Most file managers I’ve encountered default to icon view. One of the first things I do is set the default to detailed list view. Might be a preference for seeing names and dates over many identical folder icons, or just an old habit from using Windows. But I’d be curious to hear about the benefits of icon view and why it’s usually the default in Linux GUI file managers.
What does everyone else use and any reasons to prefer one over the other?
List. I hate icon view. Hate it
Detail view forever.
I think it heavily depends on the files one has to browes the most. I deal with text files all the time, so i dont need an icon to jump in my face telling me, that its a text file.
The media-, design people I know love the previews that icons give them, because its much easier to spot the image file, they are looking for while scanning through a directory
For some reason, I can’t ever find a view that feels like “list view” from Windows OS. That would be my preference. Detail view is useful in specific conditions—such as troubleshooting or in search results. As is icon view (mostly for images).
Detail unless it’s pictures or something where the icon is a preview of the file’s content.
ls -hal
I’ve personally become a fan of
-rtAh, to see the most recently modified files last (i.e. above my prompt).
My graphical goto tool is double commander, so lists. In the terminal, it’s either ls -hal, fzf or mc, depending on use case.
Terminal.
All jokes aside, its personal preference. If you’re working in a dense file tree, you probably need the info that details view gives you. Icon view really only matter for media.
I work in a design industry that requires a lot of source files so I end up having to constantly switch. Lists when I’m looking for the relevant folder, or looking for a particular file based on name, or icons if I’m looking for something based on image. There’s no consistent way to switch between them with a keyboard shortcut among different OSs, either.
