OpenXplorer

A Windows File Explorer-inspired file manager, developed for Zorin OS first and foremost. Zorin is the primary target for its desktop experience and integration; Ubuntu and Debian are secondary compatibility targets and require compatible system packages.

Browse local folders, SMB shares and SFTP, FTP, WebDAV and NFS locations with tabs, split panes, a folder tree, Details, Compact, List and icon views with thumbnails, clickable paths, pinned folders, search, undoable file operations and light/dark themes.

Releases · Website · Installation · Documentation

The native GTK 4 app, captured in an isolated session with fictional files: the Details view, and split panes (F3). Network examples in these pictures do not establish live SMB compatibility.

Install

Version 2.0.10 is a native GTK 4 application written in Rust (native/). It keeps the same look, settings, pins and saved passwords as 1.x; see the changelog for what 2.0.10 adds. Get it from GitHub Releases:

• Zorin OS 18, Ubuntu 24.04 and newer, Debian 13: openxplorer_2.0.10_all.deb (x86-64). OpenXplorer 1.1.x offers it in Check for updates.
• Fedora, openSUSE Tumbleweed, Arch Linux: the .rpm or .pkg.tar.zst of the release, when the release lists one.
• Any distribution with Flatpak, including Debian 12 and others with GTK older than 4.14: io.winspace.Development.flatpak.

Follow the installation guide, and finish file operations and run openxplorer --quit before upgrading. See the changelog, the known gaps and backlog, the packaging guide and the release checklist.

Develop

The app lives in native/ (Rust, GTK 4, GIO/GVfs); see native/README.md. It needs Rust 1.92 or newer and the GTK 4.14+, SQLite and libsoup 3 development packages (libgtk-4-dev libsqlite3-dev libsoup-3.0-dev on Ubuntu and Debian):

cargo build --release --locked --manifest-path native/Cargo.toml
python3 native/tools/check.py

No package ships Python; the persistent SMB mount helper is a Rust program too. The Next.js website lives in apps/web/. The installed app does not depend on Node or pnpm.

Retired: the Python/GTK 3/WebKitGTK app of OpenXplorer 1.x is no longer in the tree, released or maintained. Its last release is tag v1.1.4; its final sources, which native/parity/ cites as the behavioural specification, are desktop/ at tag v2.0.0.

For the website, use Node.js 22.13+ and pnpm 10.34.5:

pnpm install --frozen-lockfile
pnpm dev

See native setup, website setup and the development guide for prerequisites, builds and checks.

Contribute

Read CONTRIBUTING.md and submit a pull request from a feature branch. main requires PRs, including for administrators. Report vulnerabilities using SECURITY.md.

License

Project changes, website and project-authored documentation are AGPL-3.0-only, with documented file-level exceptions. Preserve the upstream Winspace MIT notice, NOTICE and third-party notices.

Independent project; not affiliated with Microsoft, Zorin, Canonical, Debian or Vercel. No warranty.