Xfe

Xfe (X File Explorer) is a free, multiplatform and open source file manager/explorer for GNU/Linux and BSD systems, designed in the style of the default Explorer application of the Microsoft Windows operating system.

First of all, we should mention here that Xfe is in no way related to the Xfce project. You can think of it as a drop-in replacement for the default file manager of the desktop environment of your GNU/Linux or BSD distribution.

Features at a glance

Key features include a very fast, user-friendly, familiar and intuitive graphic user interface (GUI), two different view modes, commander and explorer, integrated image viewer, integrated text viewer, built-in RPM installer, uninstaller and viewer, support for file associations, toolbar with essential functions, statusbar to see the total number of items in the current directory and the size of the selected file, as well as auto save registry and support for up to 20 bookmarks.

In addition, the application allows users to change attributes to files and folders, mount and unmount external devices, drag and drop files in and from the main Xfe window to the desktop, create and extract archives, and enqueue multimedia files.

Among other features, we can mention an optional Trash Bin, support for color schemes, tooltips for long file names, progress bar for long file transfers, image thumbnail generation, and a right-click context menu in both the file and tree list views.

Under the hood, availability and supported OSes

A quick look under the hood of Xfe will show us that the application has been written entirely in the C++ programming language and uses the cross-platform FOX GUI toolkit for its graphical user interface.

It can be easily installed in Ubuntu or Debian-based operating systems, as native installers in the DEB file format are provided on Softoware’s dedicated download section above for both 32-bit and 64-bit computers. The app’s source code is also available for download.

What is new in this release:

• This release adds a new disk usage command (accessible using the Compare Sizes menu voice) and allows to open multiple Property dialogs at the same time. Several bugs and regressions have also been fixed. The czsech translation has been updated.

What is new in version 1.40.1:

• This release fixes several bugs (the source code has been checked with Coverity Scan). Spanish and hungarian translations have also been updated.

What is new in version 1.40:

• natural sorting in file lists (thus file name '10-foo' comes after file name '2-foo')
• file comparison (through an external tool that can be selected in the Preferences dialog)
• Ctrl-C / Ctrl-V on a file 'foo' creates the file 'foo (copy)'. Another Ctrl-C / Ctrl-V creates the file 'foo (copy 2)', etc.
• file panels can now be stacked vertically or horizontally
• the XFileView (xfv) application has been removed and replaced with XFileWrite in read-only mode (xfw -r)
• new file types added to the global xferc configuration file are now automatically copied to the local xferc configuration file
• tons of fixed bugs and small improvements
• german, czech, brazilian portuguese, greek and french translation updates

What is new in version 1.37:

• This release contains a new file search dialog based on the find and grep commands that allows to quickly retrieve files and folders and perform the usual file operations on them. Many bugs were also fixed. Spanish, italian, greek, czesch, german, swedish and brazilian portuguese translations were updated.