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Feba
wrote on the 30 Dec 08 at 13:30
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Agreed. I don't think we should need three separate programs for fairly simple data management stuff (Nautilus, Disk Usage Analyzer, and Gparted). Of course those things have their places for more powerful utilities, but for beginners, they really ought to be included in the file manager; especially when you consider that gparted isn't even included by default.
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kreep
wrote on the 30 Dec 08 at 15:11
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nah, just make sure gparted is installed by default. fits all your formatting/renaming needs, no fuss with terminal. (there's an idea for it, somewhere.)
percentage of free space is not really useful, and it already does show the amount of free space.
about hardware properties: nautilus works with partitions, not devices. you can see hardware info in hal device manager, and that's the way it should be. i don't need hardware info obfuscating my filebrowser.
cleaning hidden folders is actually something that would be nice, but not enough to make me vote +1 for it, and i'm pretty sure it was suggested in another idea.
the advanced tasks are also better left outside filebrowser.
backing up is actually quite interesting: is there a tool to save image of a partition as a file? (other than truecrypt. :) )
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young
wrote on the 30 Dec 08 at 15:40
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small powerful tools are imo better than a big bloated mess that is hard to maintain and improve.
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genijus
wrote on the 30 Dec 08 at 16:04
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+1
Very good point. I noted the lack of these functions myleft when I started using Ubuntu, and would LOVE these options to be available.
Good stuff!
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you forgot HFS filesystem, and so other filesystems are supported on Linux
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Feba
wrote on the 30 Dec 08 at 16:56
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kreep, young: On a philosophical level, I agree that these things could be handled, maybe better, by separate applications. However, then we start to get into the problem of the user managing these things. Why, for example, do I open nautilus by clicking in "places", but when I want to check disk usage do I go to "accessories", and when I want to open my partition editor (assuming gparted is added by default), I need to go to System/Administration?
In order to solve these, we'd need to add a "file management" tab to the menu. Ok, so we could probably just modify places for that. But you still have the problem of the user being confused on how to do it. If Ubuntu wants to be easy to use, things need to be where the users should expect them to be, and be easy to get to.
Imagine someone wants to format a USB drive. I believe this is actually already supported, but I haven't checked, and don't have the means to do so right now. Anyway, with separate applications, they would have to open Gparted, which first of all dumps them to their main hard drive, which probably contains /. Even if the user notices this is their main drive, and doesn't wind up erasing it, they then have to switch. The switcher in gparted is pretty good, but how is someone who isn't really familiar with computers supposed to know what "/dev/sdc" is? How can they tell the difference between three different USB sticks, otherwise? Especially if they're unlabeled.
It might be more powerful, it might be better from a software perspective, but from an ease-of-use perspective, it's absolute hell.
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aderach
wrote on the 31 Dec 08 at 01:55
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I agree! It's so boring not to found all advanced task in a simple "right click" on a disk, usb or not.
It's so strange to open the system monitor only to know the disk usage.
An other things quite strange for beginners: why USB keys are still powered on (light on) when it safety removed, although Windows is able to turn it off...
I had also problem with 4Gb usb Keys, and phones...
It's not a goal to copy Windows, but for newbies, it's important to be better and simpler.
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Craig73
wrote on the 31 Dec 08 at 06:35
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I agree with those saying it should be separate programs... perhaps Nautilus needs a plug in architecture, or someway to cleanly integrate those external programs; it's pretty annoying having to go to the separate program when we are very used to right clicking on a drive and expecting to be able to perform actions on that drive (format, rename, etc)
@aderach... in my case the light is off on my USB key when mounted and the light flashes with activity. I wish it was on when mounted (and yes should be off when unmounted)
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"It's so strange to open the system monitor only to know the disk usage."
+1
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andr983
wrote on the 31 Dec 08 at 10:01
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I also believe the best way to implement this idea is to integrate the easier and light-weight functions and to link the heavier ones, for example by offering to format a disk both on the main menu and on the right click menu, and calling Gparted on click event. Because not everyone know that they should use Gparted for formatting disks.
+1
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this is a wonderful idea!
