Nautilus My Computer Add-On Brings Drive Overviews and Miller Columns to GNOME Files

The GNOME Files application, widely known as Nautilus, has long served as a capable and straightforward default file manager for Linux desktop users. While it excels at standard file and folder browsing, it has historically lacked a dedicated, centralized overview screen to inspect all connected drives simultaneously and monitor remaining storage capacities at a glance. Although Linux users have various ways to check disk space—such as accessing individual properties dialogs, reviewing the sidebar, or utilizing terminal utilities—a dedicated home for storage hardware has been missing since official traditional computer views were phased out over a decade ago. A new third-party extension aims to bridge this gap by reintroducing a highly customizable central dashboard alongside several advanced navigation features.

Developed independently by Yann Masoch, the Nautilus My Computer extension introduces a dedicated, centralized page to GNOME Files. This new view aggregates all active storage volumes, partitions, mounts, and external drives into a single interface. To help users instantly identify storage bottlenecks, the overview features prominent storage usage bars rendered directly beneath each drive entry. These visual indicators clearly display which partitions have ample free space and which are approaching maximum capacity. Users can interact with these drives just like standard folders, enabling them to double-click a volume to enter its directory or right-click to reveal context menus containing options to open the drive in a new tab, open a new window, safely unmount, or eject hardware depending on the specific volume type.

Positioned at the top of this newly enabled computer view is a "Preferred Folders" section designed to surface frequently accessed locations and directories. This area can be fully managed to suit individual workflows, allowing users to pin their most heavily utilized folders for rapid access while removing any default shortcuts they find redundant. Furthermore, the overview page itself is flexible, offering both spacious layouts and compact views depending on individual user preferences and screen real estate requirements.

Beyond the core drive overview, the extension offers deep customization options for the broader Nautilus interface. By right-clicking the "Computer" entry at the top of the file manager sidebar, users can access a dedicated settings panel. This configuration menu allows individuals to dictate precisely which system partitions are displayed—such as EFI, boot, and swap partitions—and choose whether drives should be categorized by type or merged into a single cohesive list. Users can also personalize the visual aesthetic by altering the color of the storage usage bars if the default desktop accent colors do not match their personal preferences. Additionally, a dedicated toggle lets users configure Nautilus to launch directly into the My Computer overview upon startup, replacing the traditional default behavior of opening straight into the user’s Home directory.

The customization suite extends further into sidebar management. Users gain the ability to hide infrequently used default entries like "Recent" or "Starred" and even modify the specific sidebar icons assigned to bookmarks and custom locations. This level of granular control is particularly useful for users who heavily customize their directory structures and rely on specialized folder pins for daily productivity.

Perhaps one of the most ambitious aspects of the third-party add-on is the inclusion of an optional, beta-grade column view that introduces Miller-style browsing to the GNOME desktop environment. Long requested by power users who favor multi-pane or hierarchical column interfaces, this feature allows users to select a folder and immediately view its contents in an adjacent column to the right. Crucially, the parent folders remain visible to the left, providing an uninterrupted visual trail of the current file path and user location within the directory tree.

Interactivity within the column view is robust, supporting standard drag-and-drop operations directly between adjacent columns. When a file is selected rather than a folder, the interface dynamically opens a dedicated file preview column displaying fundamental file statistics. For multi-file selections, the interface renders the items as a stacked visual representation reminiscent of the Finder application on macOS, complete with a dynamically calculated combined file size for the entire selection.

Installing the Nautilus My Computer add-on requires integrating a third-party software repository outside of official, standard Ubuntu distribution channels. The developer currently maintains a dedicated Personal Package Archive (PPA) containing pre-built packages tailored for Ubuntu releases featuring modern GNOME environments, with broader compatibility pipelines planned for subsequent distribution cycles. Following installation, users must completely quit and restart the Nautilus file manager process to ensure the extension properly hooks into the application interface and initializes the new views.

While the add-on provides a compelling feature set for those who miss traditional computer overviews or favor column-based navigation, its third-party nature warrants careful consideration. Because the extension patches directly into Nautilus rather than operating as an official GNOME feature supported by standardized upstream APIs, system administrators and everyday users alike should note that subsequent system updates to the core file manager could potentially break functionality or influence overall application stability. For those willing to accept these caveats, the project successfully restores a requested paradigm of storage management and visual file navigation to the Linux desktop ecosystem.