When comparing fman vs Q-Dir (the Quad Explorer), the Slant community recommends Q-Dir (the Quad Explorer) for most people. In the question“What are the best file managers for Windows?” Q-Dir (the Quad Explorer) is ranked 4th while fman is ranked 6th. The most important reason people chose Q-Dir (the Quad Explorer) is:
Every window can be separately customized. You can choose between different views from 1 to 4 windows, and every window can have multiple tabs!
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Works on all operating systems
Windows, Mac, and Linux are supported.
Pro Simple to use
Pro Makes finding commands *by name* easy
Pro Slick
Pro Highly manageable multiple windows
Every window can be separately customized. You can choose between different views from 1 to 4 windows, and every window can have multiple tabs!
Pro You can view 4 windows simultaneously
Pro You can use tabs in every window
Pro Portable
Pro Free
Pro Does not use a lot of RAM
Q-dir with 4 windows and with 4 tabs in every window uses only 39mb of RAM on Win10x64.
Pro Fast and stable
Pro Very customizable
Pro Q-Dir allows you to save folder combinations as a favourite to open any time
Up to 64 folder combinations can be saved in a favorite, since each of the four windows is equipped with tabs (ie 4 x 16 tabs 4 x Tree View plus 4 x Address Bar).
Cons
Con No (text) file viewer
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.
Con Mainly for key-board-orientated users
The interface is most naturally navigated by arrows and keystrokes. The target market is software developers.
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.
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.
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.
Con Settings can't be found by the GUI
You need to know which files to edit.
Con Default dark theme
No choice between dull-dark or fresh-light.
Con No portable bundle available
On Windows only a net-installer is available.
Con Sometimes may have bugs
Con Needs modern UI design
Con No search
Con Does not work with Quicklook
