As if to further prove the ultra-flexibility of Linux, Echoes takes a brief look at 9 file managers for Linux, both well-known and obscure. Accompanied by comments on strengths, screenshots and homepage links, the article provides a quick guide for Linux users looking for a better file management interface.
Man, talk about a brief overview. I’m glad he included Midnight Commander. I still think it’s cool!
Konqueror doesn’t get much love from some people, but I remember working on a project and having it split into 4 quadrants. The top left was my local website files. The top right was a web browser view of the same site. The lower right was the ftp directory on the server. And the lower right was a samba network drive that had some files I needed for my work. It made for a nice workspace.
“I’m glad he included Midnight Commander. I still think it’s cool!”
I have to agree with you that after all these years Midnight Commander still rules, but wish I could get it to integrate with links instead of lynx.
Edited 2008-07-15 14:16 UTC
My favourite one (or, to be correct: my only one except the shell). With a proper mc.ext and customized syntax/* files very handy. Personally, I like the concept of having two panels, because most operations you do could be called “source target operations”, e. g. copying, moving, symlinking. The MC handles this very well. It’s highly customizable in what to do with files (PF3, PF4, Return) with different actions for X and console mode (for example, Return on a MP3 file in X: open XMMS and play, in console mode run madplay, PF3 to show ID3 tag information), and its editor (mcedit) is very powerful and still easy to use. Using it as an FTP client is a very nice feature. And finally, all this power comes with small disk usage and few dependencies.
Nice tool, can hardly live without it. =^_^=
I just use ls and grep.
You forgot the Tim Allen “Hugh-hugh-hugh” from the Home Improvement show.
I don’t use filemanagers.
I remember where all my files are and move them around directly on the disk with a magnet.
Hugh-hugh-hugh
you forgot cp, mv and rm
I like konqueror too but, to manage large number of files nothing in linux beats mc + GNU screen (well, perhaps piped commands, but they are a little more hard to use and error prone). They just make the work a lot easier.
emelfm2 and GNOME Commander. Good list though.
Edited 2008-07-15 21:16 UTC
Sorry about going with the GUI based program here, but ROX is really easy to configure and replaces the copious use of menus with keyboard shortcuts. Graphical feedback allows for things like thumbnails, which are easy to enable just when you need them and easy to disable when you don’t. The graphical environment also allows them to increase the density of information on the screen, so you can see longer lists of files or more file details than you could with Midnight Commander.
rox and mc are really above the rest in that they offer something unique.
Just tried Thunar now – very nice! Lightweight and clean.
whow, everybody here likes midnight commander (and so do i, i could not live without it). the logical 2 pane view rocks, i was using it since norton commander an sticked with it ever since.
it’s really wierd apple and microsoft ship suck a crippled filemanager. i see people struggling on a daily basis with finder and explorer. when copying moving files you either open 2 windows or you use ctrl-c ctrl-v and spend a lot of time navigating. please do not make more smart folders, filter crap or extra buttons, we need a 2 pane view
I don’t find a lot of problems with Finder, but it could use a split pane mode to make things a bit easier. I find that the sidebar is quite useful.
I’ve been using PCManFM instead of Nautilus lately on Ubuntu and I find the tabbed mode interesting but as painful as I often find tabs in a web browser. I’ve read that there is an experimental version of Nautilus out that includes tabs. It may be the trendy thing to do, but is it actually all that helpful?