ForkLift 3 vs Ranger
When comparing ForkLift 3 vs Ranger, the Slant community recommends ForkLift 3 for most people. In the question“What are the best Mac file managers?” ForkLift 3 is ranked 5th while Ranger is ranked 12th. The most important reason people chose ForkLift 3 is:
It's just a perfectly crafted app, try and enjoy
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Best UX/UI'd file manager on the market
It's just a perfectly crafted app, try and enjoy
Pro Rewritten in Swift
Forklift 3 is a significant update from FL2, having been rewritten entirely in Swift.
Pro Optional dark UI
In addition to the default Mac gray UI, Forklift 3 offers an alternate "Dark Mode" featuring light text elements against dark backgrounds.
Pro Connect to and mount lots of storage options
FTP, WebDAV, Amazon S3, Backblaze B2, Google Drive, Rackspace CloudFiles, SMB, AFP, NFS, VNC, etc.
Pro Easily toggle hidden files
Pro Built-in application remover
Pro Can be used in terminal
Which makes for a good choice of file explorer for those that use machines without a GUI.
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.
Pro Vim-like bindings
Ranger has Vim-like keybindings which help a lot in increasing efficiency and speed up the workflow.
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
...
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.
Pro Bookmark system
Makes it easy to jump to any specific folder locations you work with.
Pro Easily used with SSH
Pro Image preview support
Ranger can use w3m to preview images in terminal through framebuffer.
Pro Fast and responsive
This software is super fast and responsive in navigation.
Pro Treeview and listview (equal viewports) possible
Supports any number of viewports on folders side by side.
Pro PDF preview
This may fall under "File preview", but it is a very powerful feature for PDF files in particular.
Cons
Con Like Apple, it does not standardize file size. Mixes up KBs, MBs GBs in the same column which makes it very difficult to review file sizes
Con Like Apple, shows the date of Today's file as "Today" instead of the actual date
Con Does not sync the "selected" folders (i.e. highlighted ones), but the "current" folders (i.e. the top of the visible tree.)
Con Does not show the fixed tree section in the left pane of a dual horizontal panes
Con Bloated
Written in a scripted language. Enabling file previews makes it even slower.
Con Depends heavily on third party utilities
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.
Con No way to calculate folder size
Con Needs heavy configuration to setup
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.
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.