Linux Dummies 9th

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Part II: Getting Up to Speed with Linux
✓ Nautilus: The default file manager used in the GNOME desktop.
✓ Dolphin: The new file manager used in the KDE desktop.
✓ Konqueror: The old file manager used in the KDE desktop, still popular
today because of its versatility.
Of course, just because a file manager is the default for a desktop doesn’t
mean you have to use it! Any of the file-manager programs available in one
Linux desktop work just fine in another Linux desktop. In fact, if you install the
KDE desktop in Ubuntu, the Nautilus file manager still stays as the default —
but you can use whichever one you want.
Sailin’ through Folders with Nautilus
In the GNOME desktop environment, the default file manager is Nautilus.
Moving through the filesystem in Nautilus involves a couple of different skills
than using the command line. You may know exactly where in the filesystem
you want to go, but not what to click to get there. In the first place, you need
to know where you want to begin. This decision isn’t as difficult as it sounds.
You have two options for navigating your filesystem with Nautilus:
✓ Spatial mode: Displays the contents of a single folder in a window. If you
double-click a folder, it opens a new window with the contents of that folder,
keeping the original window still open. Figure 7-1 shows spatial mode in use.
Figure 7-1:
The user
rich’s Home
folder in
Nautilus,
using the
spatial
mode.
✓ Browser mode: Displays the contents of a folder in a window, along with
a navigation bar to the left (as shown in Figure 7-2). If you double-click
a folder in the window, that folder opens in the same window; it’s much