Midnight Commander vs Far Manager

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.

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.

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.

and hence easy to install by usually package manager.

Cursor+left to go to parent directory, cursor+right to go into child directory.

Far Manager's interface encourages keyboard operation - all actions are easily accessible with keyboard shortcuts, you can quickly record macros for any repeatable action, there are no screen redraws if it is not necessary and that makes everything faster.

Released under BSD license.

There are may of them, and you can write them in any languages, including Python.

Every Far feature is also true for its editor. You can setup an external editor if you like, but the included editor works really well and features syntax highlighting.

Hit "Ctrl-." and start recording your boring sequence. Hit "Ctrl-." again to assign it a key. You can use Lua if you need more advanced macros.

E.g. readme-9.txt before readme-10.txt

Just press F1 when you need it. No internet connection or browser is required.

Fully themeable, allowing you to change the colors of every part of the interface.