When comparing Nautilus (AKA Gnome Files) vs SpaceFM, the Slant community recommends SpaceFM for most people. In the question“What are the best GUI file managers for UNIX-like systems?” SpaceFM is ranked 6th while Nautilus (AKA Gnome Files) is ranked 9th. The most important reason people chose SpaceFM is:
Just right click on any menu or menu option (including the context menu itself) and you'll be allowed to customize it. This lets you add support or integration for features you find missing.
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Pros
Pro Allows you to access remote or local locations
On recent versions of GNOME, you can click the Files entry in the panel to access the a specific location (remote or local), connect to a certain server (FTP, SFTP, SAMBA, etc.), access your bookmarks, open a new window, as well as to change its default functionality.
Pro Widely supported
The program is distributed as a single source archive, which can be configured, compiled and installed on almost any Linux flavor. There are no binary files for a specific Linux distribution, but you can install it directly from the default software channels of your operating system.
Pro Google drive integration
Pro Easy to use and familiar user interface for Ubuntu users
The user interface of Files is very familiar to Ubuntu users, most probably because Canonical still uses Nautilus (an old version of it) as the default file manager for its world’s most popular free operating system, Ubuntu Linux.
It split into two parts, a sidebar and the main file viewer. While you already know what the latter can do for you, the sidebar offers quick access to Places, Devices and Network locations, as well as any other bookmarks that you can add whenever you want.
Pro Convenient file moving progress
Nautilus shows the progress of file move operations in the top right. This doesn't get in your way. You can keep using the window while the operation is progressing.
Pro Fully supports DPI
Pro Incredibly customizable
Just right click on any menu or menu option (including the context menu itself) and you'll be allowed to customize it. This lets you add support or integration for features you find missing.
Pro Minimal dependencies
It only needss gtk, udev, desktop-file-util and shared-mime-info which is available in most systems.
Pro Highly extensible
Functionalities can be extended by user scripts as plugins. Some scripts can also be downloaded from https://github.com/IgnorantGuru/spacefm-plugins/wiki. Plugins can be exported too.
Pro Tab and panel support
SpaceFM supports up to 4 individually customizable panels as well as multi-tabbed file management.
Pro No back seat driver
Does not obstruct professional work by engrossing root warnings.
Pro Desktop management support
Can be used to set wallpaper and desktop icons with high configuration support.
Pro Easily open folder as root
Can open different folders as root, this way you don't have to use the terminal to move around files for which you need root permission.
Pro Gtk-2 and 3 support
Available in gtk2 and gtk3.
Pro Intuitive and extendable through plug-ins
Great UI, easy to use and configure, several plug-ins available to make everyday tasks even easier.
Cons
Con Mostly unconfigurable
There are not many ways to configure Nautilus to fit your needs. Besides what can be seen in the settings button you can't configure it further.
Con Gradually losing its features
Unlike most software, where new features are added over time, Nautilus (along with other Gnome applications) tends to lose features, and for unclear reasons.
Con Doesn't support "open as root"
Con No Tree View option any more
This is a crucial feature for my daily work with a file manager and without a Tree View option a file manager seems pointless to me.
The reason for dropping this feature is weird. Quoted from here:
"It is the list view after all. Tree models don't work well on
touch and it isn't consistent with the file chooser."
Con Slow
Seems to be one of few file managers that can take several seconds to open.
Con Comes with a ton of dependencies
Con Ugly
Con Some operations are slow
Because it tries to be as lightweight as possible and tries to use very little RAM. This can unfortunately lead to it being slow sometimes.