What are the best file managers for UNIX-like systems?

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LinuxFile ManagerUnixBSDFile ManagementUnix-like

What are the best file managers for UNIX-like systems?

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Jan 22, 2024

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45 Options Considered

Best file managers for UNIX-like systems	Price	Platforms	License
69 nnn	Free	Linux, macOS, Termux, Raspberry Pi	BSD-2-Clause
65 Thunar	-	-	-
62 Dolphin	-	-	-
55 Double Commander	FREE	Windows, Mac, Linux, BSD	GPL-2.0-only
55 Ranger	-	-	-

See Full List

score 300 · Answer 1

nnn

Top Pro

Superfast

Top Con

CLI, default interface very simplified (supports mouse)

InquisitiveIdiyanale's Experience

Really nice UI See More

Specs

Platforms:Linux, macOS, Termux, Raspberry Pi

License:BSD-2-Clause

Top Pro

Rich set of plugins

DedicatedThaumas's Experience

Perfect DE integration (on XFCE). See More

Top Pro

Extremely lightweight (120 kb)

RobustHegemone's Experience

Very smooth workflows. See More

Top Pro

Unique navigate-as-you-type mode

CromulentOcypete's Experience

Very flexible and lightning fast See More

Top Pro

Awesome new features being added in every release

Pierre LeBaux's Experience

I switched from MC on my servers because of the low memory consumption and sane defaults. See More

Top Pro

Minimal configuration with sane defaults

Default options and navigation is simple to grasp. See More

Vijaya Gopala's Experience

Perfectly captures the spirit of Unix paradigm: focuses just on file listing, with customary hotkeys, while delegating useful other tasks to dedicated tools. See More

Top Pro

Has a great wiki

EnchantingTuireann's Experience

Coolest and fastest file manager around. See More

Top Pro

Sessions

Save and resume sessions. See More

Top Pro

Supports cd-on-quit

Allows for quick switching between nnn and the terminal. See More

Top Pro

Previews

The file manager has recently added support for preview hovered files using various methods. See More

Top Pro

Integrates with the desktop environment and opens files in the default applications

Top Pro

Reasonably well-documented

However, it requires some prior knowledge of inner workings of Linux and there are no tutorials (yet). NNN author is making up for this by actively responding to GitHub issues. See More

Top Pro

Customizable icons and colors

See All

score 114 · Answer 2

Thunar

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

VersatileTohil's Experience

Constantly crashes and locks up. Never gets fixed. 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. Ridiculous. 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

AssertiveWurugag's Experience

Overall good, but too simple lacking essential functions 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

SpontaneousAmeretat's Experience

PRO In split windows, drag and drop with ftp, Dolphin automatically does the log-in with the server! Extremely convenient. You do not even realize what is going on in the background. 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

Szymon's Experience

Very quick and lightweight. 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

's Experience

Nice simple UI (but it depends on gtk and icon). 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

CulturedResheph's Experience

buggy, freezes often 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

PowerfulJupiter's Experience

Limited native functionality. I'm not interested in having to mess around with plugins, I want something that just works. Thunar lacks a search function, it lacks run as administrator, it lacks split view, and many other things 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

SociableZeus's Experience

Great experience, great design. 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

Greg Zeng's Experience

The ONLY File Manager in Linux that offers WYSIWYG views of name changes to files names. Also works with Windows files on Windows partitions. 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

TactfulTheispas's Experience

Fast loading thumbnails. Simple to use. 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

's Experience

Too simplistic. Image thumbnails: no rotation (?), poor quality of these. Also may be slow in big folders. 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

ExuberantAtaguchu's Experience

has poor actions, a real yesterdays file-manager. Can' understand that this crap is still the default on different distros... My recommodation for a small footprint (!) file manager is SpaceFM, give it a spin if you need to SEE your files.... my number 1 is Nemo (only on real Mint Cinnamon, because has some features more) then Dolphin on 'stronger' PC's on weak and small equipped PC's is PCManFM the 1st choice, then Xfe (thisone has unfornately no access to the network shares) Enjoy 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

See All

score 303 · Answer 3

Dolphin

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

Heavy and DE specific

Unless you are a KDE user, Dolphin requires a lot of files/libraries and about 130+ MB of disk space. That's 85% larger than Nautilus on a (non-GNOME) installation and closer to 95% larger than PCManFM. UPDATE: In both cases mentioned Dolphin also has an equally increased functionality, system integration, and customization options. When all three FMs are on the same "independent" (i.e. not native to, or forks of, any of the three FM's originating) desktops running with equal functionality they are within 15% of the same size. Given the normal variance caused by choice of programing languages and algorithms, they are statistically identical. See More

PopularPellonPekko's Experience

When Dolphin transfers data it becomes unusable during transfer, Dolphin and sometimes the whole system is not reacting. See More

Top Pro

Shows folders as a tree

Very handy for moving or copying files from one folder to another in the same pane. See More

