Nautilus 2.22 has gained the ability to launch programs when various devices and media are inserted. Unfortunately this functionality overlaps with gnome-volume-manager to a large extent, causing bugs like #473808 where inserting a disc causes it to be opened twice; and the nautilus/g-v-m developers didn't co-ordinate the transition of functionality during the 2.21 development cycle, leaving us to pick up the pieces.

Functionalty Comparison

Functions by user interface option

struckthrough text indicates that a feature has been removed and so there is no longer any overlap.

gnome-volume-manager	nautilus
storage: mount removable drives when hot-plugged	nautilus always auto-mounts volumes
storage: mount removable media when inserted	nautilus always auto-mounts volumes
storage: browse removable media when inserted	'browse media when inserted' preference
storage: auto-run programs on new drives/media	Software popup menu(?)
storage: burn audio cd/dvd when a blank disc is inserted; a custom command can be entered	no equivalent feature: #530049
storage: burn data cd/dvd when a blank disc is inserted; a custom command an be entered	a single program can be chosen from a fixed list for each of blank CD disc, blank DVD disc, etc.
multimedia: play audio CD discs when inserted; a custom command can be entered	a program can be chosen from a fixed list
multimedia: play video dvd disks when inserted; a custom command can be entered	a program can be chosen from a fixed list
multimedia: portable music players; a custom command can be entered	a program can be chosen from a fixed list
cameras: digital camera, import photos when connected; a custom command can be entered	a program can be chosen from a fixed list; we should disable this feature in nautilus until some apps can actually use it
cameras: digital video camera, edit video when connected; a custom command can be entered	?
cameras: web camera, edit video when connected; a custom command can be entered	?
pda: palm, sync when connected; a custom command can be entered	not for us
pda: pocketpc, sync when connected; a custom command can be entered
printers & scanners: printers, run custom command when connected
printers & scanners: scanners, run custom command when connected
input devices: mice, run custom command when connected
input devices: keyboards, run custom command when connected
input devices: tablets, run custom command when connected

Command details

Any string can be entered as a command for g-v-m which makes it very flexible, but not very user-friendly. Commands can use several variables, which are important since different programs expect their command lines to contain different things:

%d	device node	/dev/scd0
%h	HAL UDI	/org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/volume_label_PLANETES_?V3D1
%m	mount point	/media/cdrom0

By contrast, nautilus decides on the list of programs to offer based on whether they handle the content-type associated with the type of media, according to their .desktop files. DVD videos are x-content/video-dvd for instance. There appear to be no variables available #530055.

Other functionality

both nautilus and g-v-m eject a disc when the physical eject button is pressed, causing an 'unable to eject disc' message. #528942. Fixed in g-v-m 2.22.5.

Finally, gnome-volume-manager does a few things that Nautilus does not:

makes device icons appear on the desktop and in the Computer window
provides low disk warnings planned for 2.24
provided "safe to unplug" messages(?)
auto-running of Win32 autorun.exe and autorun.inf read comments 4-7

What upstream is doing

g-v-m 2.22.3 disabled a bunch of its features (by default, at build configuration time) so there is less overlap between it and nautilus. The disabled features are struck through in the table above.

Some work tracked at #509823.

attached patch filter out media handling keys from gconf: obsoleted by g-v-m 2.22.3
attached patch patch: obsoleted by g-v-m 2.22.3 and 2.22.5.
inline patch ignore eject: obsoleted by g-v-m 2.22.5.

Concerns have been raised about the discoverability and usability of the new Nautilus preferences. Upstream doesn't agree.

the discoverability issue should be filed as a separate bug; perhaps move the program-selection menus directly to the cluebar, as that is the UI that the user is presented with when they open a DVD disc etc.
the 'never prompt or start programs' checkbox controls the entire Media pane, but appears sub-ordinate to it: #530064
the 'less common media formats' popups are confusing; the relationship between the two is not obvious: #530065
gnome-volume-manager still provides a "Removable Drives & Media" capplet, which does not do what its name suggests. It even has the icon of a CD drive still! #530066

What other distros are doing

Fedora seems is patching g-v-m with the two patches from the ustream bug, above: http://cvs.fedoraproject.org/viewcvs/devel/gnome-volume-manager/gvm-nomedia.patch?rev=1.4&view=auto

Ubuntu has a few patches that we should check out.