Comment 57 for bug 14838

As I see it: if you're a normal Ubuntu user at this point, there are only two
nautilus modes:

1) Traditional GNOME 'browser' mode.
2) Ubuntu-spatial.

You can pick between these options in a fully-translated ready-to-go preference
box that has existed for a couple of years. For all intents and purposes, to
the normal user, traditional GNOME spatial does not exist. It's also reasonable
to assume that not everyone will find the neat tricks to open separate windows
in the new spatial mode (either middle-double-click or shift-click).

Now -- that being said: The choice between browser and spatial mode, up to this
point, has basically been a simple one. If you like having lots of separate
windows open you pick spatial. If you prefer to have one window open, you go
browser. You have a choice. Under to the new system, there is no choice. You
are forced to always have a single window open. The people who like having
separate folders open are given the shaft (unless they know about the gconf magic).

Another way of looking at this: if you want only one window open then why don't
you just use browser mode? It's far more powerful anyway.

Furthermore, as stated (many times) above, the change makes Ubuntu fundamentally
different from GNOME boxes everywhere. Coming to an Ubuntu box from any other
GNOME distribution (even from Warty!), I'd find myself wondering why Nautilus
was so unstable that the parent crashed every time I opened a new folder. I
didn't tell it to quit in any way (either by pressing the close button, or
selecting a 'quit' menu item). It just closed on its own. I seem to recall
that one time I had trouble with my word processor and it would suddenly close
on its own like this. How annoying.

All of these reasons aside, the new mode itself is fundamentally flawed in a lot
of ways:

1) In spatial, everything on the system is supposed to be an object. Opening an
image object opens an image viewer. Opening a folder object opens a folder
viewer. Why is it that the window stays open when I open one type of object (an
image) but not another (a folder). In vanilla spatial, left click has always
meant "this window stays open" and middle has always meant "this window will
close now". Please make this behaviour consistent either one way or the other
in the new mode.

2) Why doesn't the desktop close when I open a folder off of it? (admittedly, a
bit nit-picky).

3) If you're navigating a deep hierarchy of folders and you click on a folder to
which you don't have access, then you're screwed. In addition to the new folder
not opening, the original one is now gone too. Very frustrating.

These strange problem cases always occur when big changes are made this late in
the game. There probably exist a lot more that I haven't even thought of.

Many people on this bug have made quite a case for why this shouldn't be in
Hoary. At the very least, please postpone this change until Breezy so that it
can be better thought out.