Most file managers I’ve encountered default to icon view. One of the first things I do is set the default to detailed list view. Might be a preference for seeing names and dates over many identical folder icons, or just an old habit from using Windows. But I’d be curious to hear about the benefits of icon view and why it’s usually the default in Linux GUI file managers.
What does everyone else use and any reasons to prefer one over the other?
Detail unless it’s pictures or something where the icon is a preview of the file’s content.
List. I hate icon view. Hate it
Detailed list view for everything except videos and images, and sometimes even for those
Detail view forever.
Detailed view all the way
ls -hal
ls -shitwhich is (iirc, guessing from memory): block size, human readable sizes, inodes, sort by time.I’ve personally become a fan of
-rtAh, to see the most recently modified files last (i.e. above my prompt).
Terminal.
All jokes aside, its personal preference. If you’re working in a dense file tree, you probably need the info that details view gives you. Icon view really only matter for media.
Dolphin filemanager from KDE. Nowadays I default to “compact” view without “preview” enabled. This is similar to “Icon” view, but the icons are small. Lot of files scrolls horizontal instead vertical.
- filenames in compact mode can be longer in one line, which is kind of similar to the look as “details” view, but are all displayed in a multiple rows instead one row
- preview disabled, because this is extremely fast, as I have ton of files that do not even have a preview image
That’s my default. Occasionally I enable preview image and switch to bigger “icon” view when I look into images or videos. Or sometimes I enable “details” view when needed. In normal usage I don’t need the details anyway.
When I am not on the terminal, I use list/detail view all the time. In the details most of the time only last modification date is relevant to me. I always make the list icons one step smaller as the default and sort directories before files in Nautilus.
I don’t need thumbnails. When I need to see pictures, I open them with the now new image viewer in Gnome and use the arrow keys to go through, if I am unsure what I am searching for. I most cases I go by file name.
I prefer details since it’s easier for me to scan visually, with my eyes only having to go straight down, to find either a name, date, or size. Sorting I also find more intuitive. However, I prefer icon view for my pictures and videos folders
ranger, a terminal file browser, which is obviously a list
if i need a gui file browser, i use pcmanfm with normal grid view
My graphical goto tool is double commander, so lists. In the terminal, it’s either ls -hal, fzf or mc, depending on use case.