Top Con

Can't search contents of hidden folders

When "Hidden Files" is enabled, searching (Ctrl+F) does not search hidden files and folders. Numerous bug reports have been filed against this, but the developers are too short-sighted, marking these bugs as "Resolved Intentional". Although hidden files / folders should not be searched when that flag is not enabled, they most definitely should when that flag is enabled. UPDATE: The "Show Hidden Files" switch only changes the on screen visibility of files. It has no effect on the files themselves, nor does it enable any functionality that was no already present. While they may visually appear related, searching is a completely separate function from viewing So much so that there exists a complete science developed just to search algorithms. To date, viewing a list of contents has no such comparative science or rigor. I n all Linux and Unix distributions, hidden files have always begun with "." as the initial character. This has been true in the 1970s. As such, anyone working on an "*nix" that is looking at hidden files would reasonably be expected o know this. Thus for system stability and safety, a search of hidden files requires the use of "." followed by the search string and/or wild cards (again something well know by persons will sufficient knowledge to safely navigate hidden files.) See More

Daniel Presley's Experience

Highly versatile, but is mostly KDE specific. I made multi-platform, could THE go to FM for many users. See More

Top Pro

Has embedded terminal

Just have to press F4 to have an embedded terminal in the pane current directory. In this way, all the advantages together of GUI & console. See More

Top Con

Too simple

Feels weird on KDE because it has less customizing options than Konqueror and any other KDE app have. See More

FriendlyMetztli's Experience

Just a no-surprise, fully functional file manager. See More

Top Pro

Immensely configurable

As with any KDE app, Dolphin allows adding or modifying toolbar buttons and keyboard shortcuts, as well as being compatible with Plasma and Kvantum themes. 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. UPDATE: When sorting by Type, Dolphin simply organizes the already established list by grouping according to the characters following the right most "." in the file name. If your list was alphanumeric previously, then it will be alphanumeric within each of the groups - exactly as you told it to do. This is by totally comprehensible if you are looking for a file and know that it is a particular Type, say for example a PDF. My own library has over 2200 reference books and papers and over 3600 works of fiction, comprised of some 17 different file types. Sorting the alphanumeric list by Type makes short work of find the PDF Textbooks, abstracts, and thesis from over 250GB of literature. See More

CoolCacoch's Experience

Only prob for me is not bring able to search doc/file content. Pain in the.... Had to download Recoll to do that for me. See More

Top Pro

Auto mounts flash drives

Dolphin automatically identifies and mounts external flash drives. See More

Top Con

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

Johannes Kalliauer's Experience

netiher sshfs nor google-drive-ocamlfuse work. https://wiki.ubuntuusers.de/FUSE/sshfs/ sshfs e1027477@lva.student.tuwien.ac.at: /home/jkalliau/mount/lva does not work https://wiki.ubuntuusers.de/Grive2/ (for Ubuntu 18.04) google-drive-ocamlfuse ~/GoogleDrive does not work 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

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

FlexibleDelbaeth's Experience

https://askubuntu.com/questions/429705/what-is-dolphin?utm_medium=organic&utm_source=google_rich_qa&utm_campaign=google_rich_qa See More

Top Pro

Supports different protocols through KIO (sftp, fish, ssh etc...)

Like other KDE applications, Dolphin makes use of KIO which gives Dolphin access to other APIs and services. For example, it allows Dolphin to manage files stored remotely the same way you can manage local files through FTP. See More

Top Con

Looks too ugly in Gnome (Windows 1998 look)

If you use Arc, Adapta, Breeze or Adwaita theme engine it can look consistent with GNOME applications with Kvantum. See More

ThoughtfulMengPo's Experience

KDE Plasma is now my favored desktop for Linux, after an exhaustive search and trying ALL the available, popular ones (kde, gnome and all variants like Budgie, LXQT, cinnamon, etc.). A big part of the favored status relates to the file manager and it's integration with the desktop. See More

Top Pro

Fully supports HiDPI

Supports HiDPI displays. See More

Top Con

No Dropbox integration

InfluentialWuGang's Experience

great one very extensible See More

Top Pro

Show files and folders in groups

Dolphin can display files and folders in separate groups. These groups vary depending on how files and folders are sorted (by name, by type, etc.) See More

Top Con

Crashes a lot

ProductiveHilaera's Experience

its very very easy to use and professional... . See More

Top Pro

Stable

Rarely crashes, compared with other Linux software. See More

Top Con

Searching files is horrible until indexing is disabled in plasma settings. Even then, it is not great.

sofiano's Experience

fast and easy 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 Con

Unclear how to request a hash check for file copy or move operation like MidNight Commander

Greg Zeng's Experience

Best for showing ICONS to common used functions to operations & views. Has a proper "Compact" view, missed by other file magaers. See More

Top Pro

Immenseley configurable

As with any KDE app, Dolphin, allows adding or modifying toolbar buttons and keyboard shortcuts. See More

