Introducing
The Slant team built an AI & it’s awesome
Find the best product instantly
Add to Chrome
Add to Edge
Add to Firefox
Add to Opera
Add to Brave
Add to Safari
Try it now
4.7 star rating
0
What is the best alternative to nnn?
Ad
Ad
Ranger
All
18
Experiences
Pros
11
Cons
7
Top
Pro
Can be used in terminal
Which makes for a good choice of file explorer for those that use machines without a GUI.
See More
Top
Con
Bloated
Written in a scripted language. Enabling file previews makes it even slower.
See More
Top
Pro
Minimalist and efficient
There is no need for icons of files if headings are used. Previews of text documents and a simple design creates and efficient workflow.
See More
Top
Con
Depends heavily on third party utilities
See More
Top
Pro
Vim-like bindings
Ranger has Vim-like keybindings which help a lot in increasing efficiency and speed up the workflow.
See More
Top
Con
Difficult learning curve for people who are not used to Vim
Since it uses many of vim's keybindings, it may be hard for someone who does not use vim or does not know how to use vim to learn how to work with this file manager.
See More
Top
Pro
Extensible, scriptable (with python)
Ranger allows the use of various scripts for calling on individual or multiple files, for file previews, or for other operations. In commands.py the "my_edit"-function can be extended to do whatever in python can be done. Target files can be the file under the cursor (self.fm.thisfile.path), the files marked/selected in the current tab (self.fm.thistab.get_selection() ) and the files in the copy-buffer (add/remove: ya, yr) (respectively the delete-buffer: add/remove da/dr) (both: self.fm.copy_buffer). The most appropriate list of files can be found out automatically, like so: if self.fm.copy_buffer: for file in self.fm.copy_buffer: ... elif self.fm.thistab.get_selection(): for file in self.fm.thistab.get_selection(): ... else: file = self.fm.thisfile.path ...
See More
Top
Con
No way to calculate folder size
See More
Top
Pro
File preview
Unlike other terminal file managers, Ranger can preview many files, including text files, archives, etc, but also pdf files, pictures and videos.
See More
Top
Con
Needs heavy configuration to setup
See More
Top
Pro
Bookmark system
Makes it easy to jump to any specific folder locations you work with.
See More
Top
Con
No built-in ability to navigate FTP/SSH
Most other GUI-based file managers provide easy bookmarking and browsing of multiple FTP & SSH locations using either keys or keychain stored user credentials. Ranger doesn't have this.
See More
Top
Pro
Easily used with SSH
See More
Top
Con
A great idea but not GUI friendly
May be difficult to get past the fact that it asked for commands dd and cc and the likes to cut and or paste. Arch-Linux normally prides itself on not over-complicating things. Too bad ... a great idea with the 3 Smart Columns, but why would anyone prefer to need to learn 30 commands in order to cut and paste or copy a file or folder, or to see/change permissions.
See More
Top
Pro
Image preview support
Ranger can use w3m to preview images in terminal through framebuffer.
See More
Top
Pro
Fast and responsive
This software is super fast and responsive in navigation.
See More
Top
Pro
Treeview and listview (equal viewports) possible
Supports any number of viewports on folders side by side.
See More
Top
Pro
PDF preview
This may fall under "File preview", but it is a very powerful feature for PDF files in particular.
See More
Hide
See All
Experiences
Get it
here
252
119
Midnight Commander
All
15
Experiences
Pros
8
Cons
6
Specs
Top
Pro
Intuitive interface
Midnight commander uses the full screen of the terminal in a very efficient way. It displays two panels for files horizontally. On the bottom it has the most useful commands with their corresponding key attached. All of this makes for a very intuitive interface both for beginners and experienced users.
See More
Top
Con
File viewer: searching can be quite cumbersome
Especially searching next or previous.
See More
Top
Pro
Can be run in the terminal
Being a terminal application means that it's suited for people who spend most of their time on the terminal because they don't have to switch windows in order to open their file manager. It also means that they can use it both locally and remotely.
See More
Top
Con
No directory bookmarks
See More
Top
Pro
Easy to use
Midnight commander is easy and intuitive to use. The most common commands are displayed in the bottom (move, copy, paste, delete, edit, view, make directory). Files can be selected with the arrow keys which move the cursor through them. The Enter key goes down in a directory. To move the focus between two panels the tab key is used.
See More
Top
Con
No easy way to change colors matching certain files
There probably is a possibility, but it is not easy.
See More
Top
Pro
Lightweight
See More
Top
Con
Quirky and hard to remember shortcuts
E.g. when trying to take the current directory's path to the command line.
See More
Top
Pro
Stable
See More
Top
Con
Lacks drag and drop feature
With midnight commander you cannot drag and drop files to move them around. Instead, you have to do the necessary actions in order to move files around (cut and paste or copy and delete).
See More
Top
Pro
Often available in default repository
and hence easy to install by usually package manager.
See More
Top
Con
Can only be run in the terminal
MC lacks a standalone GUI option.
See More
Top
Pro
Lynx-like motion
Cursor+left to go to parent directory, cursor+right to go into child directory.
