[K12OSN] OT: setting gnome file manager defaults

[Dan Young]

On Sat, 2005-01-15 at 17:57 -0500, Dave Hopkins wrote:
> Okay, this is OT, but ... after upgrading to 4.1, double clicking the 
> home folder opens Nautilus in some reduced view (just icons, no address 
> bar, ...).  Right clicking and picking Browse gets the view I was 
> expecting.  This is a change from how RH9 was launching the File 
> browser.  How do I get the old behavior back?  Better yet, is there a 
> way to define (per user or system-wide) what file browser is launched 
> when the home folder is double clicked?

There was a spat a while back about all that when gnome 2.6 or 2.8 came
out which introduced "spatial nautilus". Google that and find the flame
wars. My understanding was that GNOME usability studies found that "each
folder is a window" was a clearer metaphor than the browser. I happen to
like it. YMMV. To change behavior, per user:

     1. Preferences
     2. File Management
     3. Behavior tab
     4. Check the "Always open in browser windows"

I'm not sure about doing it system-wide, though I'm sure there's a gconf
key to tweak. Just looked; take a look at the "always_use_browser" key
in:

/etc/gconf/gconf.xml.defaults/apps/nautilus/preferences/%gconf.xml

This is the part where I complain about the difficulty in mere mortals
altering GNOME default settings or defining mandatory settings. The
GNOME administrator's guide has some useful information:

http://www.gnome.org/learn/admin-guide/2.6/system-admin-guide.html

-- 
Dan Young <dan_young at parkrose.k12.or.us>