Replace Nautilus with the Faster New PCMan File Manager 0.4.1.1 stable (2008-05-12) which was just Released!

Tired of how slow nautilus is? Check out PCMan File Manager its simply amazing!

PCMan File Manager - Simply Rocks, It is an extremly fast and lightweight file manager which features tabbed browsing and user-friendly interface and more...

Features:
Replaces Nautilus in Places Menu
Extremly fast and lightweight
Can be started in one second on normal machine
Tabbed browsing (Similiar to Firefox)
Built-in volume management (mount/umount/eject through HAL)
Drag & Drop support
Files can be dragged among tabs
Load large directories in reasonable time
File association support (Default application)
Thumbnail for image files
Bookmarks support
Handles non-UTF-8 encoded filenames correctly
Provide icon view and detailed list view
Standard compliant (Follows FreeDesktop.org)
Clean and user-friendly interface (GTK+ 2)

Story - Why Hon Jen Yee made this software via his site:

  • 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. I've tried ROX-filer, which really rocks, but I cannot get used to its user interface. After trying XFCE thunar, I think it may be the best, but It really lacks something I desire, especially something like tabbed-browsing. I surf the web, try to dig in SourceForge and Freshmeat, but nothing special found. Some file managers are lightweight and fast, don't support i18n, though. So, the best solution I can figure out might be developing my own. That's why this project is started, and why it's named after my nickname on the internet, PCMan.
  • 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. If UNIX has told us something, that must be "One program had better do one thing, and do its best." 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, and make the newbies confusing.
  • I borrow the interface from Firefox, Windows Explorer, and nautilus, and try to aggregate their useful parts. Most hotkeys are compatible with Firefox, so users can get used to it easily. Files can be easily dragged to other tabs in the same window. You can open related folders in the tabs of the same window without making the task bar over-crowded, and keep your desktop cleaner.
  • Currently, this software is still under development and there is still much improvement to do. Anyone intreasted in this project and wants to join us is welcomed. Any kind of contribution, such as testing, bug reporting, translation, patches, advertiing, and artwork are highly appreciated.
This morning I packaged the new PCMan File manager via checkinstall, so im not quite sure if it will work well on other users systems.

Here is how to install PCMan File Manager:
Download PCManFM Here to your desktop
Then double click the file and click install, once installed you can access PCMan File Manager via Applications->System Tools->PCMan File Manager

Please visit the developers site here for any updates/news, and source code

Comments (7)

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Interesting alternative, but it doesn't have a single-click alternative in it's configuration which to me is a major disadvantage.
And it does't have a history buttons as I remeber, only location adres bar,,, Too bad...
Pretty good.
For me, what is missing is is the fact the icon emblems and the custom icons for folders.
So far I'm impressed. Nautilus is fine, but is way too slow on Hardy to load even reasonably small directory trees (even after disabling all but the most basic columns).
PC file man loads all of my usual locations in the blink of an eye (as it should be on a quad core 2.4 Ghz with 2GB ram, 4GB swap, and SATA HDD).

Love the tabs, speed and great compact layout in details mode. Keep up the good work.
Theo Cleminson's avatar

Theo Cleminson · 872 weeks ago

Okay, so there are a few features I miss so far:
1) samba URLs don't work (unless there's a different format?), eg with Nautilus I can browse smb://hostname/share
2) deleted files are deleted (not moved into Garbage Bin). Would be nice if Shift-Delete deleted for real, and normal Delete just did the move.
3) Copied directory trees can't "merge" into target - i.e. target directory must be completely empty before the copy will proceed.

I'm still impressed with performance and other features so will stick with it (and revert to nautilus for browsing network shares etc).
FYI PCMan is now available through Add/Remove Applications. Doesn't look like it replaced the Places menu though
Currently I have PCMan installed on my ubuntu systems. Also tried bsc and krusader. Truth is PCMan has a lot of features, but why am I still looking for the best file manager? If my search has no better results, I'll stick with krusader as a GUI of mc and PCMan as an enhanced nautilus file manager.

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