$$\ $$\                                                     $$\
                    $$ |$$ |                                                    $$ |
 $$$$$$$\  $$$$$$\  $$ |$$ |    $$$$$$\  $$$$$$\$$$$\      $$$$$$\  $$\   $$\ $$$$$$\
$$  _____| \____$$\ $$ |$$ |   $$  __$$\ $$  _$$  _$$\    $$  __$$\ $$ |  $$ |\_$$  _|
$$ /       $$$$$$$ |$$ |$$ |   $$$$$$$$ |$$ / $$ / $$ |   $$ /  $$ |$$ |  $$ |  $$ |
$$ |      $$  __$$ |$$ |$$ |   $$   ____|$$ | $$ | $$ |   $$ |  $$ |$$ |  $$ |  $$ |$$\
\$$$$$$$\ \$$$$$$$ |$$ |$$ |   \$$$$$$$\ $$ | $$ | $$ |   \$$$$$$  |\$$$$$$  |  \$$$$  |
 \_______| \_______|\__|\__|$$$$\_______|\__| \__| \__|$$$$\______/  \______/    \____/
                            \___|                      \___|

    A slicker Column View for Nautilus, built on yannmasoch's My Computer for Nautilus

call_em_out is a ramshackle attempt to improve the Column View work started by the person who made the plugin we forked: My Computer for Nautilus. The original author deserves credit for the extension, its Computer view, and the Column View foundation. This is a personal set of usability experiments on top of that work.

Install

Copy and paste:

git clone https://github.com/DavidAWheeler/call_em_out.git
cd call_em_out
./install.sh
nautilus --quit

Open Files again. The installer puts the extension in your user data directory; it does not require copying files by hand.

What's working

Browse and navigate

• Search results, nested folders, Recent, and previews use one column layout: drill right, keep the parent trail, and preview after the last folder.
• Go to Containing Folder slides the destination in from the right, selects the file, and returns the pane to ordinary folder browsing.
• Arrow keys begin from the blue selection: the last clicked row, keyboard move, restored cancelled-drag selection, or containing-folder destination.
• Sliding Back navigation, including Back inside Search, keeps the next column peeking on deck. Bookmark jumps reset stale scroll, and selecting a partly hidden row brings its column into view. The preview keeps a readable utility width instead of expanding to fill the window.
• Sidebar bookmarks always become the first Column View column, including a repeated click on the current location.
• Empty space in the sidebar can be dragged to move the Nautilus window; sidebar rows keep their normal click, reorder, and file-drag behavior.

Open and preview

• Files open through the desktop's MIME-default application. Archive members open there too: when GVFS cannot give the application a local archive path, the selected member is privately materialized first.
• Plain-text, config/code, and safe reader-style HTML previews have the filename above a bordered document surface, readable PDF thumbnails, and full-path location details.
• Header search uses a stable-width field and live Column View results with file-result previews.

Work with files

• More dependable Ctrl/Shift multi-selection, including selection that survives refreshes.
• Multi-file drag and drop: local and mounted-NAS moves by default, genuinely remote transfers copy, Ctrl copies, and Shift moves.
• Direct folder-row drops plus hover navigation into deeper folders.
• The hamburger menu keeps New Folder available when a full column has no empty background area. Downloads update the active preview's size and dates in place while real filename changes refresh the listing without blanking it.
• The hamburger also exposes the active View Options actions in a submenu; the pathbar's three-dot button remains the current-folder action menu for folder-specific operations such as bookmarks and properties.
• A real Trash Column View with metadata, Restore, Delete Permanently, and destination-aware drag-out.

The fork does not replace Nautilus or claim to be a new file manager. It keeps native Grid and List views available.

What needs work

The desktop shell can still choose to show its own drop-action menu for a cross-application Trash drag; folder drops inside Nautilus are move-only. Search scope is intentionally bounded, and Recent remains dependent on the underlying recent:/// provider's metadata. Pinned folders reorder by drag; drive and partition cards reorder from their context menus. Private Nautilus widget names can change between releases.

What's next

The next useful targets are deeper Recent actions, searchable scope controls, and compatibility probes for private-header changes.

Install and usage information is in docs/USER_GUIDE.md. The detailed status is in docs/FEATURE_MATRIX.md.

Development

sh -n install.sh
python3 -m py_compile nautilus-my-computer.py nautilus_my_computer/*.py
git diff --check

This fork is distributed under the MIT License. See LICENSE.