Top Con

Poor optimization on later versions

damian101's Experience

No option for opening folders with double click instead of single click. See More

Top Pro

Slow double click to rename

You can enable the option to slow double click to rename. See More

CromulentThaumas's Experience

Caja used to be my favorite, have used Natilus, Nemo, Thunar, and others but Dolphin is my default choice now. Sadly, like almost every file manager there's no file copy checking with a hash algorithm. See More

Top Pro

Support tagging

files and directories can be tagged and later filtered by them. See More

echopy's Experience

it suits my needs :) 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. It 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

PhilosophicalUkur's Experience

Very nice and clean See More

Top Pro

Can sort files in the way the Explorer on Microsoft Windows does

On Windows it is possible to add an underscore before a folder name to make it appear on the top when sorted by name. See More

JollyLofn's Experience

it's good filemanager simple and powerfull See More

Top Pro

Can display thumbnails off many file types by default

Vijaya Gopala's Experience

Poor UX: lack of views and controls to navigate large number of files and contexts (directories) concurrently. Regularly hangs (crashes) on Ubuntu 18.04 LTS. Lacks session history. See More

Top Pro

Fast and intuitive

Minimal startup delay, and rapidly accomplishes sorting, searching, and moving of files regardless of file type. On statistical average Dolphin was 20% faster than Nautilus or Midnight Commander (based upon groups of 500 files of 5 MB to 10 MB each in over a series 1000 timed runs). See More

AffablePtocheia's Experience

missing features and also buggy in size 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

PrecisePhaenna's Experience

many years experience See More

Top Pro

Full integration with KDE.

You get the benefits of KDE with Dolphin such as theming and customizability, and integration with other apps. See More

Top Pro

Keeps its state

It starts with last opened folders. 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

See All

score 81 · Answer 4

Double Commander

Top Pro

Dual-pane

For easily copying or moving files. See More

Top Con

Source code written in Pascal language

But this does not affect users negatively. It's just programmers' problem. See More

's Experience

As noted it's still in beta. Locked up hard on my PC. Linux Mint, latest version. Couldn't close. Strange window opened in middle of program - couldn't close. Only option was to close it via terminal: pkill. Dead out of the gate for me. See More

Specs

Platforms:Windows, Mac, Linux, BSD

License:GPL-2.0-only

Technology:Free Pascal

User Interface:GUI

Top Pro

Multi-platform (Linux, Windows, MacOS X)

you can use same tool in all desktop OS enviroments See More

Top Con

Much slower on Linux and Mac than on Windows

PleasantHercules's Experience

This is the best GUI file manager I have found on GNU/Linux. 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 Con

Apparently only one developer

LoveableTaweret's Experience

PRO Integrated FTP-Client 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

Can't edit files on remote FTP servers

StudiousAphrodite's Experience

File search function is blazing fast 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

Top Con

Slow development

Last PPA version still in beta. See More

CapableNeith's Experience

Fast and reliable file manager 8/10 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 Pro

Powerful tcmd-like search tool (alt+F7)

Top Pro

tcmd-like multi-rename tool (CTRL+M)

Top Pro

Total Commander plug-ins support

WCX, WDX and WLX are supported. 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 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 Pro

Closely follows TotalCommander UX

For instance, the 'Settings | Layout' pane is quasi-identical to TCs. See More

Top Pro

It's that good, you can replace tcmd on windows too

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

See All

score 154 · Answer 5

Ranger

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

InquisitiveXantico's Experience

I don't get why people recommend midnight commander over ranger. That's like saying notepad is better than vim or atom just because you don't have to learn anything to use it. Midnight commander is very easy to pick up because everything it can do literally fits into one line permanently annoying people at the bottom of the screen just like nano. Ranger on the other hand has a much more pleasing interface although it runs in the terminal and has the column view I miss in most file managers. It also integrates with for example git which I haven't seen anywhere else and is a feature I now couldn't live without. I know that it is quite shortcut heavy but since you'll spend a lot of time in your file manager you'll get to the point where you can all remember them automatically. And everybody who is willing to use a command line application over a graphical one almost always has some knowledge of vim. Vim has one of the best shortcut systems I've ever seen and it's really powerful when used in a file manager. This is definitely my number one. 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

Lucifer Morningstar's Experience

Very Fast and Intuitive 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

SkyFire's Experience

I recommend only for professional Vim users. if you are not a vim user (like me) and you want to use File manager in terminal. Just use Midnight Commander. 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

leorikz's Experience

around an year in my setup, also used mc per time to time. 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

EnchantingTuireann's Experience

No way to calculate folder size 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

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

See All

score 89 · Answer 6

Midnight Commander

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

Quirky and hard to remember shortcuts

E.g. when trying to take the current directory's path to the command line. See More

Peter J. Mello's Experience

Maybe I'm just stuck in the past, but Midnight Commander is probably the most crucial application to my productivity on Linux. It's dependable, it's actively developed, and it runs on anything from massive servers to pathetic little embedded devices without complaint. I have no qualms about often turning to its text editor, mcedit, over nano or emacs for small tasks. I've used it for so long I sometimes worry that I'm blinded to superior options (like Ranger), but you have to stick with what works, and for me that's mc. See More

