What is a good file manager for Linux

Last updated on October 23, 2020 by Dan Nanni

One of must-have utilities on Linux desktop is file manager (or file browser). A typical file manager can not only handle common file management operations, but also offer advanced functionality that differentiates itself with others. If you are not happy with a default file manager that comes with the Linux desktop you are using, don't worry. There are plenty of other file managers to choose from.

In this post, I will showcase 13 popular file managers available on Linux. For each file manager, I am going to briefly mention its notable features.

1. Dolphin

• Default file manager for KDE4 desktop.
• Transparent access to files, web sites and other resources via KIO (KDE Input/Output).
• Support for undo/redo operations.
• Tabbed user interface for different folders.
• Support for dockable panels.
• Official website: http://dolphin.kde.org

2. Double Commander

• Support for unicode encoding.
• Support for batch renaming.
• Tabbed user interface for different folders.
• Built-in file viewer for content in text, binary and hex format.
• Transparent browsing for archives (zip, tar, gz, tgz, bz2, rpm, deb, rar).
• Logging for file operations.
• Support for full text search in files.
• Official website: http://doublecmd.sourceforge.net

3. GNOME Commander

• GTK+ version of Midnight Commander.
• Connect to SSH, Samba, FTP, Windows Share, WebDAV (http), secure WebDAV (https).
• Built-in file viewer (for text, binary, hex, image).
• Support for batch renaming.
• Official website: http://www.nongnu.org/gcmd/

4. Konqueror

• Highly customizable universal viewer for KDE desktop.
• Transparent access to local files, remote FTP/SFTP/Samba servers, websites and mountable media.
• Extensible functionality via plugins (e.g., ad blocker, webpage translation, image gallery creation, shell command panel).
• Support for VNC viewer and web browser.
• Official website: http://www.konqueror.org

5. Krusader

• Versatile file browser for KDE desktop.
• Support for KIO slaves via Samba, NFS, FTP and SSH.
• Directory synchronization over networks.
• Transparent archive browsing for bzip2, deb, iso, rar, rpm, tar, zip and 7zip.
• Comes with internal viewer/editor (KrViewer),
• Support for mounted file systems (MountMan).
• Built-in disk usage tool (filelight).
• Bookmark organizer (BookMan).
• Support for batch renaming (KRename).
• File content comparison (KDiff, Kompare).
• File encryption and decryption (KGPG).
• Transparent browsing for archives (tar, zip, bzip2, gzip, rar, ace, 7z, rpm).
• Official website: http://www.krusader.org

6. Marlin

• GTK3-based lightweight file manager optimized for speed.
• Tabbed user interface for different folders.
• Customizable toolbar.
• Plugins for Dropbox and UbuntuOne.
• Connect to SSH, FTP, Windows Share, WebDAV (http), secure WebDAV (https).
• Official website: https://launchpad.net/marlin

7. Midnight Commander

• Terminal interface with mouse support and keyboard shortcuts.
• Built-in viewer and editor with syntax highlighting.
• Support for archive browsing and unpack (rpm, deb, tgz, iso, rar, cpio).
• Unicode support.
• Support for undelete on ext2 and ext3 filesystems.
• Official website: http://www.midnight-commander.org

8. muCommander

• Support for remote file systems (FTP, SFTP, Samba, NFS, HTTP, Amazon S3, Hadoop HDFS and Bonjour).
• Support for archive browsing, creation and unpacking (zip, rar, 7z, tar, gzip, bzip2, iso, deb).
• Tabbed user interface for different folders.
• Multiple language support (27 different languages).
• Bookmark and credential manager.
• Official website: http://www.mucommander.com

9. Nautilus

• Official file manager for GNOME desktop.
• Connect to SSH, FTP, Windows Share, WebDAV (http), secure WebDAV (https).
• Tabbed user interface for different folders.
• Extensible functionality via Nautilus extensions or scripts.
• Maintains a history of visited folders.
• File preview (text, image, audio, video).
• Support for bookmarks.
• Official website: http://projects.gnome.org/nautilus

10. PCManFM

• Default file manager of LXDE desktop.
• Available as GTK+ and Qt versions.
• Support for remote file systems (GVFS, SFTP, Samba, WebDAV).
• Multilingual support.
• Tabbed user interface for different folders.
• Support for bookmarks.
• Official website: http://wiki.lxde.org/en/PCManFM

11. Sunflower

• Plugin support.
• File previews for jpg and other media files.
• Support for opening a native terminal within panels.
• Support for bookmarks.
• Official website: http://code.google.com/p/sunflower-fm/

12. Thunar

• Default file manager of XFCE desktop.
• Written in GTK+ 2.
• Extensible functionality via extensions (e.g., bulk renamer) or scripts.
• Support for mouse gestures.
• Customizable keyboard shortcuts.
• Custom actions for removable media.
• Official website: http://docs.xfce.org/xfce/thunar/

13. Xfe

• MS-Explorer like interface.
• Built-in text viewer and editor, and image viewer.
• Built-in rpm/deb package viewer and (un)installer.
• Multi language support (17 languages).
• Trash can for file removal operations.
• Support for bookmarks.
• Official website: http://roland65.free.fr/xfe/

What is your favorite file manager for Linux? Share your opinion and experience in the comment section.

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