Baobab

What is Baobab?

Baobab was introduced in the early 2000s as part of the GNOME project, providing a graphical way to see how disk space is used. It has been maintained in major distributions for years, with regular updates that keep it compatible with the latest GNOME releases.

It is aimed at regular users who need a quick visual overview of their filesystem, as well as power users who want to spot large files or directories that are taking up space.

Compared to tools like WinDirStat, Baobab offers a simpler interface and tighter integration with GNOME. It may feel less feature‑rich but is easier to use for most day‑to‑day tasks.

Best for: Users who want a quick, visual overview of disk usage on a GNOME system.

Key features of Baobab

• Treemap visualisation of disk usage
• Scan local and remote filesystems
• Shows free space and used space in a single view
• Provides a detailed file list on click
• Supports scanning of mounted volumes
• Can exclude directories from scans
• Displays file types and sizes

Tips for Windows users

If you come from WinDirStat, note that Baobab only displays a treemap; you can click a rectangle to see the underlying files. There are no separate file‑type statistics panels. Use the right‑click context menu to open a folder in Nautilus or to launch a terminal at that location. Keyboard shortcuts are minimal: F5 refresh, Ctrl+Q quit. The file format is the same as the system’s filesystem; no special export/import is required.