Specs

Platforms:Windows, Mac, Linux

Technology:C

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

Searching with the File Viewer can be quite cumbersome

This is especially true when searching next or previous files. See More

AssertiveWurugag's Experience

works always See More

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

Too many menus all over the place, mouse click is inevitable

EnergeticMaterMatuta's Experience

This was one of the first curses based file managers I have used. I still use it on the daily. See More

Top Pro

Lightweight

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

damian101's Experience

Why would anyone use this... See More

Top Pro

Built-in viewer and editor

The editor specifically has a quite good usability compared to the cryptic vi. See More

Top Con

Shortcuts are quite tricky

Some shortcuts need 2 key presses, others are hard to use on certain platform, e.g. OS X. It becomes complicated when trying to take the full path of the selected file to the command line. See More

KindheartedChalcon's Experience

MC is the best file manager ever. Is all what I need. See More

Top Pro

Good archive support

Top Con

Can only be run in the terminal

MC lacks a standalone GUI option. See More

SkyFire's Experience

Midnight Commander is Fast, Lightweight, Keyboard-driven, two pane terminal file manager. it uses old-good Norton commander bindings. lynx-like motion is a great option. it's available in every GNU/linux distro in the world. it can open archives so you don't need additional programs. In my opinion this is must have for every linux user - like nano See More

Top Pro

Stable

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

Lynx-like motion (optional)

Use cursor-left/-right to go to parent directory/into child directory. See More

Top Con

Bad rename support

No way to easily edit (!) the file name - just have to enter the full new name again. See More

Top Pro

Can be run on a remote computer

Because it is command-line / curses, it is easy to terminal into a machine and get a nice file-manager. See More

Top Con

No directory bookmarks

Top Pro

Often available in default repository

It's easy to install by using a package manager. See More

Top Pro

Highly integrated shell

MC enables a tight integration of interactive file selection and shell commands. See More

Top Pro

Well-presented

See All

score 153 · Answer 7

Nemo

Top Pro

Extendable

Nemo can be extended to have additional features through third party plugins. See More

Top Con

Can not sort files in the way Dolphin (and the Explorer on Microsoft Windows) does

On Windows it is possible to add an underscore before a folder name to make it appear on the top when sorted by name. But all Linux file managers except Dolphin, the Deepin File Manager, Krusader (no natural sorting) and Liri Files (also no natural sorting) just take the "ls sort order" and add natural sorting to it. See More

Neil Thomson's Experience

It's the default file manager with Mint, and does everything I expect a file manager to do. I've used a handful of others over the years, but they weren't enough better (if at all) to stick with. 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 Con

Cannot count folder sizes

ResponsibleDercetius's Experience

Used for last 4 years, fits my uses See More

Top Pro

Feature-rich

Where as Nautilus is constantly removing useful parts, Nemo keeps the features available. See More

Top Con

Incomplete mimetypes

Like all nautilus forks it allows you to run svg-files due some incomplete mimetype coverage. See More

CompetentTyr's Experience

I’ve used most of the available File Managers and Nemo is the only one that has a sane mix of features and settings, and is very extensible through scripting if that’s your thing. Nautilus has removed too much; Dolphin is too complicated; Polo has some great features, but is unfocused and feature-creepy. Nemo is just right. See More

Top Pro

Elegant

The most stylish among all FMs. See More

Top Con

Moderately heavy on dependencies

You may need to download a lot of packages to install Nemo compared to similar options like Thunar. See More

ProfessionalAhBolomTzacab's Experience

Very fast and easy to use. 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

AffablePtocheia's Experience

Great File Manager with tons of features See More

Top Pro

Integrates really well with Gnome and its themes

Top Con

No built in bulk file renamer

PleasantHercules's Experience

It lacks many advanced commands, like those of midnight or double commander. 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 Con

SMB and Network mounted files

Dragging and dropping files from network shares over different programs yields odd, inconsistent results. See More

PatientWagyl's Experience

Has a functioning search and has everything you'd expect coming from Windows/MacOS See More

Top Pro

Has a split view feature which is awesome - respects multitasking

Dual Pane view along with right click shortcut options for 'move to' and 'copy to' other pane are great time savers. See More

Top Con

Slow on displaying appropriate file and folder icons

StrongCihuatecayotl's Experience

crashes frequently, SLOW on NAS See More

Top Pro

Fast and does not get in the way

Top Con

Not really improving over time

Does not look very nice on the gnome UI and since gnome 3.36, Nautilus is better. See More

ImmaculateJowangsin's Experience

it is the best file manager in gnu/linux world. See More

Top Pro

Good networking options

Supports ftp, ssh and samba connections. See More

Top Con

Crashes like Windows ME

Total rubbish, sometimes stuck without any reason - system needs reboot. Friggin slow on NAS. See More

