14 DAY TRIAL // After deciding to remove the ability to run binaries and programs from the Nautilus file manager, the GNOME development team announced that they'd allow running of binaries and scripts after all.
GNOME developer Carlos Soriano announced two weeks ago that a decision was taken to block launching of binaries or programs from the Nautilus file manager used within the GNOME desktop environment, citing the fact that this functionality is no longer useful now that Nautilus doesn't handle the desktop anymore.
As expected, the community's reaction was harsh when they found out GNOME devs decided to remove the ability to run binaries from the Nautilus file manager, an essential functionality that's present in all major operating systems and desktop environments. And it turns out running binaries and scripts from Nautilus is needed within various specific workflows.
Nautilus will continue to let users run binaries and programs
After a GNOME user posted an intriguing use case for running scripts in the Nautilus, developer Carlos Soriano decided to revert to allow running of binaries and scripts from the file manager. And that's not the only use case for Nautilus' ability to run binaries or programs, as several other use cases appeared lately.
"Recently we removed the ability to launch binaries and scripts," said Carlos Soriano in a recent commit. "A few cases appeared that we need to support, specially for enterprise and content creators. This also shows that is hard to predict cases like these, as some complex setups might be needed for specific workflows."
As such, GNOME users can now rest assured that Nautilus will continue to let them run binaries, scripts or programs, despite the fact that sometimes this can cause vulnerabilities like the one highlighted by Carlos Soriano when it decided to remove said functionality. The change was supposed to affect the next major release of the GNOME desktop environment, GNOME 3.30.