Hi,
do you share my impression that caja is a bit feature-thin, and even not that light-weight after all? I tried dolphin, loved it, but I couldn`t get it to really integrate, plus, it took ages to start. Do you think it actually is a good idea to change the default file manager at all?! If yes, any recommendation? Thumbnails in the file picker and “send to…” to any folder you like would be great. I’m using a thinkpad t500.
Thank you in advance!
Best,
Kurt
I have tried Caja, Dolphin, Nautilus, and Thunar. I really don’t have an issue with any of them. Maybe my requirements are not that challenging. I am satisfied with Caja and how it integrates well with Mate. I especially like how I can graphically set up network shares using Caja. I have no recommendations for a new file browser and most likely will be satisfied with whatever 18.04LTS supports.
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If you're looking for something light and functional, I'd recommend SpaceFM. I'm using it on a Debian/Fluxbox minimal build.
Here it is the way I generally use it...
I'd say it's worth a try anyway.
Regards,
Jay
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Thumbnails in List View would be great. I installed Nautilus alongside Caja, but it is not as convenient as just one File Viewer. Still a bit fed up about that. It worked fine in12.04.
I’ve been satisfied with Caja. What features do you find it missing?
I take the opportunity so say that I think Caja is very good. The best GTK file-manager?
Dolphin has a few tricks up its sleeve though. Customizable toolbar(s). Very useful preview/details sidepane that can be used simultaneously with the navigation sidepane. Also preview/tooltips if you want.
Actually I like the simplicity of Caja. But sometimes I would prefer something like Dolphin (when you need file info at a glance). I still haven't used Dolphin QT5 a lot, but it's possible it integrates better in a GTK environment than Dolphin QT4. It seems that QT5 apps pick up the GTK icon theme, which is nice.
All I really want from Caja is that custom background colour is added back. I think there is a chance of this happening in the next MATE release. 
I'm not against the idea of using two different file-managers for different needs, just like I sometimes use two different webbrowsers for different needs.
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Not really for future versions, simply because Caja is part of MATE and Ubuntu MATE has that objective to beautifully integrate the MATE desktop environment.
If Caja lacks any features, you could see if they've been raised upstream. Or, you do have the freedom to switch to another file manager and set it as your default on your system.
It's actually fairly easy to install an alternate and set it as the default from the Preferred Applications option:
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