Greg Zeng's Experience

Best for showing ICONS to common used functions to operations & views. Has a proper "Compact" view, missed by other file managers. See More

Top Pro

Offers tabbed browsing of the file system

Good way to quickly navigate between multiple frequently accessed locations is having the different locations open as tabs in the file manager See More

Top Con

GUI looks a few generations behind

The GUI is not as sleek as some other File Managers, and is a bit reminiscent of older operating systems. But that has changed recently and now you can use Adapta or Ant theme to make it look elegant. See More

Ajay Kumar Rawani's Experience

Awesome ! See More

Top Pro

Features a refresh button which is actually uncommon in file managers

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

Has a compact layout

Really good for browsing big thumbnails of images. Not to be confused with the other layout options, this is found under the Arrange menu. 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

Top Pro

Tree view in the left panel with a simple click

Top Pro

Has a great Cut/Copy/Paste speed analysing window

Top Pro

Slow double click to rename

You can enable the option to slow double click to rename. See More

Top Pro

Queues file operations

See All

score 1 · Answer 8

muCommander

Top Pro

Available on Linux, Mac, and Windows

Specs

Platforms:Windows, Mac, Linux, BSD

score 77 · Answer 9

Krusader

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

RespectfulCeres's Experience

Offer many configuration settings but the default ones are also OK for most part. It has a very good balance between power and simplicity. I would consider Krusader an alternative to Dolphin and Thunar for those looking for more options in the FM. 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

Ganton's Experience

It does its duty every day, it allows using keyboard in a way that you work very fast. See More

Top Con

Interface can be overwhelming

Top Pro

Handles most archives. There is little difference in behaviour between an archive file and a regular folder.

AmbitiousElegua's Experience

My big pro is that with the default configuration Krusader can do more than all the other file managers together and it can for 99% be used without mouse. I don't mind the KDE dependencies, only the size of it. My only con is that it doesn't work in a terminal. 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

VivaciousBaalat's Experience

1/2/3/4 possible panels, including preview/tree/full-view, customized user-actions that's very easy to configure, ability to search/filter files, has inbuilt locate GUI and has many more features. 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

ExuberantInara's Experience

God See More

Top Pro

SFTP support

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

Top Pro

Multi-rename tool

Top Pro

Searching capabilities and copying/deleting/moving in background

Top Pro

Custom commands can be added to the menu easily

And they can use the current folder, the selected files.... See More

See All

score 70 · Answer 10

PCManFM

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

's Experience

On the raspberry pi, latest version of raspbian, couldn't add bookmarks. On the latest version of Linux Mint, I couldn't save layout configuration settings. No matter what I changed, size of screen, file view settings, it always reverted to the default settings. 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

Alvaro Carmona's Experience

PCManFM has the necessary features to manage files and desktop while being fast. 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

EarnestMyesyats's Experience

Used it for a long time. Biggest problem is that it doesn't remember the tabs when you close it. 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

FunKondole's Experience

dense 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

SociableZeus's Experience

Worst experience i'd with a file manager. Unfortunetly we can't remove it from the LXQt DE. 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

See All

score 46 · Answer 11

SpaceFM

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

Uchechukwu Clemency Okeke's Experience

Due to it being highly configurable and its plugin support, i have been able to do most operations i rely on other apps to do right on spacefm window. For example, image , pdf, audio and video conversions 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

ExuberantAtaguchu's Experience

you will need a bit of time to understand all of it, but then you get much more back - when you cusomize it four YOUR needs. You should have computer experience and an idea of what you want, then it is great stuff. 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

ConscientiousMegaera's Experience

Fast and fully customizable... I use it since the beginning on all my Linux machines. The only drawback is that it was not updated since March 2018... which is quite a long time. 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

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

See All

score 19 · Answer 12

Vifm

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

Exilink's Experience

Good file explorer from terminal. Try it if you are familiar with VIM. 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

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

See All

score 12 · Answer 13

fman

Top Pro

Slick

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

Specs

Platforms:Windows, Mac, Linux

Top Pro

Simple to use

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

Makes finding commands by name easy

Top Con

Default dark theme

No choice between dull-dark or fresh-light. See More

Top Pro

Shortcut Ctrl + P is very usefull.

