PCMan’s file manager has hit a stable 0.3.6, and I compiled one in Arch just to see it in action. This is still one of my favorite file managers, regardless of the system.
I’ve always preferred this one over most others. It’s very intuitive, and that’s something I enjoy about it. It’s light, although it wants fam/gamin and a few other things running at the start, which I don’t like.
If you don’t like two-pane file managers, like emelFM2 for example, it’s a big step forward from the immense bulk that Nautilus comes with. It’s far lighter than Thunar (Thunar wants all that XFCE stuff, or at least it used to), but Thunar probably has a few more features than this does. Whether or not you can live without those is for you to decide.
Give it a whirl and see how it goes. There’s a downloadable deb for Ubuntus on the PCManFM home page. (The Arch package is still at 0.3.5-something; I see it’s already flagged as out-of-date. Arch users do not suffer obsoletion well. 
Edit the PKGBUILD for the new version number, comment out the md5sum, and it will compile perfectly.)
As a side note, it’s fantastic to see PCMan back at work again. His software is all exceptional, and fantastic for older systems. For a great lightweight desktop, try his LXDE series. You will be pleased, I can almost guarantee that.
on arch, Thunar doesn’t have a single XFCE dep. That doesn’t happen on Ubuntu (it evens depends on gnome-keyring!)
I never got the “trash” to work with pcmanfm. how do you do that?
I don’t think I ever got it working either. I don’t like Trash cans though, so I generally delete things permanently.
I’m not sure if pcmanfm even has a trash can - that might be one of the extras that Thunar has. On the other hand pcmanfm can do desktop icons of the contents of your ~/Desktop folder, and wallpaper without feh or anything.
btw I was eagerly awaiting the stable release too, but I can’t find an Ubuntu .deb anywhere. Might have to wait a day or two. Meanwhile I could have a go at compiling from the tarball I suppose…
Would version 0.3.5.999999 suffice?
http://www.getdeb.net/app.php?name=PCMan%20File%20Manager
Compiling shouldn’t be too hard. There would be instructions, practically, in the Arch PKGBUILD. You’ll just have to install the appropriate -dev packages.
Thanks for the link (looks like a gutsy-only version). Had a look at the readme file in the tarball and along with a lot of interesting info I was a bit disappointed to find the desktop icons option is not recommended at the moment for performance reasons.
Drag… that was one reason I was going to use this for my lightweight setup.
I’m an untidy person that has to have stuff right up under my nose or I forget it, and don’t know how I’d manage without the contents of my Desktop folder visible at all times…
The other options seem to be heavy, like Nautilus, or not really the desktop, just links, like Rox…
On Ubuntu, at least in Hardy, there is a package called “pcmanfm-nohal” that has a few dependecies less (mainly dbus, AFAIS).