html

It says:

"
1.   

Does Krusader need KDE to run?
   

No, Krusader does not need the KDE window manager to run on your computer but Krusader's natural environment is KDE, because it relies on services provided by the KDE base libraries. ... Krusader runs on GNOME, AfterStep, XFce ... provided the approriate libraries are installed on your computer. All this is not a problem since the apt-get world can resolve these dependencies instantly.
...
However, the configuration of the Krusader fonts and some behavior is done by running kcontrol... A lot depends on what you want to do with Krusader... To summarize, if you want a working Krusader - install KDElibs. If you want a functional Krusader then you need KDElibs + KDEbase. For maximum functionality, Krusader needs all of the KDE package libraries, but the KDE window manager is optional.
"

The question then is if this is bad advice. They are effectively saying, of course you can use our file manager on a non-KDE desktop as long as you install half the KDE desktop as well as the desktop you are running. They don't tell you how much of the KDE desktop you need to install to run Krusader, by what proportion this will increase the overall size of your desktop and how much more it would demand of your system resources to run it. I mean, KDE is supposed to be resource-hungry isn't it? That's what they say. And you're supposed to run half the KDE desktop on top of your existing desktop just so you can run Krusader?

This seems disingenuous to me, this attempt by Krusader to pose as a file manager for all desktops. Not that I'm anything but an ignorant user, mind. But seems to me this doesn't fit with the linux philosophy: it seems too *acquisitorial*.

Methos

Member

From: Germany

Registered: 2011-10-01

Posts: 5

Re: Alternatives to Thunar that can tab & seemlessly integrate with xfce?

I don't really know PCManFM, because I've tested it too long ago and too short, but it's part of LXDE and it seems that the dependencies are bearable.
For Arch there are existing these dependencies:
http://www.archlinux.org/packages/commu … 4/pcmanfm/

But I know Krusader and the dependencies are quite nice:
http://www.archlinux.org/packages/extra … /krusader/
I don't care, because I've installed KDE anyhow, but if you want to keep your system small...
And besides of that I think Krusader is quite bloated and doesn't fit well into XFCE... I use it only because sometimes I want to use a two panel file manager and I don't know a really good alternative... (And yes, midnight commander is great, but not really an alternative...)

But maybe qtfm could help you out:
http://www.qtfm.org/

I've never used it, but it supports tabs and has only qt dependency

---

If the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail.
(Abraham Maslow)

markling

Member

Registered: 2012-01-19

Posts: 37

Re: Alternatives to Thunar that can tab & seemlessly integrate with xfce?

Thanks very much, Methos. I'll have a look at these suggestions.

wkr

Member

Registered: 2011-01-01

Posts: 88

Re: Alternatives to Thunar that can tab & seemlessly integrate with xfce?

I have tried and can recommande 2 tabbed file managers that fit well in xfce :

-Doublecommander: an excellent double pane file manager without dependencies (with a qt and a gtk version)
-PCmanFM-mod, a modified PCmanFM. It's fast and very similar to thunar

Instead of tab, typical xfce users use middle click to open a folder in a new window. If you use small windows, then you will get a "double-pane like" tiling. My english is very bad, so see this screenshot

Last edited by wkr (2012-01-20 09:47:58)