GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 681175
Option to turn off the generic icons in 'ListView'
Last modified: 2021-06-18 15:16:37 UTC
FOR NOTICEABLY BETTER PERFORMANCE of Nautilus in directories of thousands of files (and even hundreds of files), PLEASE offer a 'Preferences' option to TURN OFF THE 'GENERIC' ICONS for directories (folders) and various file types (text, HTML, etc.) when the 'List View' (rather than 'Icon View') OPTION IS CHOSEN. Explanation: A shortcoming of Nautilus/Caja (that I notice more on my netbook computers than on my desktop computer) is the slowness in bringing up lists of filenames. The slowness on my desktop computer is only noticed in navigating to directories containing more than 2,000 files (such as /usr/bin or /usr/lib --- about 8 to 15 seconds to a completed filenames-list display, the first time opening those directories in a login session). Directory filename lists, for directories containing around 300 files (like /usr/sbin and /usr/share), appear almost instantly, on my desktop computer. NOT SO on netbook installations (Intel Atom or AMD C60 chip, with Linux Mint 11 or LMDE 201204 Linux distros). It takes about 5 seconds to 10 seconds or more to display a list of about 200 files. Even though I have used the 'Edit > Preferences > Preview' path of Nautilus (and Caja) to set the options * Show text in icons * Show thumbnails * Preview sound files to 'Never', it can take 5-plus seconds for the directory file names to show up, for directories containing around 300 files. I am pretty sure that a lot of the slowdown is due to Nautilus (and Caja) insisting on putting little icons to the left of the filenames --- such as folder icons and text-file icons and HTML-file icons etc. etc. (when 'List View' is turned on). Those icon files (typically in /usr/share/icons subdirectories) are about 1 Kilobyte in size, each. Compare that to the 8-bits (one byte) that the 'ls -F' command uses to put file type indicators like * (asterisk) and @ (at sign) and / (slash) after filenames. It takes over 100 times the bits --- for an icon image versus a single ASCII character indicator. I would be quite happy to do without the little icons (and ASCII character indicators) if it would mean almost instantaneous display of large directory lists. The little triangle to the left of directory names is enough to indicate directories to me (and to allow expansion of those directories into a 'sub-list'). I do not need the folder icons. And I do not need the little globe icons and page icons (etc. etc.) to the left of files like '.htm' and '.txt' files. I can tell the file types by the suffixes I gave them. And even if I do not provide a suffix, I can usually tell what type of file it is since I created it. (Or I can make a Nautilus/Caja Script, using the 'file' command, to tell me the type of a selected file.) So, PLEASE, Nautilus (and Caja) developers, ADD AN OPTION to the 'Edit > Preferences > Views' panel --- to allow me to turn off display of ALL icons beside filenames, when I choose 'List View'. An EXTERNAL REFERENCE: I documented this feature-request, with an image to illustrate the icons that I am talking about, at http://www.subdude-site.com/WebPages_Local/RefInfo/Computer/Linux/LinuxMint_Installs/linuxMintDebianEdition_install_blaze.htm
Which Nautilus version is this about?
Since this is a feature request for a feature that has never been in Nautilus (but should have been since at least 2.8), it is essentially a request to *at least* implement this performance enhancement in an upcoming release. The link that I put at the bottom of this request is a long page, but if you look for the string 'nautilus/caja performace', you will find a section that includes 4 images that make this request quite clear. And the text in that section (or in other sections of the page involving the keyword 'nautilus') point out that, in that particular install of LMDE, the Nautilus 3.2.1 file manager was included. (The string '3.2.1' appears 3 times on that web page.) Note that if this performance-enhancement feature were implemented, it might encourage many Xfce and LXDE desktop users to use Gnome --- because those users are always talking about how their 'light-weight' desktop is so much faster than Gnome and KDE. And what they are probably really referring to is: When they use a file manager like Thunar or PCman, in navigating to directories containing hundreds of files (like /usr/sbin or /usr/share, for example/testing) or directories containing thousands of files (like /usr/bin or /usr/lib, for example/testing), those file lists appear WAY FASTER than in Nautilus or Konqueror or Dolphin.
Of course 'performace' should be 'performance'.
GNOME is going to shut down bugzilla.gnome.org in favor of gitlab.gnome.org. As part of that, we are mass-closing older open tickets in bugzilla.gnome.org which have not seen updates for a longer time (resources are unfortunately quite limited so not every ticket can get handled). If you can still reproduce the situation described in this ticket in a recent and supported software version of Files (nautilus), then please follow https://wiki.gnome.org/GettingInTouch/BugReportingGuidelines and create a new ticket at https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/nautilus/-/issues/ Thank you for your understanding and your help.