When comparing GNOME Files (Nautilus) vs Ranger, the Slant community recommends Ranger for most people. In the question“What are the best file managers for UNIX-like systems?” Ranger is ranked 5th while GNOME Files (Nautilus) is ranked 17th. The most important reason people chose Ranger is:
Which makes for a good choice of file explorer for those that use machines without a GUI.
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Pros
Pro Minimalistic looking
It does what it is supposed to do, and leaves a lot of screen space to look for a file.
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 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 Allows you to access remote or local locations
On recent versions of GNOME, you can click the Files entry in the panel to access 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 Quick file preview
GNOME-sushi allows you to quickly view files without opening them. It supports most audio and video formats, but support for more can be added.
Pro Wayland-native
Can run under Wayland without XWayland.
Pro Supports natural sorting (not on all distros)
Dolphin, Deepin File Manager and Pantheon Files support this, too.
Pro Nautilus action configuration tool can configure systems in ways no other FM can
It can configure popup menu depending on file type.
Pro Can be used in terminal
Which makes for a good choice of file explorer for those that use machines without a GUI.
Pro Minimalist and efficient
There is no need for icons of files if headings are used. Previews of text documents and a simple design creates and efficient workflow.
Pro Vim-like bindings
Ranger has Vim-like keybindings which help a lot in increasing efficiency and speed up the workflow.
Pro Extensible, scriptable (with python)
Ranger allows the use of various scripts for calling on individual or multiple files, for file previews, or for other operations.
In commands.py the "my_edit"-function can be extended to do whatever in python can be done. Target files can be the file under the cursor (self.fm.thisfile.path), the files marked/selected in the current tab (self.fm.thistab.get_selection() ) and the files in the copy-buffer (add/remove: ya, yr) (respectively the delete-buffer: add/remove da/dr) (both: self.fm.copy_buffer).
The most appropriate list of files can be found out automatically, like so:
if self.fm.copy_buffer:
for file in self.fm.copy_buffer:
...
elif self.fm.thistab.get_selection():
for file in self.fm.thistab.get_selection():
...
else:
file = self.fm.thisfile.path
...
Pro File preview
Unlike other terminal file managers, Ranger can preview many files, including text files, archives, etc, but also pdf files, pictures and videos.
Pro Bookmark system
Makes it easy to jump to any specific folder locations you work with.
Pro Easily used with SSH
Pro Image preview support
Ranger can use w3m to preview images in terminal through framebuffer.
Pro Fast and responsive
This software is super fast and responsive in navigation.
Pro Treeview and listview (equal viewports) possible
Supports any number of viewports on folders side by side.
Pro PDF preview
This may fall under "File preview", but it is a very powerful feature for PDF files in particular.
Cons
Con It has lost so much functionality
As already stated, this is not well configurable anymore. One can not even start in dual pane mode for cut/copy and paste. Just a ridiculous transgression. It was great just 1-2 years ago, but over-simplification in this case is detrimental to functionality.
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 Outdated
It is not updated frequently and Ubuntu could stop using Nautilus and switch to Nemo.
Con Awful date modified column.
It should list by full year month day, no matter whether it was today, last month or years ago. Displays wrong time modified for photos I took and downloaded today (not exif time taken and not anything that makes sense). Not customizable in any way one would expect.
Con Has/had memory leaks
Sometimes about 600MB of RAM goes somewhere...
Con Forces you to constantly swap between mouse and keyboard
Con Slow at moving picture folders
A move, even to the same disk, can take a minute for a folder containing a hundred images.
Con Can't right click in list view mode with a long file list
If the file list is long enough to fill the screen, then there is no empty place to click for bringing the context menu. Need to change the view to Grid view, then right click.
Con Still does not remember per folder view
This is the last missing feature that was removed long time ago and makes Nemo competitive. Should be reimplemented remembering view type and icon size folder by folder.
Con Creating sub-folders within full folders is not possible anymore.
In order to create a new folder within another folder that is full to the bottom of the page, we must create a folder in an open area somewhere else, then move the sub-folder into that full folder. Even worse, we need to use the "Move to..." option, with so many extra clicks, instead of just being able to copy and paste as before.
Con "+ Other Locations" is a stupid change
"+ Other Locations" in the left pane now forces us to click twice or more in order to access additional drives, even the local "Computer." Having all of the drives listed on the left side was quick and easy, and the drive "Properties" were available just by right clicking once, although drive "Properties" is no longer available when clicking on "+ Other Locations," then right clicking on the drives.
I still use Debian 8 for the older Nautilus, even though the developers already damaged that older version as well. However, Nautilus is completely useless to me now in Debian 10 so I am seeking for a new graphical desktop to replace Gnome and Nautilus...I am fed up with the developers.
Con Has too many bugs
There are too many bugs at the current state for this file browser to be usable.
Con Bloated
Written in a scripted language. Enabling file previews makes it even slower.
Con Depends heavily on third party utilities
Con Difficult learning curve for people who are not used to Vim
Since it uses many of vim's keybindings, it may be hard for someone who does not use vim or does not know how to use vim to learn how to work with this file manager.
Con No way to calculate folder size
Con Needs heavy configuration to setup
Con No built-in ability to navigate FTP/SSH
Most other GUI-based file managers provide easy bookmarking and browsing of multiple FTP & SSH locations using either keys or keychain stored user credentials. Ranger doesn't have this.
Con A great idea but not GUI friendly
May be difficult to get past the fact that it asked for commands dd and cc and the likes to cut and or paste. Arch-Linux normally prides itself on not over-complicating things. Too bad ... a great idea with the 3 Smart Columns, but why would anyone prefer to need to learn 30 commands in order to cut and paste or copy a file or folder, or to see/change permissions.