Total Commander

[AugustusCrunch]

I've done things that people thought were magic. It was TC. There are about twenty similar programs, all descended from the Norton Commander. Any one of them is enormously better than the file managers that come with most OSs, especially windows. Ive read estimates that say you're about four times as productive if you use on, and I think that may be very conservative. There are a lot of things you can't do without one. A friend worked at a place where management disabled the search function in windows, probably because people were getting stuff done. I set him up with TC, which has its own search. The IT lead at one place I worked said, "I don't like that program. it makes things easier than they should be." TC is the best of its kind. It's so good I paid for it. (I've had twenty years of free upgrades.)

[FirmwareBurner]

>Any one of them is enormously better than the file managers that come with most OSs, especially windows.

I duuno mate, I find the MacOS but especially the default Gnome file manager to be much more limited than the latest Windows Explorer in functionality. Gnome Files is a joke really, feels more like something on a mobile device.

The thing is, file managers that come with mainstream OSs are not designed to appease power users, as they will install their own personal favorite one anyway, but to make life easy for the average joe who doesn't know much about computers, files, extensions, etc. That's why they're so simplistic out of the box.

Something like TC, would be really confusing for the user who just wants to view the best photos in the download folder and drag and drop them to the Gmail in Chrome.

Trying to appease power users is an exercise in futility anyway, no matter what you do, someone will cry that his favorite and most used feature is still missing, so most SW companies don't even bother anymore with the tiny power-user market share if they also aren't paying customers. TC is one of the few exceptions that survived by including everything and the kitchen sink.

HN users should learn to detach themselves form the power-user mentality and empathize with the average joe who isn't tech savvy and has no interest in becoming tech savvy as they have other hobbies than learning how their computer works under the hood and becoming 40% more efficient with their file-management-fu.

[BelleOfTheBall]

I remember once I needed to rename a bunch of files to a template similar to NewName_001, upwards of 100. TC lets you just set a name pattern and follows it, which meant I did it in about 10 seconds. My colleague took 10 minutes and a lot of groaning about "why isn't there a better way?".

[rob74]

I've been looking for a Linux alternative ever since I mostly switched away from Windows a few years ago, and so far this one is the best FOSS alternative I found: https://doublecmd.sourceforge.io/ - it's even written in Pascal, same as TC.

[saiya-jin]

I've used norton since 1993 IIRC, the 2-pane model is properly baked in my mind. Now with tabs, it is magical. At least to literally all colleagues I've shown it. Lightweight, performant, stable.

Sftp client, great recursive file content search including archives, file comparison, editing files directly in archives, plugins etc.

The thing is, everybody is wow at efficiency boost but almost nobody picks it up afterwards, they go back to slow basic clunky multiple windows. When I see how slow they are (easily 10-20x, more complex stuff they have to use other programs ot cant do at all), even my otherwise calm manners become... less calm.

I've tried gui variants on linux when I was toying with ubuntu few years ago, unstable, slow, basic. I hope its better now.

[executesorder66]

> A friend worked at a place where management disabled the search function in windows, probably because people were getting stuff done.

> I don't like that program. it makes things easier than they should be.

Why are they trying to make things difficult for people?

[lproven]

When U moved to Czechia in 2014, I was amazed to find everyone used this app. In my 2nd job, the company had a site licence and it was preinstalled on all PCs.

I'd not used or seen a 2-pane file manager since about 1993 and I never missed them.

It's ubiquitous in central Europe and most people sneer at OS file managers. I was amazed and baffled.

I am perfectly capable of using them and occasionally did in the late 1980s, but I don't normally use them and have no need. My Czech friends and colleagues are as amazed and baffled as I am by them.

I easily do this stuff in the Windows Explorer or Mac Finder, but mostly I work on Linux in Nemo. I can do all this stuff and sometimes I have shown people how and they are amazed that I can do stuff that they think impossible.

My overall conclusion is that a lot of FOSS development is driven by people who don't know how to properly use the tools that the OS came with.

I keep hearing about "editing at the speed of thought" in Vim and so on. Users have to learn the keystrokes because that's the primary UI. Result, when you know it, it's fast.

Well, newsflash. Windows 3 had keystrokes for everything and by Win95 it was very customisable and extensible as well. If you learn to use the keyboard, the entire OS and all apps work as fast as Vim.

