Nautilus experiences by thl

[Thorsten Leemhuis <Thorsten_Leemhuis gmx de>]

Hy *,

this is my first post to the list, I thought this would be the right
place to get rid of some experiences I got when working with Nautilus. I
used the version that came with Redhat 8.0 and sometimes used Nautilus
before in Redhat 7.3, I'm using Linux 4 years now, most of the time I'm
working on a console because I dislike some behaviors of Nautilus.
Before I used Linux I worked nearly ten years with OS/2 and at work I
also work with different Windows Versions and therefor use the
Windows(-File)-Explorer quite often.

Before I start criticize I'd like to point out some things:
- The speed of Nautilus has improved a lot – thanks for this work, it
still could be a bit faster and especially it could use less memory, but
AFAIK your working on it further.
- Please don't misunderstand my criticism: I like many features of
Nautilus and think it a great (file|system) manager. But if the point
I'll describe in the following text would be implemented or corrected it
would be better for me - and maybe also for lots of other people also.
Especially some of those points could make life easier for people that
come from windows and are used to work with the Windows-Explorer - and
IMHO that could help Linux and Gnome reputation a lot.
- Disclaimer I: The points I'll mention below are my opinion - I know
that many other opinions are floating around. But If nobody makes the
good and bad feelings and opinions public nothing will change.
- Disclaimer II: If I criticize something that is not true (in case I
overlooked something), please excuse me - I'm human, too.
- Disclaimer III:I don't write english each day - please excuse spelling
error, I hope they don't prevalent.

So, here we go, in random order:

-  My greatest concern: I like a tree view and it's behavior and design
in the Windows-Explorer. Yes, I can have a tree view in Nautilus also, but
-- why can't I perform a right-mouse-click in the tree view to remove,
rename, move, copy a folder?
-- why do I have to reopen the tree view each time manually in a new
window and can't make the tree view the default view?
-- why doesn't it show my current place in the tree if I move through
directory's using the right area or the location-bar?

- The preferences are looking different from other gnome-apps. Why?

- The tab-completion with two shortly followed TAB keys presses in
gnome's file selector are very nice - I miss it in the "Go to"-toolbar
in Nautilus, it only works with one TAB after I type enough of the
pathname so that it it unique. Look at Mozilla, there something similar
works.

- Why flickers my desktop background for a second the moment nautilus
starts?

- When I use my home directory as desktop there's always created a file
Trash that disturbs be when I'm working in a console - I don't want it
there, I would prefer a config option so that I could place it in
.nautilus. (Yes, that a bit pedantic, but I like my sorting-arrangement
and If  every application would do so where would we end?)

- The context menu of a file is long - to long in my opinion, most
people can remember only around 7 Items in a menu, here are sometimes
around 16 Items

- Often Nautilus scans my drives. That takes time and sometimes is very
annoying, especially on my Notebook where the CD-Rom drive often spins
up as a consequence(but it's already a bit better than in nautilus1)

- If I have an unknown file type it is sometimes not easy to take a look
into it with a text or hex view so that its possible for me to check
what type of file it is.

- Assigning a application to a filetype seems a bit complicated for me -
especially if I only want to use this application once and never again
in the future

- An easier way to show hidden files temporary would be nice. A button
in the Toolbar would be nice or a sorting where all hidden files are
shown at the bottom of the list, separated by a line.

- Directory's that only contain hidden files seem empty. There should be
a small hint somewhere that it contains hidden files, especially before
I delete such a folder.

- When I click on a file in a directory with lots of images to view it
and afterward go back using "Back" button I'm at the beginning of the
directory-list an not in the middle at the image that I looked at. Only
"Up" works correct, that disturbs beginners.

- Nautilus seems to leave behind files like .nautilus-metafile.xml and a
folder .trash. At home in my linux-only environment that's okay, but it
disturbs me and my colleagues at work in a mixed Windows - Linux world.
If every application would do so where would it end?
I know the benefits of this behavior well - but IMHO it should also be a
config option where this files are placed, ~./.nautilus would be the
right place IMHO. The thumbnails are placed their also already?!

- An integrated file-packer or archiver would be nice

- An integrated "network milieu" would also be nice

- I'm using my home-directory as Nautilus-Desktop and have a directory
called ~/server where I mount my smb-server. But If I do so I get
another "server (2)" icon on my Desktop - Why?

So long, thanks to listen to me and my opinions.

CU
thl