See More
Top
Pro
Well-presented
See More
Specs
Platforms:
Windows, Mac, Linux
Technology:
C
Hide
See All
Experiences
Get it
here
342
128
Vifm
All
9
Experiences
Pros
6
Cons
3
Top
Pro
Allows you to stay in the terminal
Since it runs in a terminal, it may live within ssh sessions, tmux/screen sessions, etc.
See More
Top
Con
Useless for non-vi users
Even to quit one has to use ":q".
See More
Top
Pro
Nice Themes for a terminal app
Vifm has a lot of good themes that you can easily grab from the main site and use with the :colorscheme command.
See More
Top
Con
Very high learning curve for newbies
See More
Top
Pro
Configurable
You can easily configure almost all aspects of vifm by just editing the dotfile which is pretty easy is you are comfortable with configuring apps.
See More
Top
Con
Can only be used in terminal
Vifm lacks a standalone GUI option.
See More
Top
Pro
Great integration with vim
The vifm.vim plugin allows you to use vifm as a powerful filepicker for vim.
See More
Top
Pro
Default key mappings will be comfortable to vim users
Vifm uses vim-esque key mappings. Makes for extremely efficient and---perhaps more importantly---intuitive interactions. The key mappings can be changed.
See More
Top
Pro
Dual pane
The dual pane nature of vifm makes copy paste and moving files from one folder to another super easy.
See More
Hide
See All
Experiences
Get it
here
50
18
Double Commander
All
18
Experiences
Pros
11
Cons
6
Specs
Top
Pro
Multi-platform (Linux, Windows, MacOS X)
You can use same tool in all desktop OS environments.
See More
Top
Con
Apparently only one developer
See More
Top
Pro
Source code is available (true free software)
If the developer loses interest there is at least the possibility that someone else will pick up the torch.
See More
Top
Con
Freeze after mouse double-click on directory list item
See More
Top
Pro
Configurable
Lots of options allow you to configure DC the way it suits you best: Tools, Fonts, Colors, Hotkeys, Mouse, Fileviews, Plugins, Layout, Toolbars, Tabs, Icons etc.
See More
Top
Con
Much slower on Linux and Mac than on Windows
See More
Top
Pro
Directory Hotlist
Save shortcuts to folders. Organize them in a treeview with submenus. Define a name and sorting for each entry.
See More
Top
Con
Source code written in Pascal language
But this does not affect users negatively. It's just programmers problem.
See More
Top
Pro
Powerful tcmd-like search tool (alt+F7)
See More
Top
Con
Not developed anymore for Mac
See More
Top
Pro
tcmd-like multi-rename tool (CTRL+M)
See More
Top
Con
Can't edit files on remote FTP servers
See More
Top
Pro
DC uses TCmd plugin API
so you can use documentation from Total Commander for writing plugins. WCX (packer), WDX (content), WFX (file system), WLX (lister).
See More
Top
Pro
Closely follows TotalCommander UX
For instance, the 'Settings | Layout' pane is quasi-identical to TCs.
See More
Top
Pro
Very sophisticated
Although it is lightweight and simple to use, it can do very sophisticated tasks, like copying files from directories which have a certain extension or file size or have a certain text pattern in them. Also, it's very customizable and stable.
See More
Top
Pro
It's that good, you can replace tcmd on windows too
See More
Top
Pro
Source code written in (Object) PASCAL
It's all a matter of perspective. I'm not for an argument about IDE's, frameworks etc, but to me that's a big plus. I think it should be a tie, it's either a pro or a con or should that be neither a pro nor a con. It just depends on context.
See More
Specs
Platforms:
Windows, Mac, Linux, BSD
License:
GPL-2.0-only
Technology:
Free Pascal
User Interface:
GUI
Hide
See All
Experiences
Get it
here
1116
309
krusader
All
6
Experiences
Pros
6
Top
Pro
Versatile
Has everything you might wish for and more.
See More
Top
Pro
Root mode
Dangerous but sometimes useful.
See More
Top
Pro
Multiple tabs
Tabs with other listings, and options to move the tab to the other side.
See More
Top
Pro
Advanced renamer
Via package krename.
See More
Top
Pro
Directory compare
Compare 2 directories on content or file/date and sync them.
See More
Top
Pro
Archive support
Browse archives as folders.
See More
Hide
0
55
7
fman
All
14
Experiences
Pros
4
Cons
9
Specs
Top
Pro
Works on all operating systems
Windows, Mac, and Linux are supported.
See More
Top
Con
No (text) file viewer
See More
Top
Pro
Simple to use
See More
Top
Con
No explicit bookmark support for directories
It though remembers the visited directories and allows to search in this list in most-recently used order and by name.
See More
Top
Pro
Makes finding commands *by name* easy
See More
Top
Con
Mainly for key-board-orientated users
The interface is most naturally navigated by arrows and keystrokes. The target market is software developers.
See More
Top
Pro
Slick
See More
Top
Con
Has no menu bar
Hence it is not well suited for visually orientated users which find or remember commands by using a mouse and a menu. Even the fman's hero Sublime Text uses a menu bar.
