Long Live SpaceFM (Was once SpaceFM replacement)

[VastOne]

SpaceFM 1.0.0 has been packaged and released to SID repos (x64 version only so far)

NOTE - SpaceFM is now back in full time development and support mode

A million thanks to IgnorantGuru and his team for all of their efforts in this incredible application

As saddened by this as I am, there us no way around it... we must consider and discuss a SpaceFM replacement since it is no longer maintained.  Up until today's events I was fine with keeping spacefm until we could no longer afford to do it

All of you are wise and opinionated, please let's hear what you suggest and make a qualified decision on what we should go with

Since I chose SpaceFM from the beginning, I am not going to make any suggestion but will question everything and we will all come to a consensus

Thanks in advance for participating

[statmonkey]

I am guessing this is the first of many to go by the wayside, if indeed it has.  I really have no problems with Thunar tbh but frankly don't like these choices being made for me. 

I am old enough (too old in fact) to be familiar with the feeling in my gut.  The feeling that I am resisting the inevitable, many times before I have said to myself that oh this is no big deal I can make that compromise and live with this or that only to realize I am either too stupid or too stubborn to do so. I am pretty patient but not so good at sacrificing nebulous things like principles and standards. It grates on me, frustrates me and in general drives my borderline OCD crazy.  I imagine we are all familiar with Robert Frost's poem

TWO roads diverged in a yellow wood,   
And sorry I could not travel both   
And be one traveler, long I stood   
And looked down one as far as I could   
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
...
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—   
I took the one less traveled by,   
And that has made all the difference.

I feel that I am at that divergence right now and looking pretty longingly at the one well traveled but knowing in the end I will take the one less traveled by.

[jedi]

Not to turn this into a poetry fest, but statmonkey just posted one of my favorite Frost poems.  It is second or third on my personal favorites list.  My favorite one you might ask?  (or probably wont as most don't read poetry as far as I can tell)  Thanks statmonkey for posting that from "The Road Not Taken"...

Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening
By Robert Frost

Whose woods these are I think I know.   
His house is in the village though;   
He will not see me stopping here   
To watch his woods fill up with snow.   

My little horse must think it queer   
To stop without a farmhouse near   
Between the woods and frozen lake   
The darkest evening of the year.   

He gives his harness bells a shake   
To ask if there is some mistake.   
The only other sound's the sweep   
Of easy wind and downy flake.   

The woods are lovely, dark and deep,   
But I have promises to keep,   
And miles to go before I sleep,   
And miles to go before I sleep.

As I live in Maine and have snow so often, and live in the Great North Maine Woods, it is a near and dear kind of thing for me...

OK, so long spacefm.  You have long been on my machine keeping my files organized and in place for me faithfully and without fail.  I do understand IG's decision on his "hiatus" so as I said, so long.
Thunar is fine, small footprint, not a lot of dependencies, and isn't it already installed in VSIDO by default?  I know it used to be, and one just had to 'add' it to the FB menu.
Since losing spacefm, I have been playing with pcmanfm.  I've gone so far as to replace my menu items to reflect pcmanfm rather than spacefm.  I'm not sure of the size/footprint it would have on the ISO's.  I have been able to actually make it look just about exactly how I had spacefm customized to look for my tastes.  Like statmonkey, I customise the look/feel of my system quite a lot more than I had realized before last night.

Anyway, you all know I can blather on and on.  I'd like to see pcmanfm if possible, but I can live with whatever choice is made.  Apt-get is a handy tool...

[statmonkey]

I don't think it's a poetry fest, it sure beats pondering what is happening in Debian right now 

That is probably my favorite as well, it really is a shame that Frost anymore is looked upon as trite and old fashioned.  When he is spoken of it is as a "lightweight" and "common". The great thing about stopping is both Miles Davis and more recently Mark Isham composed songs in tribute to it.  Not bad for a common lightweight. I have also always loved:

Something there is that doesn't love a wall,
That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it,
And spills the upper boulders in the sun,
And makes gaps even two can pass abreast. ...

The great thing about Frost was that it works on so many levels yet he always communicated a feeling.  Good stuff.

[PackRat]

I'm currently using pcmanfm.