When I see the many Windows-like desktops for Linux that can't do a vertical taskbar properly (MATE, LXQt, Cinnamon, Enlightenment) then I know they were cloned from Windows by someone who didn't know how to use Windows.

When I see a hamburger menu on a computer with a keyboard, I know that that developer didn't know how to use a GUI properly.

When I see CSD window decorations, I know that that developer didn't know how to use a windowing GUI properly.

[gumballindie]

This is a little bit like saying that people wearing different types of trousers do so because they can't all wear the same identical type due to lack of knowledge on how to wear them.

People have varying tastes and use cases. To me eveyrthing you described as "proper" in windows looks the way you described linux - done by someone who doesn't know how to properly build an OS ui. I don't understand why someone would even want to use windows explorer with a keyboard.

But the beauty of life is that we are free to like whatever we like, and there's nothing wrong with that.

[pacifika]

Total commander isn’t FOSS.

Ironically windows 11 can’t do vertical taskbars.

And where in windows can you change the system shortcuts?

[nunez]

Windows Explorer keybindings are _nothing_ like a proper tiling window manager, like XMonad.

There was (is?) a program that brought some of this to Windows. Can't remember it, but I remember it being a downgrade of sorts.

[growt]

For all the MacOS dual pane file-manager fans: I tried them all and only recently discovered Marta (https://marta.sh/) which is now my favourite file manager!

[replwoacause]

What about Nimble Commander (https://magnumbytes.com)? I’ve been using it for years and it’s great. Did you try it and if so, how does it compare to Marta?

[neoneye2]

I made a dual tab file manager 10 years ago for mac (https://github.com/neoneye/newton-commander). It's written in Objective C.

Unlike other dual tab file managers, it use the spacebar for quicklook which I find more handy. In order to select files, use shift arrowup/arrowdown.

[eviks]

Indeed, its ability to do simple navigation with single alpha homerow keys is alone almost worth all the missing functionality (and then there are also programmable extensions)

Unfortunately its pace of development is very slow :(

[rswail]

Thanks for this. Been looking for a simple key-driven replacement for the Finder that I can keep open.

Tweaked a few of the options for fonts and opening terminals and things and it's great (and fast as well).

[princevegeta89]

There is also QSpace btw... it's pretty solid

[joehogans]

Thanks wil give it a try

[Daril]

Very useful, I bought it years ago and used it on Windows. I've been using only Linux for about 10 years now, but I'd like to use Total Commander on Linux.

Double Commander is open source, cross-platform and written with Lazarus / FPC : https://doublecmd.sourceforge.io/

But ... I am not able not to use Midnight Commander ...

[rob74]

MC has the bonus of retaining the original Norton Commander vibe for console fans, but I personally prefer Double Commander, which is a GUI app and feels more familiar because I went the Norton Commander (DOS) -> Total Commander (Windows) -> Double Commander (Linux) route. BTW, there was a Norton Commander for Windows too (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norton_Commander#Norton_Comman...), but it never gained much traction...

[quikoa]

What I always miss with these alternatives compared to TC is that they don't work like a terminal when typing. For instance in TC when I type 'cd ..' it navigates one directory up in the focused panel. While in Double Commander it starts to search for 'cd ..'. I don't want to click on the bottom text bar each time I want to execute a command. Maybe this can be configured but I cannot find the right setting.

[haspok]

Try Krusader!

[butz]

Tried Double Commander several times, GTK and QT versions, and while it is almost exact copy of TC, it seemed somehow "off", and I never could use it properly.

[qwerty456127]

I tried many commander-style file managers on many OSes. Some of them deliberately imitating Total Commander. But none of them really feels like the original. Some even look better and can be more powerful in some aspects yet I don't really feel that comfortable using them. Many are tolerable though.

In my oppinion Total Commander is the number-one best and most useful computer program ever made and the best UX. And yes, despite spending years using Norton Commander when I was a child, I always liked Total Commander (Windows Commander back in the days) better than the Far Manager - another alternative which imitated Norton Commander more closely and is considered more powerful by some people.

