One of the reasons some people have switched from Windows or Mac OS X to Linux is that in many cases, Linux is much “lighter” than its commercial counterparts. What “leightweight” means in the case of software is that Linux typically uses fewer system resources than the operating systems Apple and Microsoft come up with.
Not in every case, of course, and as desktop environments such as Gnome and KDE grow and improve, many Linux users are finding that their once leightweight systems are growing heavier and heavier every day.
One particular area that I’ve seen a great number of people complain about is in regards to their file manager. For Gnome users, a program called Nautilus is the standard file manager. It’s fine. I like it quite a bit (it reminds me of the Finder from Mac OS X), but on occasion I’ve gone looking for something to replace it. One of the programs I’ve found that I think shows great promise is a small file manager called PCManFM.
PCManFM, which stands for PCMan File Manager (PCMan is the online nickmane of Hong Jen Yee, the developer of PCManFM), is designed for exactly the purpose I outlined above… it’s for people who want a good-looking, solid file manager but either don’t have the computing power (or the need), for something as powerful as Nautilus, or KDE’s Konqueror. Says Yee about his own software needs:
“Konqueror is absolutely a great file manager, so is GNOME nautilus, but the problem is, I don’t need that much functionality. Since I’m using an old machine, what I want is lightweight, not all-in-one and very powerful… The goal of this project is not to build a huge yet powerful file manager, but a slim and useful one. I’m not going to add too much functionality to this software… Let file manager be file manager, not a combination of web browser, media player, archiver, CD-burner, and anything you can think of. A file manager containing everything actually looks like nothing.”
One of the main reasons I’m drawn to PCManFM (which in many respects looks a lot like Nautilus, and even more like Thunar, the standard file manager for the XFCE desktop environment), is that it has support for tabs. Tabs? Yep, tabs… just like in Firefox and nearly every other web browser out there. Why is this important? Because how often do you find yourself wanting to look inside a particular folder, while also looking inside another one? With most file managers, you’d need to open up multiple windows, which is great for dragging and dropping, but tends to clutter up your screen.
With PCManFM, you can do it all in one window. Navigate to where you want to go, then open a new tab, and navigate to the second spot. You can even set PCManFM so that it automatically loads bookmarks in new tabs. The best part? You can drag items from one tab to the next. Just start your dragging, then drag the item into the tab at the top of the screen, wait a second, and you’ll suddenly be in that tab! It’s brilliant how easy it is and how simple.
Like most other file managers, PCManFM is able to display your file system in either icon view or list view. It also has a sidebar, which can show either a hierarchical view of your system, or all your system bookmarks. This is yet another handy way of moving items from place to place.
PCManFM also supports pop-up menus. Just right click on an item (or items), and up pops a menu, showing you all the programs that can open your file, along with an option to see the item’s properties display, and even to compress the item, using any compression tools you currently have installed.
Since many file actions can only be performed by someone with “root” access (the same as Administrator access on other operating systems), PCManFM also allows you to open certain folders or files as root. But just in case you forget you’re currently acting as an administrator, PCManFM puts up a helpful banner, to remind you that as root you can do practically anything (including cause severe damage to the computer), so be careful!
I really like PCManFM. It’s one of those projects that convinces me that Linux will never really die. Even if Ubuntu, OpenSUSE, Fedora, Red Hat and all the big players suddenly die out, there are indie developers, just like Hong Jen Yee, who are creating applications to take their place. PCManFM may not be the most powerful file manager around, but it has a ton of great features, looks great, is easy to use, and works well.
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