When comparing Ranger vs Dolphin, the Slant community recommends Dolphin for most people. In the question“What are the best file managers for UNIX-like systems?” Dolphin is ranked 3rd while Ranger is ranked 5th. The most important reason people chose Dolphin is:
As with any KDE app, Dolphin, allows adding or modifying toolbar buttons and keyboard shortcuts.
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Pros
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.
Pro Immenseley configurable
As with any KDE app, Dolphin, allows adding or modifying toolbar buttons and keyboard shortcuts.
Pro Can split views
Dolphin supports splitting the view in two navigational areas, this way you can navigate two different directories at the same time.
Pro Integrated terminal
Pressing F4 with any opened folder on a mounted path opens a console within dolphin.
Pro Also has a refresh option
Dolphin is without a doubt the best fully functional and easy to use and multitask with.
Dolphin also has a refresh button which no other File manager has. It's great for tracking a large files transfer; that's what file managers are for - good common sense.
Pro Easy to extend with plugins
Dolphin follows KDE's philosophy of being extendable and configurable. It can easily be configured and customized through plugins.
Pro Auto mounts flash drives
Dolphin automatically identifies and mounts external flash drives.
Pro Fast at opening graphics folders
Pictures with or without previews is optional and selectable at the touch of a button.
Pro Does not use third party libraries
Unlike all those GTK-based file managers it does not have to rely on external written software for its functionality because KF5 is KDE SOftware and developed alongside.
Pro Keeps its state
It starts with last opened folders.
Pro Fully supports HiDPI
Supports HiDPI displays.
Pro Automatically centers items
In icons view mode, the space between files gets stretched so that there is never and annoying empty space at the right side of the window.
Cons
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.
Con May be a little slow on startup
Dolphin can be a little slow on startup (depending on distro, hardware etc...). Startup time can vary from a couple of seconds to up to a minute.
Con Can hang on remote file systems
It doesn't cope well with remote file system nicely like sshfs or any samba, like when network is not responding/very slow. It just hangs.
Con "Type" column too verbose
Despite having a large enough monitor, if you keep the size of the browser window small, the "Type" column (in "Details" view mode) insists on including the complete multipart MIME string, making the column so wide that trying to limit its width makes the column useless. Sorting by "Type" renders the list into an incomprehensible mess.
Con Poor optimization on later versions
Con Too simple
Feels weird on KDE because it has less customizing options Konqueror and any other KDE app have.
Con Can't perform ROOT actions
Developers set a constraint in Dolphin that deny Dolphin to run with root permissions. Hence, if you want to perform an action that require root permissions, such as rename a file in /etc/ folder, you are forced to use terminal or switch to another file manager.