See More
Top
Con
Requires email address to download
Doesn't say what it will do with this data. It is in contrast to the new laws in Europe where only necessary information is allowed to be collected. A download should not require an email address.
See More
Top
Con
Still quite buggy
So, for example, sorting only is remembered if triggered by command and not be clicking the table column header using the mouse.
See More
Top
Con
Settings can't be found by the GUI
You need to know which files to edit.
See More
Top
Con
Default dark theme
No choice between dull-dark or fresh-light.
See More
Top
Con
No portable bundle available
On Windows only a net-installer is available.
See More
Specs
Platforms:
Windows, Mac, Linux
Hide
See All
Experiences
€14
207
37
WCM Commander
All
4
Experiences
Pros
3
Cons
1
Top
Pro
Built-in terminal
Has a built-in terminal from which users can run any kind of command.
See More
Top
Con
File editing on virtual file systems not supported
You cannot edit files in the virtual file system.
See More
Top
Pro
Virtual file system
WCM Commander has a virtual file system for smb, ftp and sftp.
See More
Top
Pro
Built-in editor
WCM Commander has a built-in text editor with syntax highlighting included.
See More
Hide
Get it
here
9
3
Worker
All
4
Experiences
Pros
4
Top
Pro
Innumerable button-click file ops are integrated
Rename files, move to other directories and extracting archives are of course a given...BUT THERE'S MORE! Convert media formats, make symlinks, CHMOD, change graphic formats, integrated GPG, filename UPPER/lowercase adjustments and more with just one button click!
See More
Top
Pro
Remote access
Worker supports access to remote machines through various ways (ssh, ftp, rsh, http and webdav).
See More
Top
Pro
Low system requirements
The system requirements for Worker are pretty low, making it a great option for lower-end machines. The reason why they are pretty low is because Worker is basically made of just X11 libraries.
See More
Top
Pro
Configuration GUI
Worker has a built-in configuration GUI.
See More
Hide
Get it
here
39
12
Krusader
All
15
Experiences
Pros
12
Cons
3
Top
Con
KDE dependencies
If you don't use KDE, you'll be forced to install quite a large amount of KDE libraries.
See More
Top
Pro
Great two-pane interface
See More
Top
Con
New releases are infrequent
It can be seen in https://quickgit.kde.org/?p=krusader.git that maintenance work is done in a continous fashion, but no new releases are provided. Even though it is perhaps the more feature-rich file manager.
See More
Top
Pro
Folder synchronization
See More
Top
Con
Interface can be overwhelming
See More
Top
Pro
Handles most archives. There is little difference in behaviour between an archive file and a regular folder.
See More
Top
Pro
Virtual file systems
Search results as example saved into virtual folder and can be accessed later. All file operations may be performed on items in search results as if they were files in single folder.
See More
Top
Pro
All common operations can be done with keyboard efficiently
In addition, shortcuts can be easily renamed. Unlike Dolphin and many others.
See More
Top
Pro
SFTP support
See More
Top
Pro
Many operations like copying and moving files can be queued
Long running operations can be queued. There is no point in doing them in a parallel way, as speed decreases dramatically.
See More
Top
Pro
Can view and edit many files
Even editing a file inside a .zip file. Has hexadecimal viewer embedded for binary files.
See More
Top
Pro
Filename association and instant console availability
See More
Top
Pro
Multi-rename tool
See More
Top
Pro
Searching capabilities and copying/deleting/moving in background
See More
Top
Pro
Custom commands can be added to the menu easily
And they can use the current folder, the selected files....
See More
Hide
See All
Experiences
Get it
here
128
48
Dolphin
All
17
Experiences
Pros
11
Cons
6
Top
Pro
Immenseley configurable
As with any KDE app, Dolphin, allows adding or modifying toolbar buttons and keyboard shortcuts.
See More
Top
Con
May be a little slow on startup
Dolphin can be a little slow on startup (depending on distro, hardware etc...). Startup time can vary from a couple of seconds to up to a minute.
See More
Top
Pro
Can split views
Dolphin supports splitting the view in two navigational areas, this way you can navigate two different directories at the same time.
See More
Top
Con
Can hang on remote file systems
It doesn't cope well with remote file system nicely like sshfs or any samba, like when network is not responding/very slow. It just hangs.
See More
Top
Pro
Integrated terminal
Pressing F4 with any opened folder on a mounted path opens a console within dolphin.
See More
Top
Con
"Type" column too verbose
Despite having a large enough monitor, if you keep the size of the browser window small, the "Type" column (in "Details" view mode) insists on including the complete multipart MIME string, making the column so wide that trying to limit its width makes the column useless. Sorting by "Type" renders the list into an incomprehensible mess.
See More
Top
Pro
Also has a refresh option
Dolphin is without a doubt the best fully functional and easy to use and multitask with. Dolphin also has a refresh button which no other File manager has. It's great for tracking a large files transfer; that's what file managers are for - good common sense.
See More
Top
Con
Poor optimization on later versions
See More
Top
Pro
Easy to extend with plugins
Dolphin follows KDE's philosophy of being extendable and configurable. It can easily be configured and customized through plugins.