I like thunar as well, and it may be the better fit since there are already some xfce apps and libraries installed.

To quote the wise man jed - "apt-get is a handy tool"

One thing you may to check into, vastone, is the status of the lxde desktop/projects. I can't imagine that it too will be falling by the wayside in the near future, but it's not like I follow the project. I doubt xfce is going anywhere soon.

[zbreaker]

Sad news indeed regarding SpaceFM. I had absolutely no experience with it before starting to run VSIDO, but came to love it's power and functionality. Yes thunar or pcmanfm would appear to be the front running candidates at present.

Frost always was one of my favorites also 

[ozitraveller]

+1 for pcmanfm. It's the fm I use with fb and jwm. I also have some concerns about it's future in light to the move to qt.

I also like thunar and use it with xfce de. But what impact will gtk3 have on thunar when xfce eventually goes to gtk3.

I'm currently using pcmanfm.

I like thunar as well, and it may be the better fit since there are already some xfce apps and libraries installed.

To quote the wise man jed - "apt-get is a handy tool"

One thing you may to check into, vastone, is the status of the lxde desktop/projects. I can't imagine that it too will be falling by the wayside in the near future, but it's not like I follow the project. I doubt xfce is going anywhere soon.

[superwow]

pcmanfm is very similar to spacefm, and i like both, but think i like thunar better. each has +'s and -'s, none is perfect, but all are lightweight.

even lighter alternatives could be gentoo fm and rox-filer, but, neither has those awesome custom actions of thunar. between thunar and space/pcmanfm, i prefer thunar's ability to remember my file arrangement choices (not sure if i know how to describe this aspect, but spacefm dialog boxes for saving are sometimes very disorganized) but pcmanfm feels slightly quicker.

@packrat you're right! totally forgot my earlier time with lubuntu. it used pcmanfm. i loved that distro most of the buntus because of its light simplicity and pcman was part of that.

alternatively .... ranger ...?

[jeffreyC]

I vote for Thunar

Unless there is another file manager with custom actions

[seppalta]

Good riddance.  I use pcmanfm.  Is it too clumsy to offer a thunar-pcmanfm choice in the welcome?

[VastOne]

^ Not at all.  Thunar is already in the welcome and if it becomes the default I will add pcmanfm to the welcome on the next ISO release

[orbea]

Personally I'd rather ditch debian than let them break spacefm, but I feel like I should mention 4pane which is a strong runner up to spacefm, it only loses due to its lack of visual effects like thumbnails.

[VastOne]

^ I do not agree that Debian broke spacefm. Any application that is no longer maintained will eventually become no longer usable.  IgnorantGuru made a decision, no one forced it just like no one forced his hand to fork it from pcmanfm. He got tired IMO of the BS and I can relate to that.

Having said all that can you elaborate a little bit more on 4 pane. Does it have custom actions?

[orbea]

I get that and I'm not blaming IgnorantGuru for the being fed up with the bs, but still this whole mutex issue seems just sloppy, maybe that is just due to a lack of understanding?   

Honestly, I didn't live with 4pane that long, I discovered spacefm shortly after I tried it and being a photographer the thumbnails made the choice easy.  This probably could answer any questions about 4pane.  http://www.4pane.co.uk/manual/Contents.htm

[VastOne]

The mutex issue as I understand it is specific to an update to libgtk-3-0 and in viewing several bug reports I believe will be corrected soon

There are dozens of apps other than spacefm that are affected by this

Finally, debian is an OS that does have an install base.. more than that they are a package management system that is run by devs and maintainers that the majority of are never paid a red cent. They are also a group with a history of maintaining rigid control and processes to ensure stability

We live on the edge of SID here and perhaps without a doubt have been spoiled by it's successes and lack of implosions for a long time

If one really wants the true supported experience of Debian, thy should try or stay with Debian Stable installs or other distros like Crunchbang that is built on the 2 year models of updates

I cannot live like that and choose this edge and desire challenges such as this. 

The mutex issue will resolve itself soon.  SpaceFM will not (IMO) be viable without a maintainer and that saddens me.  I have a tremendous amount of respect for IgnorantGuru and wish him well. Should SpaceFM ever return to a maintained level we will entertain it coming back to VSIDO then