GNOME Files

Nautilus is the default file manager of the Gnome project, which programmed a software based working environment for Unix systems. Its name is an allusion to the shell of the nautilus. Nautilus has been developed by Eazel.

The source code of the Nautilus file manager is in contrast to the Finder on the Mac or the Windows Explorer under the GNU General Public License ( GPL) freely available.

Nautilus replaced the file manager gmc and has been an integral part of Gnome 1.4 Gnome project. Nautilus is configurable, provides functions for system control and supports various file types.

Fierce controversy led the change introduced with version 2.6, new directories that are opened in separate windows, the so-called spatial mode ( spatial mode), rather than as before in the same window ( browser - mode or navigational mode called ). This change was reversed again with version 2.30.

History

Originally Nautilus goes back to the long-time Apple developer Andy Hertzfeld. For the development of the package, he founded the software company specially eazel, Inc. According to his plans, the file manager should indeed be self free and open source software, but integrate fee-based services, which should ensure the Company's income. Since the file manager used until then in the Gnome desktop gmc, a graphic version of the Midnight Commander, was generally regarded as too old-fashioned and not competitive with the Konqueror of competing K Desktop Environment, eazels plans were to create a modern control center for the free desktop, mostly welcomed. In the wake of the dotcom bubble succeeded Hertzfeld to acquire about 15 million U.S. dollars in start-up capital for its business model and pursue the development of Nautilus. In the company announcements Nautilus was not indicated as "File Manager", but as " graphical shell ". While the precise meaning of this key word was not clear, but it meant, in practice, embedding extensive functionality in the file manager, which partly duplicate the functionality of other components of the desktop, such as the embedding of Mozilla - functionally very limited - browser, the possibility RSS Feeds to subscribe, see the help pages and play MP3 audio files. For the accelerated File Search eazel also produced its own indexing service called Medusa. Even for smoothing screen fonts ( anti- aliasing) on the desktop brought Nautilus with their own components as anti-aliasing was not yet implemented in the underlying toolkit Gtk 1.2.

Eazels software catalog should also allow for updating installed software packages from the file manager, with which, however, the functionality of the respective distribution 's package management was duplicated.

In addition, a link to the planned eazel services was integrated, but of which only a free data storage on the Internet, similar to Apple's iDisk was realized. Even before the company could proceed to bring out the 1.0 version of the program and to offer fee-based services, the company was forced to declare bankruptcy and put on 15 May 2001 business operations. The development of the area under the GPL program was subsequently taken over by volunteers of the Gnome developer community.

  • Version 1.0 was released in the spring of 2001 and was part of Gnome 1.4. In accordance with generally perceived as very full-bodied Announcements, many users were disappointed with the product finally available. Due partly to the enormous consumption of resources and the associated low working speed and poor integration into the desktop.
  • Version 2.0 was ported to GTK 2.0. Here, the working speed about the display of help pages has been significantly improved, and some redundant functions have been removed from the program. Even in subsequent versions, continued the trend for purification. Hertzfeld was disappointed later on the chosen path from the Gnome project and stated that his vision was not realized.
  • Version 2.2 included a lot of changes to adapt to the Nautilus Human Interface Guidelines ( HIG).
  • Version 2.4 moved the " desktop " directory to ~ / Desktop ( the tilde represents the "home " directory ) to be compatible with the freedesktop.org standards.
  • Version 2.6 - the spatial mode (see en: Spatial_file_manager ) was standard
  • Version 2.14 - Integration of the Beagle desktop search engine
  • Version 2:24 - Availability of tabs (tabs )
  • Version 2.30 - departure from the spatial mode as the default back to browser mode. In addition, introduction of a split view that is similar to two-pane file managers.
  • Version 3.4 - has been extended to an undo function
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