"You don't need a Ph.D. in scientific visualization to have some fun with three-dimensional data. Whether you're searching for an unused nook in a cramped disk partition, or trying to find the bloated temp/ folder that's crashing your system, sometimes the flat folder view of a traditional GUI file browser is little help. Luckily, Linux offers a variety of 3-D filesystems that can make your disk usage statistics come alive."
Post a Comment
Member since:
2005-08-28
I've actually found Filelight (and similar Windows program: Scanner) extremely useful for determining where all my disk space is going, and what folders within what folders it's going to.
Scanner: http://www.steffengerlach.de/freeware/
Filelight: http://www.methylblue.com/filelight/ or your friendly local package manager (yes, I know this is linked to in the article)
I haven't tried GDMap yet (never heard of it before) but for some reason the pie chart layout makes more sense to me than the blocks. I may check it out, because right now Filelight is one of the reasons I have to have kdelibs on my machine.
Hmm, I notice Scanner is now on version 2.8... I thought it'd been permanently abandoned at version 2.6. Must check the new version.
(note: *buntu Dapper and Edgy have a version of filelight that always crashes on close; this was fixed a while ago but the most recent version is not in the repositories)
https://launchpad.net/distros/ubuntu/+source/filelight/+bug/30754
Edited 2006-11-01 01:05
Member since:2006-09-08
I like using http://www.jgoodies.com/freeware/jdiskreport/index.html Jgoodies JDiskreport for this on Windows (and they have an OS X version cuz it's java)
Member since:2005-07-23
Member since:2006-08-09
I search a similar tool but in command line that show you quickly how many space each dir and files takes. 'du' is not an acceptable response because it takes to many time to execute (I need a solution that keep some results in cache to speedup analysis) and it's not enough expressive to visualize the results.
Member since:2006-03-10
Member since:2005-08-28
but isn't FileLight 2-dimensional?
Yes, very much so... it happens to be mentioned in the article as a 2D alternative to normal browsers.
Also, it's the first plugin I've encountered that's actually managed to crash Konqueror. Seems to be better used standalone...
No argument here. It's amazingly useful for specific tasks, but not so good for others.
It's the Filesystem browser equivalent of the House of Representatives- recorded by size. If that's what you want it's great
Member since:
2005-07-12
I'd just kill for a file manager with the functionality of the Z-Tree (an updated version of the old X-Tree)...
Oh wait, there's Z-Tree.
Seriously, Tree view of the filesystem, with ability to log all files and see the size of each directory just by clicking on it on the tree... Windows 'folder' view comes CLOSE, but doesn't include the subdirectories in the size total... Just give us two columns in tree view, one for files in directory, one for files + all subdirectories... problem solved.
But then that's text and simple, aka the antithesis of everything modern file management seems to be about.
(see Spatial navigation - BARF)
Member since:2006-11-01
Member since:
2005-11-06
Member since:
2006-05-14
Member since:
2005-12-14
Member since:
2006-01-26
A comprehensive list of 3D File System, etc.
http://nooface.net/3dui.shtml
3D File System Navigator (as seen in "Jurassic Park"):
http://www.sgi.com/fun/freeware/3d_navigator.html
Member since:2005-10-22
Member since:
2005-07-24
Member since:2006-10-09
Spoken like someone who has never actually used the tools in question. It is much, much easier to see how your disk is being used when the information is presented graphically. Yes, the information is the same, but how that information is presented makes a huge difference in how useful it is at the end of the day.
Member since:2005-07-24
Member since:
2006-11-01
Member since:
2006-09-25
Member since:2006-03-10
>>"Luckily, Linux offers a variety of 3-D filesystems"
>Except of course these are not filesystems!
That's the Chinese Whisper effect. TFA wrote: "a variety of 3-D filesystem..." (omitting the word 'browsers') and Thom copied it and grammatically corrected it, in so-doing creating a new and unintended sense.
Tsk tsk, Thom. 
Member since:
2005-07-12
You can see what it looks like here:
http://www.answers.com/topic/space-monger
Member since:
2006-01-10
But a neat 2D view of the filesystem sizes:
http://gdmap.sourceforge.net/
Member since:
2006-09-24
Member since:
2005-08-18