See More
Top
Con
Too simple
Feels weird on KDE because it has less customizing options Konqueror and any other KDE app have.
See More
Top
Pro
Auto mounts flash drives
Dolphin automatically identifies and mounts external flash drives.
See More
Top
Con
Can't perform ROOT actions
Developers set a constraint in Dolphin that deny Dolphin to run with root permissions. Hence, if you want to perform an action that require root permissions, such as rename a file in /etc/ folder, you are forced to use terminal or switch to another file manager.
See More
Top
Pro
Fast at opening graphics folders
Pictures with or without previews is optional and selectable at the touch of a button.
See More
Top
Pro
Does not use third party libraries
Unlike all those GTK-based file managers it does not have to rely on external written software for its functionality because KF5 is KDE SOftware and developed alongside.
See More
Top
Pro
Keeps its state
It starts with last opened folders.
See More
Top
Pro
Fully supports HiDPI
Supports HiDPI displays.
See More
Top
Pro
Automatically centers items
In icons view mode, the space between files gets stretched so that there is never and annoying empty space at the right side of the window.
See More
Hide
See All
Experiences
Get it
here
369
132
SpaceFM
All
13
Experiences
Pros
9
Cons
4
Top
Pro
Incredibly customizable
Just right click on any menu or menu option (including the context menu itself) and you'll be allowed to customize it. This lets you add support or integration for features you find missing.
See More
Top
Con
Ugly
See More
Top
Pro
Minimal dependencies
It only needss gtk, udev, desktop-file-util and shared-mime-info which is available in most systems.
See More
Top
Con
Some operations are slow
Because it tries to be as lightweight as possible and tries to use very little RAM. This can unfortunately lead to it being slow sometimes.
See More
Top
Pro
Highly extensible
Functionalities can be extended by user scripts as plugins. Some scripts can also be downloaded from https://github.com/IgnorantGuru/spacefm-plugins/wiki. Plugins can be exported too.
See More
Top
Con
Not for everyone
See More
Top
Pro
Tab and panel support
SpaceFM supports up to 4 individually customizable panels as well as multi-tabbed file management.
See More
Top
Con
Ugly
See More
Top
Pro
No back seat driver
Does not obstruct professional work by engrossing root warnings.
See More
Top
Pro
Desktop management support
Can be used to set wallpaper and desktop icons with high configuration support.
See More
Top
Pro
Easily open folder as root
Can open different folders as root, this way you don't have to use the terminal to move around files for which you need root permission.
See More
Top
Pro
Gtk-2 and 3 support
Available in gtk2 and gtk3.
See More
Top
Pro
Intuitive and extendable through plug-ins
Great UI, easy to use and configure, several plug-ins available to make everyday tasks even easier.
See More
Hide
See All
Experiences
Get it
here
81
39
jFileProcessor
All
13
Experiences
Pros
12
Cons
1
Top
Pro
Easy to run commands on selected files
Find/select files in sub-folders. run touch %f or cp %f /somefolder (this is a way to copy selected files in different levels, into 1 folder, flattening out the copy).
See More
Top
Con
Does not see attached phone files
No mtp:/ connected phone files.
See More
Top
Pro
Easy rename files script
Select files. regex to match pieces of filenames, rename adding, leaving out, and reusing saved pieces.
See More
Top
Pro
Groovy scripts to watch and act on files that get created/put into a folder.
So you can watch a folder and process files that come into it.
See More
Top
Pro
You can make your own file associations. You can make 3 types, per suffix, per filename, per exact file.
With exact file you can create a folder of job or desktop icon names. Double-click that file to run the job since it is tied to just that specific file.
See More
Top
Pro
Can make sftp connections
See More
Top
Pro
You can write a script to modify your list
Your script can modify contents in the list window it is working on.
See More
Top
Pro
Plugin scripts
Just put groovy scripts in menu-scripts folder and they will automatically run using currently selected files.
See More
Top
Pro
Run any groovy scriptable command on a list
Run commands on your lists: grep files to find stuff, delete/copy/move files, etc.. Even copy a file to a remote host and execute it.
See More
Top
Pro
Create and work with lists of filenames or any string
Search files and save to another file or a list window. Add or subtract one list from another.
See More
Top
Pro
Can do count only
Just count matching search criterion.
See More
Top
Pro
Good search
Search on modified time, file size, glob/regex name, folder depth; and/or on these and can do range.
See More
Top
Pro
Cross-platform
Available for Linux, Windows, macOS - just needs java 7+ (written with 8).
See More
Hide
See All
Experiences
0
6
0
tig
All
7
Experiences
Pros
5
Cons
1
Specs
Top
Pro
Allows you to stay in the terminal
If you prefer to do most of your development inside the terminal, changing windows to move to a GUI git client can be annoying. Since tig runs inside the terminal, that's avoided.
See More
Top
Con
Steeper barrier to entry as compared to a GUI solution
Since you have to get used to working in the terminal (if you are not already used to doing that) and learn the commands, it has a steeper learning curve than GUI clients which are usually more intuitive and easier to grasp.
