Talk:Comparison of file managers

IMPORTANT! article will be needing a split

If you Google around you will find out the inevitable truth: the number of file managers is ridiculously huge! I mean you never ever even heard of likes of Commander Keen Clone, Portos Commander, X Northern Captain and the list goes on and on for miles. This article will grow out of proportions soon or someday. And since it already looks like a Microsoft's evil deeds spreadsheet, I suggest splitting the list of file managers into 5 main groups platform-wise:

• Windows
• Linux
• Mac OS X
• Cross platform
• Others (BeOS, OS/2 Warp, Amiga OS, etc.)

Each platform can then contain its own subset of feature comparisons. Please post suggestions and comments.
Bert Racoon | Life is not a dream, it's a nightmare... 12:21, 12 September 2007 (UTC)

Unnecessary, IMO. Any "Comparison of X" article in Wikipedia is not a comparison of all X's, but a comparison of notable X's, where 'notable' is defined as 'has a Wikipedia article and so fulfils WP:N'. Though it probably is about time to go through and trim out all the ones who's articles have been deleted. -- simxp (talk) 17:39, 12 September 2007 (UTC)

Alright, I wasn't expecting this. So let me get this straight. Out of the currently mentioned 36 file managers only 6 do not have articles. But the point is, who is to say that those 6 are not note worthy since no one ventured to make an article for them (yet). I also dare to say that this list is a very good startup point for a new file manager article to be risen from. I can't disagree more with you - some of the really time unworthy things are mentioned very slovenly here in Wikipedia and yet they are deemed "notable". Trimming is IMHO not an option and is actually similar to an information embargo. That may be going too far in this case but still... In my experience even the most mundane file manager has(or had) got an user base large enough to disprove that it is not notable at all.
All I'm saying is that the number of "notable X's" will grow and you really can not trim it. This article should be structured in such a fashion that it can remain transparent and clear even with the future load of information. Bert Racoon | Life is not a dream, it's a nightmare... 23:08, 12 September 2007 (UTC)

Agree--I just added FreeCommander XE (Win32/64 only, but might run under WINE), and <gasp> Ranger, which has a huge user base and in some communities is the #1 used console/text file manager (yes, more users than MC). FreeCommander is a rather nice dual pane tabbed file manager, and has been the closest thing I could find to Konqueror (except the somewhat broken Windows version of KDE) that runs on Windows. — Preceding unsigned comment added by DrKC MD (talk • contribs) 03:57, 13 November 2017 (UTC)

I invite you to peruse, for example, Comparison of Linux distributions, Comparison of video codecs, Comparison of text editors, etc. -- or, for that matter, list articles such as List of people born at sea, List of people who died young, or List of atheists. All these cases, and many thousands more Wikipedia lists and comparisons with open inclusion criteria, share one thing in common. They are not intended to be exaustive databases of all such items as fulfil the criteria. There are many hundreds of Linux distributions which are not included in Comparison of Linux distributions; and many billions of people who died young who aren't included in List of people who died young. Why? Because they are not notable.

You ask "who is to say that those 6 are not note worthy since no one ventured to make an article for them (yet)"? But that misses the point, which is that the guideline for inclusion is, for both articles and comparisons, and I quote, "if it has received significant coverage in reliable sources that are independent of the subject". Now, if a file manager has an article, then all is well: the references and sources for inclusion will be included in the article (if there are none in an article at the moment, then either some should be added, or, if there are none to add, the topic should be AfD'd). If it does not have an article, then there is nothing to establish notability or even make an assertion of notability, and any editor would be within their rights to delete the line. But, frankly, this is all fairly irrelevent: Follow some of the redlinks, and notice that almost all of them are red becase they had an article once, but it was deleted for lack of notability, not because "no one has ventured to make an article for them (yet)".

As for "some of the really time unworthy things are mentioned very slovenly here in Wikipedia and yet they are deemed 'notable'"; could I point you towards Wikipedia:Inclusion is not an indicator of notability? Your argument that "In my experience even the most mundane file manager has(or had) got an user base large enough to disprove that it is not notable at all" is similarly flawed; I refer you to WP:BIG. Besides, notability is not a function of userbase; again see WP:N.

