SpaceFM: Highly Customizable, Multi-Pane File Manager

SpaceFM is a highly customizable, multi-panel tabbed file manager, forked from the legacy PCManFM. It's currently in alpha, under heavy development, but it already seems pretty stable and usable.

SpaceFM features:

• highly customizable and lightweight
• multiple panels, windows, tabs
• side panes
• desktop manager
• device manager
• task manager
• plugins support
• find-as-you-type
• file search
• output control: monitor the stdout/stderr output of built-in and custom commands, with error detection and pop-up control, or run commands in a terminal
• System management: easily launch a new root window or a root terminal
• daemon mode

With SpaceFM, you can have two vertical panels, 2 horizontal panels as well as combinations like two vertical and one horizontal, etc:

You can also customize the toolbar, columns, icons, fonts, window title an icon, use single click, and so on. And of course, SpaceFM supports multiple views too: detailed, compact or icons and/or a treeview for the sidebar:

SpaceFM also comes with "find-as-you-type", which lets you quickly locate files in a folder, a feature that's partially broken in Nautilus since version 3. And if you want to find files on your system, SpaceFM has that covered too: it comes with a built-in file search tool which lets you search for files or find in files.

SpaceFM can even handle the desktop (draw the wallpaper and display icons on the desktop). But before enabling this feature, you'll have to disable your current file manager for handling the desktop - for example, if you're using Nautilus 3, you can use GNOME Tweak Tool: Desktop > Have file manager handle the desktop to disable it. Then, in SpaceFM to to View > Preferences and on the "Desktop" tab, enable "Wallpaper" and select a background image. And finally, run SpaceFM using: "spacefm --desktop".

Tip: if you're using a global menu, you'll have some empty space where the menu used to be. You can fix this by hiding the panel bar (View > Panel Bar). You can still easily show / hide the panels by using the menu (View > Panel 1, 2 etc.) or using F1, F2 and so on.

While probably many will enjoy the level of customizations available for SpaceFM, others might find it confusing at first. But if you're looking for a lightweight file manager that looks in almost any way you want it to, you'll definitely like SpaceFM.

Download SpaceFM .deb or source files

Arch Linux users can install the latest SpaceFM via AUR.


Also see: Double Commander (Dual Panel File Manager).

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Marlin Gets Unity Progress Bar Support

Marlin (which according to ammonkey, the lead developer, is "no longer an elementary app" but of course, that doesn't mean it won't be a part of elementary OS), got Unity progress bar support thanks to a patch by Marco Trevisan. Along with Unity progress bar, Marlin also got dynamic quicklists that allow you to show the copy dialog or cancel in-progress actions.

Since Marlin is no longer a part of the elementary project, it's not available in the elementary os daily PPA anymore and it now has its own daily PPA. Add the Marlin daily PPA and install it in Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot or 12.04 Precise Pangolin using the following commands:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:marlin-devs/marlin-daily
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install marlin

To also install the Dropbox and Ubuntu One plugins, use the following command:

sudo apt-get install marlin-plugin-dropbox marlin-plugin-ubuntuone

Report any bugs you may find @ Launchpad.

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Double Commander 0.5, Released (Dual Panel File Manager)

Double Commander is a very interesting cross-platform file manager inspired by Total Commander (it even supports Total Commander plugins). It uses two panels side by side and comes with a huge feature list: tabbed interface, multi-rename tool, embedded terminal, internal text editor and file viewer, browse archives (ZIP, TGZ, LZMA, RPM, RAR, DEB, etc.), extended search and is fully customizable.

And the feature list doesn't stop there. Here are the changes in the latest Double Commander 0.5:

• FTP support


• network support


• test archives command


• change file attributes


• more powerful differ tool


• option to choose number of parts in split file dialog


• file operations queue


• calculate/verify checksum


• 7Z, ACE, ARJ, TXZ archive support


• overlay icons support


• system icons support for the Qt version


• new toolbar configuration dialog


• enhanced image viewer


• lots more

All Double Commander versions have the "beta" status and there's a reason for that: some features are not complete, like the new FTP feature which basically lacks all the options one would expect it to have except... connecting to a FTP server. And you'll probably encounter a few bugs too. But even so, if you like a dual-panel file manager, give Double Commander a try because despite these issues, it's a really great application.

Install Double Commander in Ubuntu

To install Double Commander in Ubuntu (available for Ubuntu 11.04, 10.10 and 10.04), firstly add it's PPA using the command below:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:alexx2000/doublecmd

sudo apt-get update

There are two Double Commander flavors available for Linux: GTK and Qt. To install the GTK version, use the command below:

sudo apt-get install doublecmd-gtk

Or, to install the Qt version, use the following command:

sudo apt-get install doublecmd-qt

For other Linux distributions or Windows, check out the Double Commander download page.

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