"Best" file manager

[cecilieaux]

This is one of those open-ended questions to which there is no necessarily hard and fast right or wrong. I have been in love with dual-pane file managers since the Norton Commander in DOS. In Linux, I've enjoyed Nemo (don't like that Caja has no setting to make it automatically dual-paned), Double Commander for its tweakability, GNOME Commander because it's fast and allows you to open a root session for those moment in which you *have* to be root. I've hear of Pool File Manager. I'm sure there are many others.

Which one do you think does the best job and has the greatest versatility? (Yes, I know it's a question of personal taste. Let's move on beyond that,)

[JoeFootball]

Which one do you think does the best job and has the greatest versatility?

To me, I think it depends on the job at hand. For example, Xfe isn't my daily file manager, but it's my go-to choice when moving large files.

Joe

[MarHaj]

GNU Midnight Commander resembles Norton's original, but there are more features there.

[AdamFirst]

Thank you for this post. It reminded me of the delight in finding a dual pane file manager for Windows 3. Probably, my first custom file manager was Norton Commander, but I settled on PowerDesk. It was a revelation, graphical and full featured dual pane. For years I would bend ears singing it's praises to all I encountered. (Could be why I was shunned at parties.)

When I discovered the joy of dual monitors, my love of dual pane file managers faded. Draging and dropping betweend two open file manager windows became painless. Now, Nemo fits me well, except that it occasionially chokes with large moves. I think I will explore Xfe thanks to JoeFootball's suggestion.


AdamFirst

[ccoyle]

I'd pay handsomely for a Linux version of Total Commander. Some of the Linux 2-pane managers come close, but none equal it. (I don't want to use Wine).

[JoeFootball]

I'd pay handsomely for a Linux version of Total Commander.

If you've not already tried it, be sure to see Double Commander.

Joe

[all41]

The best file manager is the one you master---
Learn the keyboard shortcuts

[ccoyle]

I'd pay handsomely for a Linux version of Total Commander.

If you've not already tried it, be sure to see Double Commander.

Joe

Thanks. I've settled in with Krusader. It comes pretty close to Total Commander.

[ccoyle]

The best file manager is the one you master---
Learn the keyboard shortcuts

Learn the shortcuts, Grasshopper.

[Hoser Rob]

Haven't tried xfe. The most powerful, by a mile, of theones I've used is Dolphin. But I wouldn't bother installing it in a non KDE system

I've found an excellent light file manager is pcmanfm, it's very smartly designed and installs no dependencies.

[cecilieaux]

Just saw this https://www.ubuntupit.com/linux-file-ma ... nux-users/ (Linux File Manager: Top 10 Reviewed for Linux Users).

[Portreve]

I've never cared for the dual-panel concept. When I see people who are absolute masters of it using it, to me it looks like a real inefficient way to do something, with a lot of extra effort involved.

I grew up with Mac OS back in the day when there was no single version number. We would say "System 3.2, Finder 4.1". I've always liked the concept undergirding that design ethic, and of course over the decades there's been revisions to the featureset and other things, and honestly I feel the penultimate execution of that is something of a cross between Mac OS X 10.6's Finder, and the current version of whatever they're using in Cinnamon. I wish Cinnamon was just a hair more Finder-like, but the rest of it I absolutely love.

I can't see why a long-time Mac OS / Mac OS X user couldn't switch directly over to Cinnamon and have a near-nonexistent learning curve.

[rambo919]

Honestly, extra panels and tabs tend to just confuse me. It's so much easier to just have multiple instances/windows you can plop. Also you never really want the file manager itself doing file transfers that always manages to cause problems with bulk transfer.

[Hoser Rob]

I've never cared for the dual-panel concept. ....

It's not so much I don't like it but I fail to see the need nowadays when any decent FM can do pretty much the same thing.

[felemur]

OK, I'm late to this party, but I'll just add my 2 cents and say xfe is amazing for certain uses. I use the included file manager in Cinnamon otherwise.

[ravenmad]

I'd love a file manager that allows "the", "a", etc to be ignored from the beginning of files/folders when sorting (on a per folder basis). Eg, finding/sorting TV Shows/Movies is a pain when there's 20+ files all beginning with "The"... This is easy peasy in Directory Opus (Windows only) which is, hands down, the best file manager I've ever used. Double Commander is similar but doesn't have the extensability or robust feature set of DOpus.