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Review: Dolphin 1.2.1 File Manager

Posted by Chris7mas on · 10 comments
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Dolphin was intended to replace Konqueror as the default file manager in KDE 4. The scope of Dolphin was to only provide a compact and easy-to-use file manager, without all the features and uses Konqueror has. And (I think) it succeeded. In the beginning most of the users were reticent regarding this idea, since Konqueror provided anything one could possibly ask from a file manager. Besides, most KDE fans thought Dolphin looks too much like with Nautilus and may be limited regarding usability and configuration. However, I see in Dolphin an appropriate manager for day-to-day use.

Introduction
Dolphin was intended to replace Konqueror as the default file manager in KDE 4. The scope of Dolphin was to only provide a compact and easy-to-use file manager, without all the features and uses Konqueror has. And (I think) it succeeded. In the beginning most of the users were reticent regarding this idea, since Konqueror provided anything one could possibly ask from a file manager. Besides, most KDE fans thought Dolphin looks too much like with Nautilus and may be limited regarding usability and configuration. However, I see in Dolphin an appropriate manager for day-to-day use.



Interface
Dolphin is split in three main components (except for the menubar and toolbar). The first one would be the Places widget, located by default to the left, and containing shortcuts to the most important places like home directory, root, trash, and mounted devices. The center is occupied with the file browser, while to the right there is the file information widget. The good thing is that the Places and Information widgets can be moved and grouped wherever one likes. Another plus is the way the icons in the Places tab resize depending on the tab's width.

Features
Dolphin comes with tab support (the usual CTRL+T and CTRL+N shortcuts by default, also the KDE-specific CTRL+, and CTRL+. for switching to the previous and, respectively, next tab). Although not visible by default, the location bar can be shown using the standard CTRL+L shortcut.



Regarding configuration, Dolphin offers all the necessary and specific options for a regular file manager: from sorting files by name, size, date, type etc to file previews, a huge number of zoom levels for icons (with a zoom slider which can be shown or hidden via Settings -> Configure Dolphin -> General tab), the ability to browse through archives (by embedding Ark) and several more. It allows three view modes for files: icons, details and columns, and it also includes the option to split tabs vertically (left/right). Basically, all the important features in Konqueror's file manager can be found in Dolphin too.

Split left/right

As in every standard KDE application, you can configure the shortcuts in the Settings -> Configure shortcuts menu option.

If you miss buttons like Up (Alt+Up) or Zoom In/Out from the toolbar, you can add these by right-clicking on the toolbar and going to the Configure Toolbars... option.

Conclusion
Since my main system is Debian Lenny (KDE3) I must say I did not have much time to test KDE4 (although lately I spent some time with Kubuntu Jaunty Beta), but I was impressed in a pleasant way by Dolphin. What I've read before was mostly how crappy of a file manager it is, how limited it is and so on. Although I prefer Konqueror, I must say this isn't true: Dolphin is actually pretty feature-complete and easy to use.



It's true that once you get used in Konqueror, for example, to open pictures, text files etc. in a new tab, it will be hard to get unused to this when in Dolphin. But Dolphin's purpose is not to be Konqueror and that's it. And it is not so 'basic' and tiny as some make it look. In time, it will probably become the file manager of choice for the majority of KDE4 users (if not already).

About

Do you use Dolphin on a daily basis? Do you prefer it over Konqueror or use another file manager in KDE4? Please share it in the comments below.

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Comments (10)

tracyanne ·
Konqueror is just as limited as Dolphin, because the file management part of Konqueror is now replaced with Dolphin.
SamShazaam ·
I was one of those people who were hesitant to change away from Konqueror. However I find that Dolphin is able to do many tasks, such as daily backups, much faster than Konqueror.
tracyanne ·
OH well you have Dolphin which ever you use, and you're welcome to it.
jacog ·
I have grown rather fond of Dolphin too. The only feature I miss is the fact that in konq you were able to split the panes any way you want and as often as you want. But in retrospect, I didn't use that feature all that much anyway.
Bob_Robertson ·
Back when I first used Netscape (on SunOS before Win95 existed), I was very pleased that I could use it to "browse" the local file system as well as web sites. Of course, there wasn't the "drag and drop" and other file manager functionality that came later with I.E. and Konqueror, but even just having browse capability was a massive improvement over having to "cd ; ls -al" at the command prompt.

Konqueror provided a "one stop shopping" experience, and I like that. Right now I've got 5 tabs, a local file manager, sftp:// to a server, LXer, local weather, and etc.

So two of five are used for file managing, and I like that both local and remote are given to me to deal with in exactly the same way.

I haven't tried Dolphin yet, being "once burned twice shy" after my first experience with KDE4, but my hope is that the same level of integration is possible. I wouldn't want to take a step backwards in functionality at this point.
tracyanne ·
@Bob, that's why I upgraded to Ubuntu 8.10 rather than Mandriva 2009.0.
DiBosco ·
Quoting: @Bob, that's why I upgraded to Ubuntu 8.10 rather than Mandriva 2009.0.


I just stuck with 2008.1 rather than upgrading at all. On my spare machine though I've been playing around with Debian Lenny rather than Cooker which seems to have its good points and bad points. One thing Debian does make you realise is just how much effort Mandriva put into making Linux easier for noobs! Either that or I'm so used to Mandriva's way of doing things and just not familiar with Debian's. (I'm not convinced of the latter though!)
herzeleid ·
Quoting:One thing Debian does make you realise is just how much effort Mandriva put into making Linux easier for noobs!
I haven't tried mandriva since it was called mandrake, but I did install debian lenny on my laptop recently to get a feel for it, tried in vain to get wireless up and running, and decided that it would make a great server platform.

Afterwards I was glad and relieved to re-install ubuntu 8.10 on the laptop and everything "just worked" out of the box.
tracyanne ·
Quoting:I just stuck with 2008.1 rather than upgrading at all.


I discovered that I needed a later version of the kernel than comes with 2008.1, to be able to use the iPhone with my Linux box, and by happen stance I discovered that the 2.6.27.x version that comes with the EeeBuntu (8.10) that installed on the net book works perfectly, so I upgraded my main lappy to Ubuntu 8.10 as well, rather than try Mandriva 2009.0, which has 2.6.26.x, because I don't like the way KDE has been eviscerated.

Ubuntu has grown on me, and I really like it, especially the way in which adding bling is almost a trivial exercise, and the 3D desktop can be turned on or off in a moment..
Bob_Robertson ·
I had to do a reinstall last week, due to some astounding file corruption. My /usr/bin directory had lots of files with all ????????????? in the date/group/owner/size areas, and of course they wouldn't execute. Ok.

Anyway, since I had an opportunity for the first complete install on this machine in quite a while, I decided to do a clean Debian Lenny.

KDE3.5, 2.6.26, C is for cookies, that's good enough for me....

I am impressed. Oh, sure, I've been doing Lenny since it was unstable, but the install was clean and easy, defaults work perfectly, even the esoteric wifi card was both detected correctly and the in-kernel Atheros driver finally worked (instead of having to install the MadWifi driver).

The Nvidia driver was put in automatically also, so the two "I have to do it by hand" hardware problems of this old Sony have been solved. Yippie!

I still have to use an xorg.conf in order to turn off scrolling on this touch-pad, but hey, I'm seriously cool with that little bit of work compared with how much I had to do in 2003 when I first got the machine.

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