Top Con

No (text) file viewer

Top Pro

Works on all operating systems

Windows, Mac, and Linux are supported. See More

Top Con

Settings can't be found by the GUI

You need to know which files to edit. 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

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

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

See All

score 20 · Answer 14

Deepin File Manager

Top Pro

Send files and folders to external drives just from the right click menu

Top Con

Distro-specific

Kind of in between nautilus and pcmanfm. See More

Top Pro

Supports natural sorting of file names

The only other file manager that supports this is Dolphin. See More

Top Con

Extensions not supported

Currently it does not support script extensions. It would be more useful having plugin to integrate with Dropbox and git. See More

Top Pro

Beautiful UI

Top Con

Lack of compact view mode

No compact view with small icons, labels to the right, and multiple dynamically sized columns. This is a standard UI idiom. What is their rationale to not support it? See More

Top Pro

Written in Qt

Top Pro

Responsive

Top Pro

Has dark theme support

See All

score 16 · Answer 15

Polo

Top Con

Freemium model

Many of the best features mentioned as pros are only available after a one-time donation of USD$10 or more. Until then you just have a fast, good-looking and otherwise forgettable file manager. See More

Top Pro

Purposeful layout choices

Polo wants people to get the file manager they want, but it's not awash with granular layout options that take ages to understand. First select whether you want one, two, or four panes, and then select a format for each pane of either List, Icon, Tiled, or Media. That's it, you're done. See More

Peter J. Mello's Experience

Polo isn't perfect, but it's easily the most robust file manager I've used in Linux. Resizing jpegs from the file manager itself and mounting ISOs as loop devices without typing away at a command prompt are quickly seductive workflow improvements, and it just looks great! I've never been able to say that about a file manager on any platform before, a reminder of its status as a very progressive attempt to reinvent a key part of computing. See More

Specs

Platforms:Linux

License:GNU LGPL

Cross Platform:No

Developement Status:Discontinued

Top Con

No drag and drop

You can't drag from one view to another. See More

Top Pro

Installs smoothly on Debian, Redhat and Arch based distributions

File managers in Linux have a nasty propensity for being closely tied to the distribution family from which they arose. Using Polo allows you to have an identical file management experience when shifting between machines from different branches of the Linux tree. See More

GraciousPanacea's Experience

Overall, very promising file manager. See More

Top Con

Load loop

Slow opening with annoying 'load loop' dialog. See More

Top Pro

Device management

Quickly mount and unmount devices from the sidebar, including support for locking and unlocking LUKS encrypted devices. See More

Top Con

Lengthy beta cycle

Polo has been in the beta stage of development for longer than hoped for, and while mostly stable, isn't yet ready to be promoted as a rock-solid replacement for file managers such as Dolphin and Nautilus. See More

Top Pro

Youtube-dl integration

Just paste a YouTube URL into a folder and Polo will download the best quality format of it and save it in that folder. See More

Top Pro

Archive browsing and creation

Browse archive files as those they were just another folder, dragging and dropping files in and out of them at will while the backend uses the appropriate tools to manage the archive file itself. Archive creation includes a rich assortment of controls over compression formats and structure. See More

Top Pro

Image file actions

Rotate, resize, optimize, convert formats, save for the web and many other handy features all right in the context menu. See More

Top Pro

ISO file tools

Mount ISO files to loop devices with just two clicks, or spin them up as a QEMU KVM instance, and for portability there's also an option to write them to USB flash drives using a GUI dialog. See More

Top Pro

Advanced PDF file controls

Perform Merge and Split operations on PDF files without needing another file handler all from the context menu. Rotate and Password Protection settings are also expressed there. See More

Top Pro

Cloud storage support

Includes its own rclone macros for adding cloud storage access to the list of browsable locations that just works, a welcome relief in the sea of hacks which provide those features elsewhere in Linux. Currently supported: Dropbox, Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive, Amazon Cloud Drive / Amazon S3, Openstack Swift (Rackspace Cloud Files, Memset Memstore, OVH), Hubic, Backblaze B2, Yandex Disk See More

Top Pro

Views

Supports up to four panes, plus a tree-style side panel and tabs. See More

Top Pro

Terminal emulation

Built-in terminal pop-up. See More

Top Pro

Launchpad PPA available

Debian-based distributions can leverage the apt package management system to keep Polo updated by adding the approved PPA to their apt sources, simplifying installation as well. See More

Top Pro

Permissions management

Features a file properties side panel to easily assess and modify permissions. See More

See All

score 32 · Answer 16

Caja

Top Pro

Easy to configure

Top Con

Frequently very slow to transfer multiple small files

Folders move fine, but it chokes on files, where other browsers take seconds. See More

damian101's Experience

Not as good as Dolphin and Nemo, but really usable. See More

Top Pro

It has a reasonable set of features, out of the box

Not too much cluttered, but enough customizable. See More

Top Con

Mostly unconfigurable

There are not many ways to configure Caja to fit your needs. Besides what can be seen in the settings button you can't configure it further. See More

InterestingElatha's Experience

I do not know anything else. See More

Top Pro

Caja script extension makes it more useful

Caja script extension adds your script in script menu, then passes the file name as a parameter. This allows you to run operation which is not included in Caja. See More

Top Con

Sort Order / Limited Configuration Options

It ignores special characters when sorting files and folders. Underscore, tilde, bracket, ASCII characters, .... everthing not recognized in numeric/alpha sorting. Also, I found no way to remove the triangle to reveal contents of sub-folders rather than opening... but I did quit looking after several seemly unalterable functionality issues. See More