[wiz21c]

Ah Norton Commander... I was wondering if someone would pop up the father of them all... Fond memories of that blue screen :-)

[hereforcomments]

It's extremely popular in Hungary, almost everyone has it installed. I've been using in for at least 20 years. When I moved to the UK 10 years ago I was quite surprised that nobody knew it.

https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=now%201-d&q=%2...

[nanna]

Fascinating. I used it in the '00s and would never have thought to try it again. Why don't out think it's so popular in Hungary? And Cuba, Czechia, Slovakia...? UTF-8 capabilities?

I'm wondering it if is similar to Emacs Dired

[roselan]

As many here I'm in love with Total Commander for a long time and it was my first purchase.

I find equally amazing that it's a one man shop. Christian Ghisler created, maintains and supports this application for 30 years (initial release: 29th Sep 1993).

I have boundless admiration for this kind of dedication.

[jahav]

Check out the full changes file, it has dates of changes:

https://www.ghisler.com/history1100.txt

Even after 30 years there are still things to fix pretty much every day. Maintenance is really endless task

[anta40]

I still use Total Commander on my Android phones/tablets.

For MacOS, the closest ones are:

- https://apps.apple.com/us/app/commander-one-file-manager/id1...

- https://github.com/elfmz/far2l

[taraparo]

I prefer Free Commander https://freecommander.com/ and even donated for it.

[murkt]

I’ve used it for a long time, probably more than a decade (switched to Macs in 2010). Even in the 00s it had so many features. I think the first time I’ve encountered regular expressions was in a mass rename tool in Total Commander.

[phero_cnstrcts]

Ever since I’m not using windows anymore I just want Directory Opus to be available on Linux.

[0xbs0d]

It's been my default file manager since the Amiga days of the early 90s. I do love TC and have been using it at work a lot on and off but DOpus is forever.

[gapan]

There is worker: http://www.boomerangsworld.de/cms/worker/

[eviks]

or on a Mac, it's the single best file manager app out there!

[exitb]

I wonder how big of an effort is to keep it compatible with every Windows version since 95.

[rlv-dan]

Even Windows 3.1!

https://www.ghisler.com/wcmd16.htm

[yankput]

I was looking recently for an application on Windows that can show me simply a content of EML file (Outlook mail format).

I found only TC and Thunderbird; but Thunderbird started showing me stuff about setting a mail and address and everything, TC just opened it.

[magnat]

First program I have paid for, and after 20 years I still use it every day.

[xpil]

Same here. Best piece of software, ever. Period.

[axytol]

I use this on Windows because of the dual pane layout which allows me to easily move/copy files around, but also do other nice stuff like file diffs, though probably other apps out there can also do these things. It's also preety snappy when dealing with zip archives unlike Windows file explorer.

To be noted this app is also available on Android, comes in very handy and it also has plugins for network storage shares such as SMB. I got bitten in the past by other file managers on Android that turned into adware infested cesspools.

[SevenIron]

Eastern European here (Romania) - I am here to give lots and lots of thanks to Christian ! When Norton Commander was not a choice anymore .. Total Commander was the replacement. I can attest that outside of Europe (living in US now) NC/TC is almost unknown. The company I was working for employed a lot of Eastern Europeans - hence we 'lobby' and got 50 licenses for it. To this day, after installing a fresh Windows , TC is the next thing I am installing (followed closely by Notepad++). Personally I cannot browse files (comfortably) without it. Thanks again Christian !

[Shorel]

Total Commander lacks many useful features from Norton Commander.

The preview panel for example. There was a Windows version of Norton Commander and it used all available registered Windows preview handlers.

I am using Double Commander instead. And I can use it on Linux as well.

[zecg]

It's also a miracle on Android, with SFTP plugin and an integrated media player.

[stef-13013]

DoubleCmd is amazing to... (and cross platform)

[blkhawk]

I tried Total Commander while I was still using Windows but in the end settled on Servant Salamander (later renamed to Altap Salamander). Somehow I liked it better haptically than Total Commander at the time. Sadly development of it stopped a few years ago and it is now free for everybody. Download it here: https://www.altap.cz/

Nowadays I use Krusader and Linux.

[ihateolives]

> Servant Salamander

Does not support Unicode in filenames. They had plans for it like 10 years ago but they never actually got around to do it. I ditched Salamander for Freecommander years ago primarily for this reason. Freecommander is in active development as well. https://freecommander.com/en/summary/