See More
Top
Pro
Fast
See More
Top
Pro
Vim-like bindings
See More
Top
Pro
Available in Homebrew
Can easily be installed with homebrew simply by running brew install tig
See More
Top
Pro
Works on any platform
See More
Specs
Platforms:
Windows, Linux, Mac
Technology:
C
Hide
See All
Experiences
Get it
here
88
6
XtraFinder
All
10
Experiences
Pros
9
Cons
1
Top
Con
Doesn't work on recent macOS versions without a workaround
This tool doesn't work on recent macOS versions, except if you try workaraound that may or may not work. It involves disabling System Integrity Protection and details on how to do it can be found on the XtraFinder website.
See More
Top
Pro
Free
See More
Top
Pro
Old full-size color labels from OS X < 10.9
See More
Top
Pro
Adds useful toolbar items
XtraFinder provides useful options for toolbar such as: Launch as Root, New Terminal Here, New File..., and Select...
See More
Top
Pro
Additional right-click options
Xtra Finder provides additional options when performing the right click.
See More
Top
Pro
Custom hotkeys
See More
Top
Pro
Copy Path
See More
Top
Pro
Can open a terminal in set position
XtraFinder can open up a terminal from the right-click menu in given path with "New Terminal Here".
See More
Top
Pro
Dual panel
Split the Finder window into to windows to achieve better file handling.
See More
Top
Pro
Colored icons in the Finder sidebar
See More
Hide
See All
Experiences
Get it
here
60
12
Spacemacs
All
4
Experiences
Pros
2
Cons
1
Specs
Top
Pro
Preconfigured emacs distro
Spacemacs is just a well-configured Emacs distribution with community-sourced best in class plugins and layers selected to take the setup pain out of Emacs. Evil mode gives the Vim bindings and modes for fast editing, while Helm makes everything discoverable to make learning to be more productive simple and unintrusive.
See More
Top
Con
Emacs is slow
Emacs is single threaded which means that if you enable all the great features you might be used to from Vim, it will run noticeably slower which can be quite frustrating at times. There are efforts at a concurrent Emacs, but they don't seem to be going anywhere.
See More
Top
Pro
VIM Keybindings with EMACS ecosystem
EMACS ecosystem and language support is best in show. The EMACS is a great IDE that was in search of a good text editor. Spacemacs makes EMACS have a good text editor.
See More
Specs
Platforms:
GNU/Linux, MacOS, Windows
License:
GPL3
Multi Language Support:
Yes
Export:
Yes
See All Specs
Hide
Get it
here
80
17
Far Manager
All
18
Experiences
Pros
11
Cons
6
Specs
Top
Pro
Keyboard-oriented
Far Manager's interface encourages keyboard operation - all actions are easily accessible with keyboard shortcuts, you can quickly record macros for any repeatable action, there are no screen redraws if it is not necessary and that makes everything faster.
See More
Top
Con
Blocking operations
Operations such as copy, move, delete, etc are blocking, and you have to wait for them to complete before you can continue. Though you can cancel the operation with the escape key.
See More
Top
Pro
Open source
Released under BSD license.
See More
Top
Con
Only for Windows
See More
Top
Pro
Two-panel interface
See More
Top
Con
Always uses monospace font
Which makes long file names look extremely wide
See More
Top
Pro
Many plugins
There are may of them, and you can write them in any languages, including Python.
See More
Top
Con
Does not support scrolling with mouse
With plugin
See More
Top
Pro
Editor with syntax highlighting
Every Far feature is also true for its editor. You can setup an external editor if you like, but the included editor works really well and features syntax highlighting.
See More
Top
Con
Text-based interface
Far Manager does not use a GUI like most windows applications nowadays. This may prove difficult to use for people who are not familiar with text-based user interfaces.
See More
Top
Pro
Easily recorded macros
Hit "Ctrl-." and start recording your boring sequence. Hit "Ctrl-." again to assign it a key. You can use Lua if you need more advanced macros.
See More
Top
Con
Folder shortcuts not available in Alt+F1/F2 menus
See More
Top
Pro
Numeric sorting option
E.g. readme-9.txt before readme-10.txt
See More
Top
Pro
Extremely fast
See More
Top
Pro
Offline context help
Just press F1 when you need it. No internet connection or browser is required.
See More
Top
Pro
Themeable
Fully themeable, allowing you to change the colors of every part of the interface.
See More
Top
Pro
Scrippting support via LUA
See More
Specs
Platforms:
Windows
32 or 64 bit:
Both
Integrated Shell:
Yes
Hide
See All
Experiences
Free
98
25
Emacs
All
41
Experiences
Pros
30
Cons
10
Specs
Top
Pro
Keyboard-focused, mouse-free editing
Emacs can be controlled entirely with the keyboard. While true, I often find the mouse and menus handy for those lesser-used commands. An aide-memoir.
See More
Top
Con
Learning curve is long
While it's better than it used to be, with most functions being possible through the menu, Emacs is still quite a bit different from your standard editor. You'll need to learn new keyboard shortcuts.
