File Manager of the Year
 

What is your file manager of choice?

--jeremy

Again a hard choice. I do like konqueror a lot because it is really powerful, but for daily use it is dolphin (again a virtual half a choice really belongs to konqueror ;)).

Where is bash?

Addicted to rox-filer

SpaceFM, come back IgnorantGuru we need you!

---------- Post added 12-17-14 at 12:13 AM ----------

BASH is a shell not a file manager

I perform all my file management operations from within bash, so it must be a file manager! ;)

Actually, it not a file command front-end like mc, or a GUI file manager... that is the essential difference I think.

No its a shell just because you can use it to manipulate files doesn't make it a file manager, I can use gimp to manipulate files that doesn't make it a file manager, all thumbs are fingers but not all fingers are thumbs!

Voted Thunar this year. Comfy using rox-filer like Anti though and Spacefm like Keith and also use Midnight Commander in init3 boot to fix a non bootable system when testing xorg drivers.

First let me say that my original post was largely in good humor, but serious and intended as a reminder that not all file management tools are GUI based or dedicated to the single purpose. So no intent to be argumentative here.

That said...

The same could fairly be said about Konqueror, it is a web browser - the fact that it is "also" a file manager does not exclude it from appearing in the "Browser of the year" category. (Gimp or any of thousands of applications which also provide their own file features would be specious comparisons at best.)

Filesystem access and file management is a singular primary function of any shell, so not surprisingly, many people use their shell of choice as their file manager of choice - mine happens to be bash. The shell is literally the original file manager in the *nix context.

So perhaps "Shell", as opposed to any particular shell, would be a suitable option for File manager of the year. It would be very interesting to see how many still use a shell as their file manager of choice.

A quick search for "shell as file manager" turns up many good hits that will demonstrate that the shell is in fact considered to be a file manager, particularly within the Unix/Linux context (including an Arch forum thread titled, "Using bash as your file manager?").

So in all serious good humor I do think that "Shell" or "System Console" would be a valid option for this category - otherwise, those who run primarily outside an X environment won't have a choice! ;)

This is always a tough one for me. Now astrogeek has gone and made it harder. ;)

I use Dolphin a lot, I use mc a lot, I use Bash a lot. It's tough to decide.

Well not that tough, mc gets my vote.

Dolphin in X, mc in console.

Well, it's hard choice but I say Thunar!

My regular is mc, from the first time I used it, it just makes sense.

where is Explorer ???

:doh:

File manager of the year
 

For me it was a choice between Nemo and MuCommander. I use each one but for slightly different purposes. I chose Nemo for nostalgic reasons because in Linux Mint 17.1 Emblems are back and your folders can each have a different colour. Otherwise the functionality is more or less the same. MuCommander is easier if you need to move large amount of files. Also MuCommander allows you to overwrite files by ticking a checkbox whereas Nemo prompts you on each file.

Regards
Philip

Where is Bash?
 

Hi Jerry

I saw a query about Bash not being here. I do not believe Bash should be in this list because all the listed file managers are GUI based and Bash is a CLI.

Regards
Philip

Still Midnight Commander

I am with AstroGeek on this. I use the shell, and only shell. I have to - I don't even have a GUI installed. I will, therefore, not vote on this category and skew the results (however minor that would be). BTW: Bash is also my shell of choice for this.

My DE==KDE so... ;)

spaceFM

more tricks than you can shake a stick at.

In the beginning there was the Norton Commander (I still have my original 5 1/4 install floppies). Now there is the Midnight Commander. Man shall not live by bash alone, but by every command that shall proceed through the Midnight Commander.

I generally use Rox-filer (my vote) with any standalone window manager, but use the default file manager with any full-blown DE.

To my mind the shell can be used to manage files but it is not a "file manager". My understanding is that a file manager is a program designed to allow one to view and manipulate files and directory structures in ways not possible in the shell.
For instance, historically, files on the the DOS/Netware machines of my youth could be manipulated through DOS -- heck, DOS means "Disk Operating System", however the file manager Xtree allowed one to visualise the layout of files and directories and manipulate them using different methods to the DOS shell. This, to me, defines a file manager -- it's an addition to the shell allowing file manipulation visually.

I had to vote Thunar as it does all I ask of it.

"mc" was as close as I could find.

I voted for Dolphin because of its versatility and ability to search files and the content of documents, with Baloo or Strigi depending on the version of Dolphin. I often use Konqueror for file browsing when I am using Konqueror as a web browser.

