What is your favorite filemanager

[jjott]

I am running LinuxMint 17.3 Cinnamon. What Filemanager would best be suited and why.
I would appreciate some recommendations from experienced users.
John

[jimallyn]

I'm not picky. Whatever comes with Cinnamon - Nemo? - is fine by me.

[wong]

Ranger is by far my favourite file manager. The default, Caja I think, is pretty nice too. Pcmanfm might be worth a look.

*Edit*: Doh, Caja is Mate, is there something you are wanting that Nemo does not provide?

[ccoyle]

I have always used a two pane file manager, going back to Qfiler with DOS. I still use Total Commander on my office Windows machine. Since coming over to Linux, I've tried a few and settled on Krusader. Nothing beats Total Commander, IMO, but Krusader ain't bad for Linux.

[lmuserx4849]

...LinuxMint 17.3 Cinnamon ... Filemanager would best be suited.

Best suited is always going to be what the distribution has setup as the default, because the distro maintainers have spent extra time to ensure it works, may customize, and may provide documentation, etc.

From there, it comes down to your needs. The trade-off is that you may have to do more work to setup, maintain, troubleshoot...

wiki has a comparison table. I use KDE and the default File Manager is Dolphin. And I'm 100% satisfied. It's very configurable. Although, I tend to use the command line (konsole) rather than a gui (dolphin).

[BG405]

I use Nautilus with Cinnamon which is excellent and does most of what I need easily; I too usually use the Terminal to manipulate files and directories.

Seem to remember it not coming pre-installed on Mint 17.3 Cinnamon (32 or 64 bit) but it's in the repositories.

Code: Select all

sudo apt-get install nautilus

or search for nautilus in Software Manager / Synaptic Package Manager.

My favourite file manager is Dolphin in KDE, very efficient at getting things done and looks great, very user friendly and as mentioned above, very configurable.

Now off to look at the wiki lmuserx4849 posted to see what else is worth a look.

[Dngrsone]

I like nemo, and Nautilus is good too. Dolphin works good for me in KDE, though when it comes to mass-renaming music files, nothing beats Thunar, which is native to xfce

[jjott]

I am overwhelmed by the number of File managers that various users are either using or at least have a good opinion on them,
Here is the list (so far at this time):
nemo, Nautilus, Dolphin, Thunar, Krusader, Ranger, Caja, Pcmanfm.
An impressive list ! It will take me some time to look at some (or all of them).
Interesting that no one mentioned Filerunner, I use it extensively and will compare it with the ones listed, I doubt that very few would come even close to its capabilities, but I try to have an open mind.
Thanks for all your replies
John

[Fred Barclay]

Nemo is great and is my favourite. But since I'm using only MATE at the moment, caja isn't bad either! They're both very similar (with the Gnome heritage and all) that if you use one you can use the other with very few hiccups.

I definitely agree with the post above, that the best file manager is the one that comes with your DE (usually). Mixing file managers can cause some problems down the road, unless they're more of "stand-alone" file managers that aren't designed for a particular DE>

[all41]

The embedded file manager is the most defining characteristic among the Mint DEs,
and each DE offers compelling features--if I were to choose a file manager based on navigational attributes
alone it would be Dolphin--hands down.
But as for me and the way I use my computer--I choose Caja

[Cosmo.]

Nemo has the best integration in the system. You can activate in the prefences the option, that it always starts with 2 panes.

[Hoser Rob]

The embedded file manager is the most defining characteristic among the Mint DEs,
and each DE offers compelling features--if I were to choose a file manager based on navigational attributes
alone it would be Dolphin--hands down...

+1 to that. You're going to get better integration with the file manager that came with the DE. Having tried all the Mint DE versions I don't actually think any of their file managers is anywhere near bad enough to make it worthwhile using a different one. I'm an Xfce user and I used to feel that way about Thunar but they improved it. It's fine now.

Dolphin is indeed very powerful but if you install it in a non KDE DE it'll also install a shed load of dependencies. And it'll slow things down. I have installed Dolphin on non KDE DE versions before but no more.

One that I might consider is pcmanfm, which is the LXDE file manager. It's very fast, reasonably powerful, and doesn't install a lot of dependencies. That's typical pf LXDE programs ... the reason I use Mint Xfce instead of LXDE on my netbook is that no good Ubuntu based distros I know of offer an LXDE version with 5 years support.

