Difference between Spatial/Browser modes in Nautilus

[Mario Vukelic]

On Tue, 2006-06-13 at 03:50 -0500, Albert Wagner wrote:
> no_ubuntu_spatial is now marked because I noted that it apparently 
> controls whether or not a new window erases it's parent, and for the 
> time being I prefer not to erase parents.

Exactly. Ubuntu once (in Hoary IIRC) changed the Gnome default - Gnome
by default left the parent folder open when opening a subfolder, Ubuntu
didn't. If this key is enabled, nautilus behaves as per Gnome default.

> The main reason that Spatial Mode appeared not to work was that I was 
> starting Nautilus by clicking on the File Manager icon, which always 
> starts in Browser mode.  When I start Nautilus by clicking on an item
> in Places then it starts up in Spatial Mode.

I see. In general: the spatial metaphor hinges on the equivalence of
folder <-> window. In fact, in the spatial model, there is no file
manager "window" in the sense that you look through a window at
something. There is just a folder, which can be closed or open, and each
open folder is an individual entity. All states of an open folder are
per-folder.
Therefore, not only you you get an open folder when clicking something
in "Places", but whenever you doubleclick a closed folder object.

I used spatial a while, and I think it works really well if you organize
the files in a way that fits the metaphor (not too deeply nested etc). 


> Thank you very much for your patience and excellent help.

Glad I could help

> BTW, Have you ever used ROX-Filer? 

I tried it briefly, but it was years ago when I used my home computers
much more than today, and I was interested in shaping them to my needs.
Back then I ran Ion as my window manager too :)
Nowadays I am a more casual user at home (and tied to Windows at work
unfortunately) and am happy to just stick with the Ubuntu defaults
mostly.