Ideally, what I am looking for is a file manager which has a trash icon and has facilities for managing usb devices. I have the additional constraint that it shouldn't use gvfs like thunar and pcmanfm...I don't know what your exact needs are, but there are very simple ways to mount USB drives, such as pmount. Celejar
Actually, I found tux commander from debian repositories and it seems like I would be able to use it based on my needs (though I can't see a trash icon). I will have a look at pmount as well....
S. Sahin