See More
Top
Pro
Total customizability
Customizations can be made to a wide range of Emacs' functions through a Lisp dialect (Emacs Lisp). A robust list of existing Lisp extensions include the practical (git integration, syntax highlighting, etc) to the utilitarian (calculators, calendars) to the sublime (chess, Eliza).
See More
Top
Con
Sometimes the extensibility can distract you from your actual work
If I ever want to lose half a day, I'll start by tweaking my .spacemacs config file.
See More
Top
Pro
It's also an IDE
You can debug, compile, manage files, integrate with version control systems, etc. All through the various plugins that can be installed.
See More
Top
Con
Keyboard combinations can be confusing for new users
For example, for navigation it uses the b, n, p, l keys. Which for some people may seem strange in the begging. However they can be changed easily.
See More
Top
Pro
Works in terminal or as a GUI application
You can use Emacs' command line interface or graphical user interface.
See More
Top
Con
Documentation is not beginner-friendly
Although lots of good built-in documentation _exists_, I have after four years of Emacs as my primary editor not figured out how to actually make use of it, and rely completely on Google / StackOverflow for help.
See More
Top
Pro
Self documenting
Emacs has extensive help support built-in as well as a tutorial accessed with C-h t.
See More
Top
Con
User interface is terrible
I was using Emacs in the early 1980's, before there were GUIs. In fairness to Emacs, its original design was conceived in that context and is rather good at some things, like flexible ability to bind commands to keyboard shortcuts. Unfortunately, it didn't keep up with the times and fails to take advantage of the entire world of GUI design that's revolutionized computer science since then. So Emacs does 5% or what an editor should do quite will, and is surprisingly under-powered and old fashioned at the other 95%. To this day, it lacks or struggles with very basic things, like interactive dialogs, toolbars, tabbed interface, file system navigation, etc., etc. The things I just mentioned, are all present in some limited and inept form, but falls far short of current standard of good user interface design. For this reason, I would not recommend Emacs to anyone who is under 50 year old, or who needs power user capabilities. For casual, unsophisticated applications by someone who grew up with green screen character based computers, it's probably OK.
See More
Top
Pro
Free
Licensed under GNU GPL.
See More
Top
Con
Emacs lisp is very poorly designed
The language that's used for user customization, extensions, and for much of the basic editor functionality, is Emacs lisp, or elisp for short. I actually like lisp in general, especially Scheme, but unfortunately, elisp is one of the worst versions of lisp ever created, barely meriting being called lisp. It's very slow, impoverished in features, inconsistent, and rather inelegant in design. Elisp needed to be overhauled 20 or 30 years ago, but the Emacs developers were not willing to do the work. I believe this is one of the major reasons Emacs is so buggy, lacking in features, development is so slow, and consequently almost nobody uses it (or should use it) anymore.
See More
Top
Pro
Great documentation
With 30+ years of use the Emacs documentation is very thorough. There are also a lot of tutorials and guides written by third parties.
See More
Top
Con
Very poorly maintained
It's not clear to what extent Emacs is still supported. There's still some development taking place, but so slow that it's almost an abandoned project. There are numerous bugs in Emacs, many these days associated with start up and package management. When you search the Internet for solutions, you often find many posts, sometimes going back months or even years, with no clear fix.
See More
Top
Pro
Vi keybindings through Evil mode
Evil mode emulates vim behaviors within Emacs. It enables Vi users to move inside the Emacs universe.
See More
Top
Con
Hard customization
For customization, you need to learn Lisp.
See More
Top
Pro
Provides org-mode
Advanced planning and publication which can start as a simple list.
See More
Top
Con
A lot of jokes in this serious software
See More
Top
Pro
Enormous range of functionalities (way beyond simple "text editing")
Through its programmability, a very broad range of functionalities can be integrated in emacs, turning it even into a "single point of contact" with the underlying operating system.
See More
Top
Con
Using Emacs on a new machine without your .emacs file
See More
Top
Pro
Cross-platform
Works on Linux, Windows, Macintosh, BSD, and others.
See More
Top
Pro
Integrates planning in your development process
You can jump straight from your org-mode files to programming tasks - and back - and build a seamless workflow.
See More
Top
Pro
Versatile
Emacs is great for everything.
See More
Top
Pro
Mini buffer
You can pass complicated arguments in the mini buffer.
See More
Top
Pro
Ubiquity
Fully compliant GNU-emacs is available on many platforms, and they all understand .emacs configuration files.
See More
Top
Pro
Rectangular cut and paste
Emacs can select rectangularly.
See More
Top
Pro
Lisp customizations
With lisp customization, any behavior of Emacs can be changed. Update with pre-release patch can be also applied without recompiling the whole Emacs.
See More
Top
Pro
Visual selection and text objects with Evil
Evil is an extensible vi layer for Emacs. It provides Vim features like Visual selection and text objects.
See More
Top
Pro
dabbrev-expand (Alt-/)
Dynamic word completion.
See More
Top
Pro
Support multi-line editing, multiple frame, powerful paren, crazy jumping style
Review the "Emacs Rocks" video.
See More
Top
Pro
Has been widely used for a long time
The first verion of Emacs was written in 1974 and GNU Emacs in 1984.
