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Add to SafariWhen comparing ZOC Terminal vs Midnight Commander, the Slant community recommends Midnight Commander for most people. In the question“What are the best Mac OSX apps for someone that's new to Apple?” Midnight Commander is ranked 6th while ZOC Terminal is ranked 21st. The most important reason people chose Midnight Commander is:
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.
Specs
Question Ranking
Pros
Pro Modern look
ZOC has a modern design.
Pro An actual "Terminal Emulator"
It's an actual terminal emulator (in the sense that it emulates a terminal) and not just a local console window app.
Pro Scriptable
Zoc provides complete automation of the client using its macro scripting.
Pro Flexibility in platform support
Originally developed for OS/2 (as Zap-O-Comm), Zoc is currently available for Windows and Macintosh.
Pro Can view and send to all sessions at once
Offers a thumbnail view of all session in thumbnails and type commands to all sessions at the same time.
Pro Supports serial and dial-up connections
In addition to telnet, ssh, and rlogin, ZOC supports direct serial connections, modem dialing, and named pipes.
Pro Tabbed sessions allows for easy navigation
Tabbed sessions mean that multiple items can be contained within a single window and can be easily navigated by the user.
Pro Hideable UI
Zoc allows for every UI component except the title bar to be hidden. All features are accessible through the context menu.
Pro Auto-Highlight feature
Feature to search for text bits in the data stream and highlight them with color/background.
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.
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.
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.
Pro Lightweight
Pro Stable
Pro Often available in default repository
and hence easy to install by usually package manager.
Pro Lynx-like motion
Cursor+left to go to parent directory, cursor+right to go into child directory.
Pro Well-presented
Cons
Con Hard to configure
It does not detect the installed shells (PowerShell, CMD, etc) automatically.
Con Options creep
It has so many options that it's hard to find the one you need.
Con Not free
Zoc requires a commercial license in order to use it, implying that it's not free.
Con File viewer: searching can be quite cumbersome
Especially searching next or previous.
Con No directory bookmarks
Con No easy way to change colors matching certain files
There probably is a possibility, but it is not easy.
Con Quirky and hard to remember shortcuts
E.g. when trying to take the current directory's path to the command line.
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).
Con Can only be run in the terminal
MC lacks a standalone GUI option.
