Install Sunflower in Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal (Simple File Manager for GNU/Linux)

One of the great things about GNU/Linux is that, despite all these difference... is its ability to give a huge "list" of options/solutions for the users. For instance, if you don't like an application then you can easily find another one that does it better, which is also true for all the other major operating systems as well.

But with MS Windows or Mac OSX, if you're not happy with the way of the desktop and its behavior... then there's nothing you can do about it, other than hoping that they'll fix those issues in a future release.

But the great thing about GNU/Linux is that, say for some reason you don't like Gnome or KDE... then you can find a desktop that suits your needs such as the light weight XFCE or LXDE, etc. Or, if you don't like anything with a GUI, then you can go completely command-line as well :P.

In that sense, if you're not that happy with your current file manager looking a powerful file manager that easily integrates with GTK written Gnome desktop.... with a "twin-type"/view, then Sunflower is a pretty cool app.

Simple, yet, powerful!...

For instance, in the recent past, Nautilus file manager used to have an option where it lets you open your Terminal in a given folder/directory which is very useful if you have to run a script, etc within a folder (deep down in the "root" :P). Although you may find a Nautilus script which would add the option, still I'd prefer it Nautilus came with something like that by default.

But our little Sunflower comes with a toolbar using that, you can easily open a terminal in a give folder via a single click!. + as with Nautilus it also comes with a built-in plugin support using which we can "expand" its functionality. Although to be honest, this is certainly not a replacement for Nautilus, but still sometimes, it can be quite handy nonetheless.

Few other main features...

*. Synchronize directories.

*. Find files.

*. Advance renaming.

*. Select files with the same extension (another handy feature).

*. Compare directories, etc.

It runs in Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal without any issues and I think it should work in the older versions such as 10.10/10.04 as well. It's written in Python and can be easily run in other OS too.

If you want to install Sunflower file manager in Ubuntu, then first download the latest package from here. Extract the content and go to that folder in your Terminal and enter the below command.

./Sunflower.py

Or, simply double click on the "Sunflower.py" file in Nautilus and when asked, choose "run".

If you're really interested in it, then it can be a bit of a pain to always run it through these methods. In that case, lets create a shortcut by using which you can simply run it by double clicking as usual.

1. Right click on your Desktop and choose "Create Launcher".

2. Now when asked, enter a desired name (you can enter anything that you like), for this example I used the same name "Sunflower".

Under the option "Command", simply go to the extracted folder and select "Sunflower.py" file and click "Open" (see the below screenshot).

3. If you want to change the icon to the default on that comes with this file manager, then click on the icon button on that launcher window and again go to the extracted folder and locate a directory named "images" and choose the icon that you like.

That's it. Now you should have a shortcut created for Sunflower file manager in Ubuntu 11.04 Natty!. Enjoy.

Oh and one last thing. When you open a Terminal in SF, there aren't any button provided for closing the opened Terminal. So, just enter the below command within the Terminal window and it'll close automatically.

exit