Tabbed file manager for GNOME - PCManFM 0.3.2, a fast, lightweight, yet featureful new choice.

Nautilus is currently one of the greatest file manager on GNOME which is absolutely powerful. However, for people who have relatively limited system resource, or those who want to keep their desktop simpler and cleaner, is there any lightweight replacement? Besides, too many opened folders often make our desktop crowded, is there any possibility to get tabbed browsing interface in GNOME file managers? The anwser to these questions is yes.

PCMan File Manager, also known as PCManFM, is a new choice for lightweight desktop which tried its best to keep everything simple and preserves most of the required features at the same time. There is a screenshot on official homepage giving you the first impression about what PCManFM looks like. http://pcmanfm.sourceforge.net/ There are more screenshots with brief descriptions on the official site.

Here is a short list of the important features PCManFM has:

1. Extremly fast and lightweight (smaller memory footprint and shorter startup time)
2. Can be started in one second on normal machines
3. Tabbed browsing (similiar to Firefox)
4. Drag & drop support
5. Support mount/umount/eject for volumes (Linux-only, requires HAL)
6. Provide desktop icons (with basic wallpaper support)
7. File archiving support (simple GUI frontend for tar.gz, tar.bz2, zip)
8. Files can be dragged among tabs
9. Load large directories in reasonable time
10. File association support (default application)
11. Basic thumbnail support (for pictures with supported formats)
12. Bookmarks support
13. Handles non-UTF-8 encoded filenames correctly
14. Provide icon view and detailed list view
15. Standard compliant (follows FreeDesktop.org specs)
16. Clean and user-friendly interface (GTK+ 2)
17. Desktop independent (isn't tight to any specific environment and has fewer dependencies)

Far from others, the goal of this little file manager is not being a powerful and all-in-one solution, but to be a simple, fast, lightweight, and clean application *just* fits the users' need. No more, no less. If UNIX had taught us anything, it must be "one program had better only do one thing, and do its best." So, let file managers be file managers, and simply manage files.

PCManFM tries to reach a balance between the minimal requirement of a X11 file manager and the minimal resource usage. If you like the idea of this project, please give it a hand. (Apparently, the most important thing it lacks is a nice icon. lol) No matter what can you do, from writing source code, testing, debugging, translating, advertising, to simply sending a mail to encourage the developers, any kind of help will be highly appreciated. Project PCManFM needs you, and hopes it can serve your needs.

Dedicated to the greatest desktop environment, GNOME.