Comment 5 for bug 1108637

Hmm. I also set my Firefox and chrome up to match their default configuration on all other OS's, ie so that backspace works as the back key (in FF it's just setting browser.backspace_action = 0, but in chrome you need a plugin). I just find it much more convenient than having to search for two keys to press.

My guess is that upstream will say the same thing regarding the backspace key - that it doesn't mesh nicely with the way quick search is implemented when you go back - but IMO it's a real pity they've done it this way, as I find it much slower to use nautilus now, both in that that 'back' takes you into the previous quick search, which you then have to cancel to see the whole contents of the folder, and in that backspace doesn't do anything any more. (And in that you can't right-click off away from file name to get the 'New Folder' context menu, which was something they introduced in nautilus 3.4 as an improvement and have now taken away again.)

Of course, a good solution would be to make all this configurable - but this doesn't match gnome's philosophy of reducing configuration and usability :) wherever possible.

As a workaround, Dolphin supports backspace to go back and is generally a much better file manager than nautilus, both in usability and in number of features. (It's just a pity that kioclient isn't as capable as the gvfs tools for when you're trying to integrate scripts with a GUI file manager.)