Of course it is a legitimate question and LQ is as good a place to ask as any. The OP was given a number of options and was asked for more specific information on exactly what was wanted/needed and did not respond to anything so I have to wonder what the point in posting was. Also, if windows explorer does/did everything s/he wanted, why switch.

And as to your comment on using search engines, I don't think one would need a lot of expertise to do an online search for something like that, millions of hits. Additionally, opening old threads wasn't the point but rather the fact that the OP posted and never bothered to respond in any manner which is extremely ill-mannered, unless of course, s/he passed away.

For others who arrive at this post from Google looking for an answer - Xfe (X File Explorer) and Dolphin.

Xfe looks dated but it acts and feels more like Windows Explorer than any other file manager I've used. When in "Tree and Panel" mode (View menu) it has a split panel with a folder tree on the left and the right panel shows the contents of the folders you select on the left side.

What's missing with it are sections for favorites, libraries, and partitions.

Dolphin (KDE) can also act very much like it if you enable the Folders panel (View > Panels > Folders). This brings up a folder tree that acts the same way, but the tree is small and it competes for space with "Places" (which show frequently visited locations and partitions). A way to maximize space for the Folders panel is to hide the Remote, Recently Saved, Search For, and Devices sections (if you don't use them). If you mount all other partitions from a single folder, you can put that folder in "Places" to access them instead of using the Devices section.

You can put the Folders Pane over the Places Pane so either one takes the full left pane, but you'll need to click a button to switch between them.

Two things that detract from the "Windows Explorer" feel in Dolphin are the small size of the folders in the folder view and that you need to click the icons for files and folders directly in order to open them (you can't click anywhere on the row for a file/folder).

So it's a trade-off between Xfe and Dolphin.

With Xfe the folders on the left pane are larger and you can click anywhere on a file/folder's row to open them but you don't have easily clickable shortcuts to frequently visited folders (though you can bookmark them and use keyboard shortcuts to access them quickly). I'd also prefer if the folders were a bit larger.

Dolphin looks more modern and has a visible section for frequently visited locations but it competes for space with the folder tree and you need to click icons/folders directly to open them.

I use them both. If I know I want to go to a frequently visited location, I'll use Dolphin. If know I'm going to be exploring the file system more deeply, I'll use Xfe.

Edit:
Click and drag behavior - when you click and drag files/folders to another location:

Windows Explorer - it moves them to the new location by default.

Dolphin - it opens a dialog asking if you want to move, copy, or link the files/folders to the new location.

Xfe - by default, it does the same as Dolphin, but you can change it to act the same way as Windows Explorer:

Edit > Preferences > Dialogs > Uncheck "Confirm/copy/move/rename/symlink" AND "Confirm drag and drop"

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Windows Explorer is really a graphical OS shell for Windows. It's not just a "file manager", it also provides the desktop in general on Windows 95 to 7.

So as far as the "shell aspect" is concerned; then I'd think KDE in general would probably come close, but not completely. For the "file manager aspect"; then I'd think Dolphin or similar would be quite close.

Sorry if this has already been mentioned, but TL;DR.

Actually many Linux filemanagers also have the aspect of a GUI shell or desktop manager:
- pcmanfm
- nemo/nautilus or whatever various GNOME-derivate filemanagers are called.
And XFCE has that separated into thunar/xfdesktop.

[ and back when I was still running Windows XP I even replaced Windows Explorer with Blackbox (for Windows). ]

I don't see a point in this kind of juvenile mocking. There is absolutely nothing wrong with moving to linux and trying to tailor it to have things that work for you from another environment/OS.

I get it, I love linux, but only because I'm a long time software engineer in Unix environments (from early 80's), and I'm at home with it, but I have to admit that there are simply things in Windows that I miss.

Am I supposed then to be sent to a link saying "Hey, don't expect it to be ____." as if it's MY fault that I prefer somethings that are from another OS?

Hi tgm1024,

Please refrain from arguing in threads. If you feel another person's post is a violation of the LQ Rules, then please use the Report button on that post and state your concerns.

Also, bumping a five month old thread to start an argument is hardly a valuable contribution. Unsubscribed.

You don't have to switch to KDE but you do have to install the supporting libraries, etc. that Dolphin needs. I spend 99% of my time in either the console of KDE but there are Gnome applications that I sometimes fire up. Just install Dolphin using your software manager and -- if the package manager is doing its job properly -- it ought to tell you about the other packages that Dolphin depends on, ask for your approval, and install those as well.

HTH...

Ok. It's just a very dismissive link, and requires the target person to reply with the obvious "I know it's not Linux, I just miss feature X."