Nautilus file manager - Definition and Overview

Nautilus in spatial mode

Nautilus in browse Mode

Nautilus is the official file manager for the GNOME desktop. It is designed to be primarily a file manager, but it also includes support for web and file viewing. The name is a pun on the shell of the nautilus. It replaced GMC in GNOME 1.4 and was default from 2.0 onwards.

It was the flagship product of the now defunct Eazel Inc.

History

• Version 1.0 was the version in Gnome 1.4. It had performance problems.
• Version 2.0 was basically a port to GTK 2.0.
• Version 2.2 saw a lot of changes to make it more compliant with User Interface Guidelines.
• Version 2.4 switched the desktop folder to ~/Desktop (the ~ represents the user's "Home" folder) to be compliant with freedesktop.org standards.

In the version included with GNOME 2.6, Nautilus switched to a spatial interface. The "classic" interface is still available by a filing cabinet shaped icon, or by using Gconf-editor to set the following key to "true":

/apps/nautilus/preferences/always_use_browser

External links

• Official web page (http://www.gnome.org/projects/nautilus/)
• Introduction to spatial Nautilus (http://www.bytebot.net/geekdocs/spatial-nautilus.html)
• Guide to Nautilus on Wikibooks (http://wikibooks.org/wiki/Using_GNOME_:_File_manager)
• Gnome for Debian Nautilus (http://wiki.debian.net/index.cgi?Nautilus).