Where's fileRunner? It's still around and I still use it. :)

fileRunner has been added.

--jeremy

Nemo. It's a bunch like Nautilus but with a lot of improvements.

I also do like and use PCManFM and Caja though, depending on what computer or DE I'm using.

I found ranger pretty useful.

By the way, can anybody recommend good GUI file manager that does not need extra libraries, like Thunar > xfce stuff, Dolphin > KDE stuff etc.

Spacefm or Rox file manager are 2.

Just LOVE Dolphin

PCManFM

That's a hard one.

Konqueror is fine - Dolphin is essentially the same, but faster.

mc is even faster, but without the fancy pants. emelFM2 is mc WITH the fancy pants.

Soooo...I don't know :( Maybe the one from "Jurassic Park": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fsn :D

The only file manager that I have ever used that compares to bash is the original sh! Who needs a gui when the shell can do everything a gui can and more quicker and with a lot more options.

Thunar
 

I made life easy for myself and use XFCE desktop on all my Linux computers. I just copy my config files to a new machine and its ready to go.

If you have worked much on Windows, you should know the Total Commander. Any Windows admin that does not know the Total Commander really needs to hang their head in shame. There is a kinda-clone for *nix that is called Krusader. It's not bad but alas has not been updated for almost three years and appears to be a dead project. I've used it and others but I keep going back to the Midnight Commander. I grew up with the Norton Commander back in the 1980s and 1990s, and later the Windows Commander (until Microsoft bullied them into removing the word "windows" from their name, now they are the Total Commander).

Alas, I have not found a gui file manager for *nix that does it for me, which is why I stick with the Midnight Commander.

Krusader is a KDE program and thus falls out of sbolokanov's question. And it is far from being abandoned...

Nemo in Mint (a replacement for Nautilus) is nice.

It allows changes to the colours of folder icons plus the addition of emblems (sub-icons) to categorise individual icons.

Have you tried PCManFM?

If http://wiki.lxde.org/en/PCManFM#Features is up to date, PCManFM seems very good for a Lxde system, but rather basic for a full Debian/Gnome based system.

(I don't like tabs).. :p

Never one to follow the crowd, my preference is Krusader.

I stand corrected on the dependencies. But their last update and beta was 2012. Sounds dead to me. Maybe they have an update planned?

There is activity on the bugtracker. Although I do not know when the next release is planned. Maybe KDE folks are busy porting everything to Qt5 and Frameworks 5.

I agree that Bash is the best file manager. The fastest, easily scriptable, can be used without a mouse, ubiquitous. I have attempted to use some "real" file managers but I always got back to Bash.

So, is Bash the text editor as apposed to Vi or should it be added here (and there) instead of MC or mv, cp, df, mkdir,,, etc..?

I voted mc. About bash: I agree but
1) bash - required
2) bash scripting - required
2) all *utils stuff - required
3) emacs or vi - required (minimal ed but..)
on top one can put dialog, to have "graphical" file manager. Look at this
$ man ksh | wc -l
2846
$ man bash | wc -l
4884

I'm torn. What I want out of a file manager: I want to easily browse my file system, I want to see graphical icons and perhaps image previews if I enable it, and I want to search my file system and extra partitions easily. Oh yeah, it should also be fast. Wickedly fast.

Gnome's "Files" aka "Nautilus" v3.10 does 80% of what I need. I can live with it being slow. I can't live with how the search functionality leaves you hanging. Did it actually search? Is it still searching? Who knows.

Edit: The intermittent 'spinner' seems to be a bug according to the mailing list. Not sure that makes me feel better or not. :)

Dolphin is just as good as Files except it loads slower than Files: I've never noticed it being slow after that, ever: /usr/bin/ displays immediately. The search looks like it works and provides some nifty options, but looks like it needs more KDE pieces than I want to install to make it work.

Surprisingly, Midnight Commander does great at everything except having graphics. I haven't used it much in the past and in the 10 minutes I've tried it out it's clear that's a mistake.

True, see this at the end `man bash`:

I only use bash as an interactive shell, it has a number of useful features. For scripting only sh. You don't need to rewrite your scripts when you want to run them on other *nix systems when you use sh. It is also more simple and more readable than bash.

Same behavior here in GNOME in Debian Wheezy. But you can add kdeinit to your startup applications to speed that up somewhat. Well, these days I guess it's /usr/bin/kdeinit4.

I'm hoping he comes back, too! SpaceFM and Dolphin are my favorite file managers...