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Is it worth it to run Gnome files manager on mac using MacPorts? (lemmy.ml)
submitted 4 months ago by jackalope@lemmy.ml to c/macos@lemmy.world
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found a thing that said you could use Gnome Files on Mac using MacPorts. I don't know what MacPorts is but I was able to find some instructions on how to use it with Gnome Files, but it's a bit involved and I don't want to screw up my Mac (not as easy to recover a mac installation as a Linux in my inexperience). Anyone actually done this? Can't find any info about it on Youtube. Would like to see how it actually functions.

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[-] trey_a_12@lemmy.world 1 points 5 days ago

Answering your title question of “is it worth it,” considering that you seemingly either have to compile the app yourself or use an old bloated version with MacPorts, I would probably say “no.” I don’t think the time and difficulty you’d have to potentially go through just to run another file manager when you can’t even truly “replace” Finder is worthwhile.

I’m curious though, what exactly do you want out of Nautilus specifically? You could argue “aesthetic” or something, but that’s just going to look out-of-place on macOS. Unless Nautilus has some hidden superpower somewhere, it’s less functional, too. I could understand Nemo (Cinnamon’s file manager), and I’d definitely consider Dolphin (KDE’s file manager), but Nautilus (to me) has always just been the least powerful file manager with the only advantage being looking native on Adwaita… which wouldn’t even be true if you used it on macOS. Not a criticism, genuine question.

[-] jackalope@lemmy.ml 1 points 5 days ago

There's a lot of features or specific interaction implementation aspects of finder I dislike. For instance, the fact that when you resize the view. Thumbnails don't reflow, or how there is no cut option in the hot keys or right click menu.

[-] trey_a_12@lemmy.world 1 points 5 days ago

I don’t exactly know what you mean about the “when you resize the view. Thumbnails don’t reflow” point, but the Cut option is valid. I use the app Command X which is a must-have at this point. I know it is also possible to make columns autofit to contents somewhere, but you may need an app like Onyx to enable it.

[-] carl_dungeon@lemmy.world 1 points 4 months ago

I’m not familiar with gnome files, however, instead of macports, consider homebrew. I was a long time Mac ports user until about 12 years ago- brew is great and is more widely used. It also supports installing GUI apps via brew casks- combined with brew files, you can install your complete kit on any computer with just a command. I’ve found homebrew does a LOT less compiling from source since it has precompiled “bottles” available for most things. Good luck!

[-] jackalope@lemmy.ml 1 points 4 months ago

I generally use brew, and never used MacPorts before, but brew doesn't appear to have Gnome Files.

[-] trey_a_12@lemmy.world 2 points 5 days ago

Sorry, I tried using MacPorts in a VM and installing Nautilus with sudo port install Nautilus as suggested on the MacPorts website, but this was the final result after like 20 minutes of "installing" data and the like to no avail.

(This was tested on a macOS Sequoia VM with an M4 MBA host running macOS Tahoe Beta 4. It is possible this may work better on an x86 Mac or older macOS version, but I wouldn't get too caught up in this.)

There is ONE other way to run Nautilus on macOS that I've used a bit, but it's kind of cheating and not that great: Containers. Specifically, Docker and similar programs should allow this (which I did test once), but more recently Apple introduced their own Containerization framework which I also tested and was able to get up and running. The issue is that Xquartz, which you'd have to use to get any GUI Linux applications on macOS, isn't very good in and of itself. No Retina support is the biggest dealbreaker for me, but this is also technically just running a micro Linux VM with access to your macOS files a bit like Windows Subsystem for Linux.

[-] trey_a_12@lemmy.world 2 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

I have always been curious about MacPorts’s applications. Usually I’d assume they’re either really old versions that were once available for the platform natively (such as Safari on Windows), but that’s worth checking out.

Follow-up: Did a bit of research and looked into MacPorts. Yes, most their applications appear to be older versions, as I don’t see any indication that Nautilus (the GNOME file manager) or Dolphin (KDE’s file manager) is still in the works for macOS. I’m attempting to install this older version of Nautilus via MacPorts now in a virtual machine, and will follow up again with results.

this post was submitted on 21 Mar 2025
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