[jjott]

The comment "hands down" by all41 prompted me to make a comparison between Dolphin and Filerunner

sceenshot009.jpeg

sceenshot007.jpeg

The screenshots had to be taken with reduced sizes to accommodate the forum limits,

[phd21]

Hi "jjott",

I just read your post and the good replies to it. Here are my thoughts on this as well.

"Ranger" is a text based console terminal file manager, if I am not mistaken. For a text based console terminal file manager I think "mc" (midnight commander) is pretty great.

For a desktop (graphical GUI) file manager, I agree with most everyone else, that using the one that comes with the edition of Linux Mint you are using is the best way to go.

I personally think "Dolphin" is the best file manager of all of them for the reasons already stated, but it is a KDE application. So, you have to install some "kde" dependencies to really have it work on non-KDE desktops. I do not think, like others, that because it requires installing some other KDE dependencies, that it is not worth trying on other non-kde desktops. Drive space is plentiful and inexpensive, and the kde dependencies do not take up that much space, and you can always remove them (uninstall them). But, I found that not all of the "Dolphin" file manager's many great features will work on non-kde desktops, at least not from my brief experience installing it in Linux Mint "Mate"; for instance not all the multi-media information that automatically shows up when browsing multimedia files in KDE showed up in "Mate", although some did. Installing "mediainfo" & "mediainfo-gui" (python-mediainfoddl, python3-mediainfodll) will help with that information using any file manager on any Linux Mint edition.

I also have "Konqueror" and "Krusader" installed. "Konqueror" is a web browser and file manager in one, that is very useful for opening "html" pages you have saved on your local drive(s) without using your Internet browser, and a pretty great file manager, and can do more as well. "Krusader" is a desktop GUI file manager that uses twin panel style, like "Total Commander", or "Midnight Commander" (mc), although Dolphin can also easily do a twin (dual) pane view too.


Hope this helps ...

If you are not using Linux Mint KDE, and want to be able to run some very high quality KDE applications,
then install these few programs below in the quote box in blue, which are perfectly safe for any edition of Linux mint.

If you're experiencing issues with KDE apps (like Amarok, Okular, Gwenview, KStars, kdenlive, "K3b", "Kolourpaint", etc...)
run the following command from your console terminal prompt: (you can copy & paste it too),
or install from the Synaptic Package Manager (SPM)
sudo apt-get install kdelibs-bin kdelibs5-data kdelibs5-plugins

Depending on your setup, you might also need to install "KDE-runtime" as well.
If you want to use "Kmail", and or "Korganizer", and or Kontacts, and or "Kalarm", then you will probably have to also install "kdepim".

[Mark Phelps]

My personal favorite is Gnome-Commander, as I like two-panel file managers and this one is a lot like the ones I have grown use to in Windows over the years.

[donalduck]

+1 for midnight commander

I'd like to add that mc is not a text only file manager, because you can use both mouse and keyboard to command control actions
(but mouse use only does not make it efficient, you have to learn the few key shortcuts)
what is more, it it visually quite relaxing thanks to it's blue/green color theme.

[phd21]

Hi "jjott", & Everyone Else,

I thought it might be helpful to show some screenshots, and to add a little more to the descriptions.

The "Dolphin" File manager - can have multiple tabs, and each tab can have, a standard view, or a split (dual) pane view, and each tab can have their own display options and views, and previews.


Dolphin using a "Split (dual pane) view


Konqueror screenshot 1 - web browser file manager and file viewer


Konqueror screenshot 2 - you can split the file manger vertically, or horizontally, multiple times in each pane, and each pane can have their own display options & views, and previews. built-in text editor, etc...


Konqueror screenshot 3


Krusader screenshot 1 - This is the GUI (graphical) desktop program that looks and functions a lot like Midnight Commander (MC) (a console terminal program) and Total Commander.



Hope this helps ...

[gostal]

jjott,

I, too, have used Filerunner extensively over the years. I found it by accident when I took my first Linux steps in the late 90's using Mandrake and Filerunner has stayed with me ever since although it was not maintained for some years. Now Tom Turkey has kept making a good file manager even better for many years by implementing quite a few of my wishes. My contributions, however, are but a drop in the ocean compared to Tom's.

I don't have so much experience with other file managers except KDE's Dolphin since Mint Mate is a quite recent acquaintance but rarely have I found an instance in which Filerunner doesn't win the race against Dolphin. IMHO the only case where Filerunner falls short is when it cannot do the task at all. But it's all a matter of taste. I like text only lists, command buttons are more ergonomically placed in the middle divider, it's easy to configure both apps of choice and other things, terminal windows easily started, navigation a breeze ...