CleverHorus's Experience

I find the dual pane very helpful... See More

Top Pro

Allows you to access remote or local locations

You can click the Files entry in the panel to access a specific location (remote or local), connect to a certain server (FTP, SFTP, SAMBA, etc.), access your bookmarks, open a new window, as well as to change its default functionality. See More

Top Con

Very slow to list thousands of files

Unusably so. See More

Arkadiusz Panek's Experience

Whenever I try a new FM, I always come back to Caja - it just works and does the job well. See More

Top Pro

Open or run as administrator in the right-click-menu of the mouse

StrongRanaNiejta's Experience

It just works! Sadly I didn't find a way to customize its theme easily. But this isn't a con, because it respects global system color scheme. See More

Top Pro

It just works

Customizable and clean, this is crushing that garbage nautilus, the overrated p.o.s. gnome destroyed. See More

See All

score 47 · Answer 17

GNOME Files (Nautilus)

Top Pro

Minimalistic looking

It does what it is supposed to do, and leaves a lot of screen space to look for a file. See More

Top Con

It has lost so much functionality

As already stated, this is not well configurable anymore. One can not even start in dual pane mode for cut/copy and paste. Just a ridiculous transgression. It was great just 1-2 years ago, but over-simplification in this case is detrimental to functionality. See More

CoherentKi's Experience

Intuitive. See More

Top Pro

Widely supported

The program is distributed as a single source archive, which can be configured, compiled and installed on almost any Linux flavor. There are no binary files for a specific Linux distribution, but you can install it directly from the default software channels of your operating system. See More

Top Con

Mostly unconfigurable

There are not many ways to configure Nautilus to fit your needs. Besides what can be seen in the settings button you can't configure it further. See More

TallAoGuang's Experience

Nautilus is too simplified to be usable, it's only a file/folder viewer now See More

Top Pro

Easy to use and familiar user interface for Ubuntu users

The user interface of Files is very familiar to Ubuntu users, most probably because Canonical still uses Nautilus (an old version of it) as the default file manager for its world’s most popular free operating system, Ubuntu Linux. It split into two parts, a sidebar and the main file viewer. While you already know what the latter can do for you, the sidebar offers quick access to Places, Devices and Network locations, as well as any other bookmarks that you can add whenever you want. See More

Top Con

Outdated

It is not updated frequently and Ubuntu could stop using Nautilus and switch to Nemo. See More

LoveableAbundantia's Experience

Missing fundamental features such as compact view, desktop icons etc See More

Top Pro

Allows you to access remote or local locations

On recent versions of GNOME, you can click the Files entry in the panel to access a specific location (remote or local), connect to a certain server (FTP, SFTP, SAMBA, etc.), access your bookmarks, open a new window, as well as to change its default functionality. See More

Top Con

Awful date modified column.

It should list by full year month day, no matter whether it was today, last month or years ago. Displays wrong time modified for photos I took and downloaded today (not exif time taken and not anything that makes sense). Not customizable in any way one would expect. See More

PleasantChiminigagua's Experience

nemo is better See More

Top Pro

Quick file preview

GNOME-sushi allows you to quickly view files without opening them. It supports most audio and video formats, but support for more can be added. See More

Top Con

Has/had memory leaks

Sometimes about 600MB of RAM goes somewhere... See More

AffableAlecto's Experience

Lacks Features See More

Top Pro

Wayland-native

Can run under Wayland without XWayland. See More

Top Con

Forces you to constantly swap between mouse and keyboard

ExuberantBaPef's Experience

Simplification over functionality does not work for a lot of users. Everything takes so long to do. e.g. the breadcrumb-tree - why cant I just copy the location to use it as path. This was possible in earlier releases. The Buttons are dumb since they have no more value for the user. They removed split-screen feature and now have tabs- WHY?? I really tried to get used to tabs but for me this does not work for the main task. I know there are users that are reqesting the tab feature but nobody could explain why. So in my opinion Nautilus mutated to a good looking but really stupid kid that can't properly do the work it was meant to. See More

Top Pro

Supports natural sorting (not on all distros)

Dolphin, Deepin File Manager and Pantheon Files support this, too. See More

Top Con

Slow at moving picture folders

A move, even to the same disk, can take a minute for a folder containing a hundred images. See More

DecisiveFodla's Experience

Inflexible.. See More

Top Pro

Nautilus action configuration tool can configure systems in ways no other FM can

It can configure popup menu depending on file type. See More

Top Con

Can't right click in list view mode with a long file list

If the file list is long enough to fill the screen, then there is no empty place to click for bringing the context menu. Need to change the view to Grid view, then right click. See More

PrincipledNane's Experience

As it's Wayland-native in Sway works fine, without XWayland. See More

Top Con

Still does not remember per folder view

This is the last missing feature that was removed long time ago and makes Nemo competitive. Should be reimplemented remembering view type and icon size folder by folder. See More

ThriftyAsag's Experience

Absolute trash-grade software. Better to use the command line. See More

Top Con

Creating sub-folders within full folders is not possible anymore.