See More
Top
Pro
Helm plugin adds even more power to Emacs
Powerful commands, search, and more with the Helm plugin.
See More
Top
Pro
GTK+ widgets support
Since version 25 you can run GTK widgets inside Emacs buffers. One of these is the WebKitGTK+, which allows the user to run a full-featured web browser inside Emacs with JavaScript and CSS support among other things.
See More
Top
Pro
Excelent tutorial to get you started
The tutorial you are presented with at startup shows you exactly what you need to get started and teaches you how to use the built-in help yourself later.
See More
Top
Pro
Interactive Shells
Emacs has a number of shell variants: ansi-term, shell, and eshell.
See More
Top
Pro
Emacs provides magit, the best and most complete GIT interface
Complex git history editing become a breeze with very few keystrokes. And simple ones are quickly stashed in muscle memory. Git becomes an direct extension of your brain thanks to Magit. Cherrypicking, blaming, resetting, interactive rebasing, line level commit, spinoff branches... you name it, magit already has it and has typically all those 5 to 10 git CLI commands of higher-level patterns also tide to one simple shortcut (want to amend a commit three commits away ? forgot to branch out and you've got already N commits on master ? ... etc... ).
See More
Top
Pro
Gnus
Managing several large mailing lists has never been easier using Gnus. The threading commands and the various ways of scoring articles means that I never miss important messages/authors, etc. A joy to use.
See More
Top
Pro
Eshell is cross platform
You can use the underlying operating system shell as a terminal emulation in an Emacs buffer. Don't like the default shell for your configuration? You can change it to your liking.
See More
Top
Pro
Excellent Lisp editing support
Built-in packages make editing Lisp source code feel natural.
See More
Top
Pro
Use-package and org-mode
Missing some neural package that predicts actions, maybe in the next release ...
See More
Specs
Platforms:
Unix-like, macOS, Windows, Cygwin
License:
GPL-3.0-or-later
Multi Language Support:
Yes
Auto Complete:
Yes
See All Specs
Hide
See All
Experiences
FREE
846
176
PCManFM
All
15
Experiences
Pros
10
Cons
5
Top
Pro
Lightweight
General use, and most operations, are snappy and responsive.
See More
Top
Con
Can't extend with scripts
Unlike Nautilus and Caja, this can't extend with scripts. If script extension is added it can become a really good FM.
See More
Top
Pro
Simple
PCManFM is a very lightweight and simple file manager.
See More
Top
Con
Some operations are slow
Because it tries to be as lightweight as possible and tries to use very little RAM. This can unfortunately lead to it being slow sometimes.
See More
Top
Pro
Can open folder as root
PCManFM can open different folders as root, this way you don't have to use the terminal to move around files for which you need root permission.
See More
Top
Con
Right-click option choice limitation
You can only choose one option in the right-click menu instead of being able to select multiple at once.
See More
Top
Pro
Auto mounts drives
PCmanFM automatically detects and mounts available drives.
See More
Top
Con
Uses a bit more RAM than thunar
Thunar uses less RAM but you pay in slower startup and stability.
See More
Top
Pro
Supports "quick-directory" typing
While in a PCManFM window, typing either a "~" or a "/" will automatically start typing into the location bar, allows for tab completion, and pressing Enter goes straight to the typed directory.
See More
Top
Con
Directory trees can be confusing
Starts you off in a directory tree that is your home folder as if that is the very top. (Just use a single tree as it actually is and expand appropriately).
See More
Top
Pro
More RAM is available for other processes, and the system uses less swap
Overall, the system becomes faster.
See More
Top
Pro
Uses tabs instead of new windows
Tabs can practically be managed just as in a browser, so you don't end up with windows open all over your desktop. New tabs automatically start in the same location.
See More
Top
Pro
Fastest starup
PCmanFM is the fastest GUI file manager to start.
See More
Top
Pro
No back seat driver
Does not obstruct professional work by engrossing root warnings.
See More
Top
Pro
Compact
Supports fast failure resolving in bulky configuration and log folders.
See More
Hide
See All
Experiences
Get it
here
226
60
Thunar
All
27
Experiences
Pros
12
Cons
15
Top
Pro
Minimal dependencies
Unlike Nautilus, which requires the whole GNOME desktop, thunar just depends on some XFCE utilities & GTK.
See More
Top
Con
No integrated search option
See More
Top
Pro
Supports "quick-directory" typing
While in a Thunar window, typing either a "~" or a "/" will automatically start typing into the "address-bar" and pressing enter goes straight to the typed directory.
See More
Top
Con
No usable image view mode
Setting view to "icons" doesn't satisfy. The icons are too small to see the image.
See More
Top
Pro
Non-recursive find
In a thunar window, any non-directory typing will search in the current directory for the filename that you type (non-recursive, unlike Nautilus)
See More
Top
Con
Simplified action bar
The action bar on Thunar is very simple and doesn't have as many features and buttons as other file managers. It only has a back, forward, up, and home buttons as well as the folder path.
See More
Top
Pro
Select by Pattern
Select multiple files in the current folder using a wildcard pattern.
