When most people think of the Nautilus file manager for GNOME running on Desktop Linux, they do not think of this as something complex. Despite this, some folks do feel that something a bit easier to work with is worth using.
This brings us to Nautilus Elementary. Designed to be a more functional version of Nautilus in the eyes of its developers, you will note the biggest single difference is the placement.
Speaking exclusively for myself, I see little reason to jump into any changes. Both standard Nautilus and the Elementary version both do the same basic thing – allow for browsing of files. And if you are looking for a real minimalist setup, fall back to a command shell!