In order to create a new folder within another folder that is full to the bottom of the page, we must create a folder in an open area somewhere else, then move the sub-folder into that full folder. Even worse, we need to use the "Move to..." option, with so many extra clicks, instead of just being able to copy and paste as before. See More

Cees Timmerman's Experience

Faster than Caja, but lacks date creation column and button to show folder path like Nemo has. See More

Top Con

"+ Other Locations" is a stupid change

"+ Other Locations" in the left pane now forces us to click twice or more in order to access additional drives, even the local "Computer." Having all of the drives listed on the left side was quick and easy, and the drive "Properties" were available just by right clicking once, although drive "Properties" is no longer available when clicking on "+ Other Locations," then right clicking on the drives. I still use Debian 8 for the older Nautilus, even though the developers already damaged that older version as well. However, Nautilus is completely useless to me now in Debian 10 so I am seeking for a new graphical desktop to replace Gnome and Nautilus...I am fed up with the developers. See More

wolfsnase's Experience

Nautilus was one of the best file managers until one dev thought it's a good idea to drop the tree view option. And here we are: nautilus without the tree view. That sucks. See More

Top Con

Has too many bugs

There are too many bugs at the current state for this file browser to be usable. See More

PreciseAmeNoUzume's Experience

File copying and saving hangs the system many times See More

See All

Answer 18

Emacs

Top Pro

If you are Emacs user Dired-mode is the most convenient file manager

Top Con

If you are not Emacs user, this recommendation is irrelevant

VivaciousArges's Experience

the best kind of bloat 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

Top Pro

Cross-platform

Works on Linux, Windows, Macintosh, BSD, and others. See More

Top Con

Chorded keyboard combinations can be baffling

For example, for navigation it uses the b, n, p, l keys. Which for some people may seem strange. But don't worry, you can change it. See More

Top Pro

Keyboard-focused, mouse-free editing

Emacs can be controlled entirely with the keyboard. See More

Top Con

Takes a lot of effort to configure to fit your needs

It definitely can be configured (and even programmed) according to anyone's habits, needs and preferences. For example, imagine a text editor which can handle typesetting and displaying English, Russian, Japanese and Sanskrit text, supporting LaTeX publishing workflow, Common Lisp development workflow, Javascript development workflow, writing down thoughts and to-do tasks and also having a full-featured command line. But you will to configure/program it, and it'll in no way be either fast or pleasurable. 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

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

Ubiquity

Fully compliant GNU-emacs is available on many platforms, and they all understand .emacs configuration files. See More

Top Con

A lot of jokes in this serious software

Top Pro

Lisp customizations

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What are the best file managers for UNIX-like systems?

45 Options Considered

nnn

My Recommendation for nnn

My Recommendation for nnn

Superfast

CLI, default interface very simplified (supports mouse)

Rich set of plugins

Extremely lightweight (120 kb)

Unique navigate-as-you-type mode

Awesome new features being added in every release

Minimal configuration with sane defaults

Has a great wiki

Sessions

Supports cd-on-quit

Previews

Integrates with the desktop environment and opens files in the default applications

Reasonably well-documented

Customizable icons and colors

Thunar

My Recommendation for Thunar

My Recommendation for Thunar

Minimal dependencies

No integrated search option

Supports "quick-directory" typing

No usable image view mode

Non-recursive find

Simplified action bar

Select by Pattern

Does not integrate well into Gnome

Custom actions are easy to set up

Tree sidepane missing features

Supports forward/back mouse buttons

Requires GNOME dependencies to support common features

Supports renaming files in bulk

No double pane support

Split View

Requires plugins for some basic functions of modern file managers

Does the job

No Split View without a patch

Keypress to search in folder

Moving files

Can assign custom shortcuts to scripts in XFCE

Won't write to any removable media that has been on an Apple machine

Tabs

Doesn't integrate well with archive manager other than Xarchiver

Image thumbnails sometimes wrong

Slightly unstable

No progress bar when copying/moving file

Dolphin

My Recommendation for Dolphin

My Recommendation for Dolphin

Can split views

Heavy and DE specific

Shows folders as a tree

Can't search contents of hidden folders

Has embedded terminal

Too simple

Immensely configurable

"Type" column too verbose

Auto mounts flash drives

Slow on startup

Easy to extend with plugins

Can hang on remote file systems

Supports different protocols through KIO (sftp, fish, ssh etc...)

Looks too ugly in Gnome (Windows 1998 look)

Fully supports HiDPI

No Dropbox integration

Show files and folders in groups

Crashes a lot

Stable

Searching files is horrible until indexing is disabled in plasma settings. Even then, it is not great.

Fast at opening graphics folders

Unclear how to request a hash check for file copy or move operation like MidNight Commander

Immenseley configurable

Poor optimization on later versions

Slow double click to rename

Support tagging

Also has a refresh option

Can sort files in the way the Explorer on Microsoft Windows does