For me, the concept of a file manager has a bit of cognitive dissonance in terms of Linux. I mean everything is a file and the idea of a file manager that does everything doesn't really mean it does everything. Somewhere there is an arbitrary line and lots of people will draw that line differently.
For me, Bash (or whatever) are great file managers, it's just that the necessary complexity of managing files on Linux manifests itself as necessary complexity in the command line. Sure, Bash (or whatever) isn't what someone means by "file manager" but then again it's not really clear what they mean be "file manager" at all. What is necessary and what isn't becomes a matter of taste. I use |pcmanfm| and it does what I need -- even if it isn't |explorer.exe| -- when I use it. And I use it when I'm trying not to expend to much effort forming a mental map of the tree layout.
But for me, one of the qualities of a great file manager is automating repetitive tasks and Bash (or whatever) do that really well, e.g. it needs to treat regular expressions as first class citizens.
As a long-time Dolphin user, I can't help but disagree. When I go back to Windows' Explorer or Mac's Finder, the lacking features irritate me. Dolphin's information density is just right, its URL bar has just the right blend of point-and-click and tab-completion to it, its drag-and-drop gives you the choice between copy and move, you can right-click compress and decompress archives and its contextual actions are exhaustive (open terminal here, install font, …), and it plays well with remote directories (ftp, samba).
The only time it disappointed me was when I wanted to open an FTPES directory, but the bar is high.
Is that true? I've never noticed a way in which the default Gnome file manager is any worse than the file manager on Windows.
And with window managers I see the opposite being true. The churn and diversity of *nix window managers lead to a bunch of features being developed, the bugs worked out, and eventually becoming standard that still aren't present in Windows. And those of us who are willing to invest some learning time get to use things like tiling managers.
"Great" can mean different things to different people e.g., some may prefer zsh and emacs while most iOS users can be unaware of the "filesystem" concept at all.
Usually I agree with bashing Linux GUIs: indeed, all accessible GUI software is always written for OS/X somehow. But I don't know what is wrong with these file managers. I'm using Thunar, which is as simple as possible to do basic filesystem navigation, and ranger from console, when I do need something more like MC. Well, yeah, maybe it would be better to be able to use bash and stuff from graphic file manager, but otherwise I'm pretty OK with the setup. Anyway, I like it way better that anything I know on Windows/MacOS.
Both OSX and Linux lack good file managers, unfortunately.
Basically the only thing i miss really much.
Compared to Total Commander (and FAR for someone) everything else feels really bleak.
P.S. For OSX i recommend CRAX Commander which trying to emulate TC with ~30% success rate :) Much worser than original but better than most alternatives
Also, on linux i tend to skip mc and go to console directly. Some some unknown reason using mc doesn't feel like productivity improvement at all (unlike TC)
I've tried a bunch of file managers but I'm not really happy with any of them. I tend to go with the least annoying alternative when I choose among Linux desktop programs (because they are all pretty horrible), in the file manager case my pick is PCManFM, for now... :)
If you use zsh, there is deer[0], which has ranger like navigation and some useful features, but starts up instantaneously, unlike ranger. Great for quickly moving around complex directories structures.
There was a massive pile left out in favor of talking up multiple KDE ones. And at least Konqueror and Dolphin would only be considered "to try" if you have had your head in the Fedora/RHEL sand for way too long.
There is Spacefm, a fork of Pcmanfm that can do mounts etc without the involvement of Freedesktop parts.
And if one is to focus on "traditional" (dual column) managers, where is emelFM2?
I don't recognise the Nautilus I use from the screenshot or the description. For example, I have a completely different sidebar and I have no problem having multiple tabs in a window.
Article mentions that Nautilus , default gnome/ubuntu, file manager doesn't have Tabs, which is incorrect as I use it daily and tabs help me get more done in it.
the only time i use the gui is to drag and drop files in os x, i.e. to mail something, or upload.
does anyone know if there is a tool that will allow you to simulate a drag+drop in the gui, and provide a path instead? typing "open ." and then re-arranging windows and dragging and dropping a file is so incredibly cumbersome.
[+] [-] forgotpwtomain|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] brudgers|9 years ago|reply
For me, Bash (or whatever) are great file managers, it's just that the necessary complexity of managing files on Linux manifests itself as necessary complexity in the command line. Sure, Bash (or whatever) isn't what someone means by "file manager" but then again it's not really clear what they mean be "file manager" at all. What is necessary and what isn't becomes a matter of taste. I use |pcmanfm| and it does what I need -- even if it isn't |explorer.exe| -- when I use it. And I use it when I'm trying not to expend to much effort forming a mental map of the tree layout.
But for me, one of the qualities of a great file manager is automating repetitive tasks and Bash (or whatever) do that really well, e.g. it needs to treat regular expressions as first class citizens.
[+] [-] espadrine|9 years ago|reply
The only time it disappointed me was when I wanted to open an FTPES directory, but the bar is high.
[+] [-] Symmetry|9 years ago|reply
And with window managers I see the opposite being true. The churn and diversity of *nix window managers lead to a bunch of features being developed, the bugs worked out, and eventually becoming standard that still aren't present in Windows. And those of us who are willing to invest some learning time get to use things like tiling managers.
[+] [-] rhinoceraptor|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] d0mine|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] krick|9 years ago|reply
So today I disagree.
[+] [-] out_of_protocol|9 years ago|reply
P.S. For OSX i recommend CRAX Commander which trying to emulate TC with ~30% success rate :) Much worser than original but better than most alternatives
[+] [-] out_of_protocol|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] sdegutis|9 years ago|reply
I can't recall a single time when I said "man I really wish Finder wasn't missing [this or that feature], I could really use that right about now."
[+] [-] appleflaxen|9 years ago|reply
(I have never found thunar or dolphin lacking for anything serious, so I wonder what TC is able to do that they can't)
[+] [-] idobai|9 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] towb|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dri_ft|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] OvidNaso|9 years ago|reply
0. https://github.com/Vifon/deer
[+] [-] digi_owl|9 years ago|reply
There is Spacefm, a fork of Pcmanfm that can do mounts etc without the involvement of Freedesktop parts.
And if one is to focus on "traditional" (dual column) managers, where is emelFM2?
[+] [-] liw|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] TD-Linux|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mohsinr|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] therealidiot|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] beachstartup|9 years ago|reply
does anyone know if there is a tool that will allow you to simulate a drag+drop in the gui, and provide a path instead? typing "open ." and then re-arranging windows and dragging and dropping a file is so incredibly cumbersome.
[+] [-] bitL|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] qihqi|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Fugve|9 years ago|reply