LXDE Forums

lxde seems to defaulty use pcmanfm as file manager - would be interesting we being able to choose the file manager as option easily, like rox-filer, nautilus, gworkspace, etc.

nitrofurano wrote:lxde seems to defaulty use pcmanfm as file manager - would be interesting we being able to choose the file manager as option easily, like rox-filer, nautilus, gworkspace, etc.

You are kidding right?

@firmit: why could i be kidding? i don't understand.

PCManfm IS default in LXDE - it is what LXDE is built around. Kind of the corner-stone.

Yes - there is nothing keeping anyone from using the respective components individually, given its independent structure; you may use any component which constitutes LXDE, on any system - lxpanel, pcmanfm, lxsession, lxtask, lxrandr etc. It is kind of the fundamental idea of the lxde-team, as I have understood it. The components don't depend on each other. And here is the key - LXDE is a meta-package constituting of a base system, and some recommended packages (hal, gdm). If you like, you may make your own system any of these packages, but lxde needs the depend packages - as pcmanfm.

If you really like another file-manager - to answer your OP - you just simple install it - via your package-manager - depending on your distro. If you wan't to use gworkspace, just apt-get, and remove the speed-links to pcmanfm (the one on your panel and you may hide the ones in your menu) - and if you don't want PCManfm to handle the desktop - remove the the deamon at startup (you need to install another desktop/background handler) - but if you want to keep lxde, you need pcmanfm installed as it has dependencies to lxde-core.

To set another file-manager as default (!!) - right-click on lxpanel->panel settings->advanced.

My first comment was sarcastic - I know. But I believe, if you really want to keep using lxde, pcmanfm is a great companion, and will always be there

note: I am not a lxde-developer, and have no current affiliation with the lxde-team. The opinions here are strictly my own.

The problem of pcmanfm is the difficulty of getting closer to its development - some issues must be immediatelly fixed, like that serious confusion between 'documents' ('~/Documents') and 'home' ('~') (this may truly be painful on users like from netbooks or gPC which are havin LXDE as their first Linux experience on GUI) - and the scripts feature - even knowing pcmanfm is a little bit more developed than, for example, rox-filer.
I understand pcmanfm can be a very interesting light replacement for Nautilus and other file managers, but some huge and serious mistakes must be fixed as soon as possible, and some features (would not make it slower or heavier) must be implemented to increase hugelly its usability.
The problem of pcmanfm development is it's really hard to contact developers (i tried to send a mail, and no feedback), as forum, mailinglists, etc., sending suggestions and snippets - and this distance between pcmanfm and users is really nothing good.

nitrofurano wrote:(...)
The problem of pcmanfm development is it's really hard to contact developers (i tried to send a mail, and no feedback), as forum, mailinglists, etc., sending suggestions and snippets - and this distance between pcmanfm and users is really nothing good.

This is not good. I hope it changes!
I have addressed the lxde-list too - carefully suggesting a better bug-tracker, and usage of the official channels.