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toxwa
wrote on the 4 Jan 09 at 00:45
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I agree with andr983 that the easy, small things (like showing % disk used) could/should be integrated and that stuff like format, making a backup should be left to separate programs but linked with a right click option in nautilus.
And the advanced users should be able to change the default programs for these tasks.
Some features shouldn't even be installed by default, but when a user clicks an option, nautilus could suggest installing certain packages (much like the suggestion to download an mp3 codec when first opening an .mp3 on a clean install). Most basic users never use encryption/disk quota/etc. so they shouldn't be bothered with it.
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ziroday
(Brainstorm moderator)
wrote on the 14 Jan 09 at 11:05
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Split Rationale and solution.
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barbedsaber
(Idea reviewer)
wrote on the 14 Jan 09 at 15:47
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I think, this functionality is so basic, it should be done by the file-manager, then again, bloating nautilus seems like a bad idea as well, what happened to do one thing, and do it well.
I am more confused than when I started, but I wanted my opinion to be heard.
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diegoj
wrote on the 14 Jan 09 at 17:06
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IMHO Nautilus should perform this tasks over hard-disks.
It's the default file explorer in Ubuntu, so Nautilus should contain basic functionality over files, folders, and disks.
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I'm new to this forum so please forgive me if I mess up. Anyway, all this talk of formatting disks, sticks, for new users.. Why not just have a Tools Menu option.
Format Disk
etc etc
Now, if I need to format a USB stick, SD, and I have a hub, and 3 USB sticks, SD cards, whatever, which one is which? How about if you gave the use the option of clicking on it and then lighting the light on the USB Stick, SD. Obviously you'd need a way of conveying the information to look at the USB Sticks, SD, etc. That way you don't have to go all thru the sdc, sdb, etc.. explanations.
I believe that if using an SD card, it is in a Reader and that has a light to indicate action.
By the way, if the Tools Menu option was added, why couldn't it be a module? That way you could have as a Menu item as well. Is that even possible? Nautilus itself wouldn't get bloated that way.
As I said, maybe I've worded this wrong, but I think you get the idea and I hope I have made some sense.
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IMHO basics harmless things should be in Nautilus.
For the rest, Nautilus can provide option "Open Disk in Disk Manager" to automatically launch to-be-introduced "Disk Manager." Formatting, conversions, backups etc - do not belong to Nautilus, which is file manager.
Trying to squeeze the functions int Nautilus would force developers to compromise. Putting functions into separate application would allow to provide richer set of functionality, which is often a necessity when recovering from disk corruption.
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I'm okay with craig73, but it's not a question of what we're used to do. It's just that when we are doing some stuff in nautilus, using a shortcut (or anything else calling the good app) would help the user know which app he sould use, and would help him doing it faster (he wouldn't have to reselect the folder/mount point/disk).
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deragon
wrote on the 20 Jan 09 at 00:45
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Nautilus could show more then one option that is managed by an external program. Nautilus should surely provide "Format" for usb sticks. Probably "Encrypt" too. It should also provide a "Advanced disk manager" option for more advance options like creating partions, etc...
But regardless of the solution, it should offer the choice to install FreeDOS on a removable storage device such a USB key. This feature is a must for those who want to flash their BIOS or run some DOS based rescue tool. Of course, an option to install a bootable mini Linux also should be offered for the same reasons.
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on5sl
(Idea reviewer)
wrote on the 23 Jan 09 at 08:54
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All this functionality is already in the program gparted...but indeed some features like formatting a pen drive or renaming it could be provided by nautilus. Altough a don't agree with your big list in the first solution...
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diegoj
wrote on the 23 Jan 09 at 13:43
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Do you think that people really know what gparted is?
Don't you think that it would improve usability integrate some features in Nautilus (asking for password, of course)?
Or it could be done by launching gparted when select some options in Nautilus.
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yeah i had to ask my friend with a WINDOWS computer to format a flash drive for me, because ubuntu can't do this.
and no programs in add/remove apps will do it either.
yet another example of windows superiority:
in windows, right click on flash drive, hit format
in ubuntu, who knows....4 hours of searching later find out there is no way of doing this
windows: 5 minutes
ubuntu: 4 hours
i hate ubuntu...
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