When comparing Midnight Commander vs TotalFinder, the Slant community recommends Midnight Commander for most people. In the question“What are the best Mac file managers?” Midnight Commander is ranked 6th while TotalFinder 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
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Pros
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
Pro Adds dual panes to the Mac finder
A great feature of TotalFinder is the ability to have dual panes. This is really handy for moving files around.
Pro Adds cut/paste context menu functionality to Finder
You can cut and paste with just the mouse.
Pro Copy path to file or directory feature
You can copy the path to a directory or file using the context menu in Finder, options include POSIX Path, URL, Windows Path, UNC Path, HFS Path, and Terminal Path.
Cons
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.
Con Requires special installation procedure in El Capitan and later due to "System Integrity Protection"
"System Integrity Protection" (also know as "Rootless") is a feature introduced in El Capitan that, among other things, inhibits applications to inject code on system apps (TotalFinder injects code into Finder).
For TotalFinder to work properly one must disable SIP temporarly to install. After installation a user can turn SIP back on without issue.
Instructions are detailed here.