See More
Top
Con
Does not integrate well into Gnome
See More
Top
Pro
Custom actions are easy to set up
Use Custom Actions to add right-click options to do things like Open as Root, Open Git GUI, etc. You can filter the file types and filename patterns that the actions will show up for. To add an "Open as Root" action, go to Edit, Configure custom actions. Assign a name and a description. Set Command as "gksudo xdg-open %f" (you'll need to install gksudo since pkexec won't work). Pick an icon (I prefer "changes-allow"). Under Appearance Conditions, select Directories, Text Files, and Other Files.
See More
Top
Con
Tree sidepane missing features
When the sidepane is in Tree mode, it does not show Places (Favorites). It also doesn't collapse folders (like Windows Explorer), adding to clutter.
See More
Top
Pro
Supports forward/back mouse buttons
Supports the M4 and M5 mouse buttons for forward/back, similarly to most browsers.
See More
Top
Con
Requires GNOME dependencies to support common features
Thunar relies on GVFS to support mounting disks or accessing web folders, however since GVFS is a third party GNOME library and made for the use in the GNOME environment its often incompatible to Thunar stable releases which results into crashes and other issues
See More
Top
Pro
Supports renaming files in bulk
With also predefined functions as insert (date, numbering,...), search/replace, etc ...
See More
Top
Con
No double pane support
Working all in all quite good out of the box, but the windows are too big. Drag & drop is working, but useless on a one-window file manager. Even for novice users it's too weak for everyday work.
See More
Top
Pro
Split View
Browse files in two directories with a dual pane view.
See More
Top
Con
Requires plugins for some basic functions of modern file managers
See More
Top
Pro
Does the job
But nothing more.
See More
Top
Con
No Split View without a patch
Which can be a deal breaker.
See More
Top
Pro
Keypress to search in folder
While in a Thunar window, typing a filename automatically selects the first matching file in the current folder.
See More
Top
Con
Moving files
Has serious problems moving files. It may stop abruptly with some undefined error message and the files would be gone afterwards.
See More
Top
Pro
Can assign custom shortcuts to scripts in XFCE
Thunar can use the editable accelerator feature of XFCE. Run xfce4-appearance-settings in terminal, go to settings tab, check "enable editable accelerator". Now open any command in Thunar menu, hover to a command, i.e. your custom "places" or your custom command, then press any combination to assign a shortcut to it. be careful though, cause it will also remove the shortcut from other command.
See More
Top
Con
Won't write to any removable media that has been on an Apple machine
Removing dot-files that Apple puts on the media (like .fseversd) allows Thunar to write to it.
See More
Top
Pro
Tabs
Use tabs to open fewer windows. New tabs automatically start in the same location. Tabs can be detached.
See More
Top
Con
Doesn't integrate well with archive manager other than Xarchiver
"Extract here" function doesn't integrate well with archive manager other than Xarchiver (e.g. Ark, GNOME Archive Manager).
See More
Top
Con
Image thumbnails sometimes wrong
There seems to be a bug where sometimes images get the wrong thumbnail, this can lead to data-loss.
See More
Top
Con
Slightly unstable
Thunar crashes some times on file moves, copy-pasting etc. The developers are working on it, but it's taken a while.
See More
Top
Con
No progress bar when copying/moving file
Either this is problem with XFCE4 or Thunar, but there's no progress bar when copying/moving file with Thunar. The only way to tell whether it finished is CPU usage.
See More
Hide
See All
Experiences
Get it
here
146
52
Nemo
All
12
Experiences
Pros
9
Cons
3
Top
Pro
Elegant
The most stylish among all FMs.
See More
Top
Con
Changing the background color or font type for customization is not practical
You have to do it with finding and editing the relevant CSS files. No buttons, menus or sliders for such customization.
See More
Top
Pro
Extendable
Nemo can be extended to have additional features through third party plugins.
See More
Top
Con
Incomplete mimetypes
Like all nautilus forks it allows you to run svg-files due some incomplete mimetype coverage.
See More
Top
Pro
Easily open as root
Option to open folder as root from within the right click menu.
See More
Top
Con
Depends on GNOME
Depends on gnome toolkits an libraries.
See More
Top
Pro
Easily open file location in terminal
Option to open a folder in terminal, which can help executing commands such as bash.
See More
Top
Pro
Has dual pane functionality
This functionality was removed in Nautilus and Dolphin at least in Ubuntu-Gnome, but Nemo kept this option, making the obvious functionality of cut, copy and paste much easier.
See More
Top
Pro
Double pane and search by name capabilities
See More
Top
Pro
Supports bookmarking
You can bookmark folders that you open often, this way you can easily access them from anywhere while using Nemo.
See More
Top
Pro
Good networking options
Supports ftp, ssh and samba connections.
See More
Top
Pro
Queues file operations
See More
Hide
See All
Experiences
Get it
here
203
73
Built By the Slant team
Find the best product instantly.
4.7 star rating
Add to Chrome
Add to Edge
Add to Firefox
Add to Opera
Add to Brave
Add to Safari
Try it now - it's free
{}
undefined
url next
price drop