What Is Dolphin?

A file manager is software which provides a user interface to assist in the organisation of files.

Every file manager provides basic operations such as to create, open, view, edit, search, rename, move copy, and delete files. However, file managers typically come supplied with sophisticated functionality including network connectivity, directory synchronizing, archive handling, advanced searching, shortcuts, file/folder comparisons, checksums, plugins, and more, making them an incredibly powerful tool.

Dolphin is a file manager focusing on usability. You can browse, locate, open, copy and move files with it.

It is the default file manager for the current version of KDE (KDE 4), and can be optionally installed on KDE 3.

Features include:

• Sidebar
• Supports dockable panels for places, information, folders and a terminal
• Breadcrumb Navigation bar for URLs which allows users to navigate quickly through the file hierarchy
• 3 view modes (icon, list and column) with properties remembered for each folder
• Split views designed for file copy- and move-operations
• Network transparency
• Undo/redo functionality
• Support of service menus
• Zoom from 16 x 16 pixels to 256 x 256 pixels
• Tooltips show previews
• Thumbnails
• Panel tabs
• Renaming of a variable number of selected items in one step
• Supports: SMB/CIFS, WebDAV, NFS, FTP, and SSH
• Networked Environment for Personalized, Ontology-based Management of Unified Knowledge (NEPOMUK) integration

More information about.

source

To install dolphin in Ubuntu:

Open a terminal,using Ctrl+Alt+T

sudo apt-get install dolphin

To make dolphin default file manager instead of Nautilus

1. Open a terminal using Ctrl+Alt+T

2. Install exo-utils by running the following command in the terminal:

   sudo apt-get install exo-utils
   

3. Run the following command in the terminal:

   exo-preferred-applications
   

4. In the window that opens, click on Utilities

5. On the File Manager section, click the drop-down menu arrow + Other...

6. Find /usr/share/applications directory

7. Adjust to show all files and select dolphin.desktop (wherever you find it)

8. Click close

Dolphin is a simple file manager, like Nautilus, but it is default in Kubuntu.

Project page

Dolphin is the default file manager in the KDE Plasma Workspaces, intended to be both powerful and easy to use.

Features include:

• Customisable sidebars
• "Breadcrumb" navigation
• View properties remembered for each folder
• Split views
• Network transparency
• Undo/redo functionality
• Ratings, comments, and tags

This package is part of the KDE base applications module.

In a Nutshell

Dolphin is a file manager, like Windows Explorer. The default file manager on Ubuntu is nautilus from the Gnome desktop. Dolphin is from the KDE desktop. (You'll notice that it uses different icons and colours.)

Many file managers exist, also ones running in the terminal like midnight commander. Those are especially useful when you log in to a remote PC/Server via terminal, i.e. text only.