Finally, your position that "Trimming is IMHO not an option and is actually similar to an information embargo" is frankly rubbish. I invite you to have a look at the article history: file managers whos articles have been deleted are pruned off regularly as a standard maintenance procedure -- see this edit] only a couple of weeks ago for one example. This is the same with all open-ended comparison and list articles, and is certainly not "information embargo"...! -- simxp (talk) 13:58, 13 September 2007 (UTC)

Yes you are completely right. I over did it (sounding like a dimwit is what I do for living). The WP:N is quite clear on what is notable and yes this article is being regularly slimmed down to the most relevant (which is the way it should be). My central neural network simply lacks the computational power to properly back up my ideas. Apologies Bert Racoon | Life is not a dream, it's a nightmare... 12:22, 14 September 2007 (UTC)

No harm done -- simxp (talk) 23:58, 14 September 2007 (UTC)

Add column for the "synchronize" feature

Total Commander has a "synchronize" feature that is a very powerful tool for comparing (bit by bit or just by file attributes) the files in two directories (or drives). It shows what is unique to either and can automatically copy files (to synchronize the directories) in either direction or in both directions. The "Synchronize" feature should be added as a column so we can see what other file managers have this powerful feature. Since TC only runs on Windows, it would be nice to find an Linux/OSS alternative. 75.45.177.91 18:40, 1 December 2006 (UTC)Davem at Mich Dot Com

sorry, but i disagree. Synch is normally a feature of a difference app. That TC has it is nice .. but a column with only one "Yes" in it is not useful, and adds to the difficulty of editing that table

— vulcan_ (talk · contribs) 11:04, 10 July 2013 (UTC)

WINE and Cygwin

WINE and Cygwin have somewhat comparable roles (at least in my life): Cygwin gives me a POSIX environment, GNU compilers for Win32 and Win64, Python, Perl, etc. It also has a fairly large collection of previously Linux-only software which run with variable degrees of success. Some file managers (Thunar, Caja, MC, Dolphin, GNOME Commander, Nautilus, Konqueror, libfm, pcmanfm-qt, and ytree are available in package repositories. Software for Cygwin must be compiled (typically done by Redhat/Cygwin, but you can compile your own) for the Cygwin environment.

Similarly, WINE gives me a Win32 (and increasingly Win64) runtime library which, unlike Cygwin, lets me run unmodified Windows programs under Linux. In the past I have tried out a few of the PortableApp file managers, but don't recall which ones worked and which ones didn't. Since file management depends on a lot of OS level stuff (e.g. which filesystem you use--although WINE hides this fairly well for most programs I have used it for, mostly SQLyog (MySQL & MariaDB GUI), but most of the non-system dependant portable apps I have used work just fine.

I think it would be helpful to add "Cygwin" and "WINE" to the list of operating systems, even if they are not actually operating systems.

It does mean a bunch of people need to do a bit more research on their favorite file managers, but it is worth it for the growing number of us who have to juggle Windows and Linux (often on the same machine--a whole new Wikipedia article on this topic would be wonderful, e.g. how to get DropBox and your mail to sync and occupy space only once and shared between both operating systems, plus if you use any sort of file indexing that too takes up a lot of CPU cycles, disk reads and a lot more space than most people think). — Preceding unsigned comment added by DrKC MD (talk • contribs) 04:38, 13 November 2017 (UTC)

Add to list

This is the default XFCE filebrowser in linux and should be added to the list by someone who's experienced with it

I'm working on it. --I80and 21:48, 24 January 2007 (UTC)

"Xfm" the default file manager of Xandros Linux seems to be missing too.

http://en.wiki.x.io/wiki/Xandros_file_manager

http://en.wiki.x.io/wiki/Xfm_%28file_manager%29

Add A43: http://www.primitus.us/a43/ —Preceding unsigned comment added by Futurepower(R) (talk • contribs) 12:36, 20 September 2007 (UTC)

---

Please add Netrw for vim, it is comparable to Dired for emacs and supports several advanced features such as reading and writing over ftp, ssh etc., and even supports transparently opening archives (view the file list and view the contents of a file from it). It is included in all the newer vim distributions. Actively maintained at: http://mysite.verizon.net/astronaut/vim/index.html#NETRW More information from Vim documentation and here: http://www.vim.org/scripts/script.php?script_id=1075

Haridsv (talk) 19:20, 7 April 2010 (UTC)

---

Please add Crax, FastCommander, ForkLift2, Moroshka, PathFinder, DiskOrder, xmander, XCommander and mover for the Mac OSX Platform. Suggestions taken from here: — Preceding unsigned comment added by 88.67.29.132 (talk) 14:41, 4 January 2014 (UTC)

References

Nautilus

about nautilus: does it support more operating systems? are helper programs considered part of the file system? What about the 'medusa' file searching project that was origionally part of nautilus?

Nautilus again

More about nautilus - if you press F3, it shows two folder in one window, so it CAN compare folders. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 109.167.40.216 (talk) 09:44, 11 April 2011 (UTC)

A folder-compare feature would involve more than that (for instance, some way to show the files that are different versus the same, filtering the list to show different or identical files, and usually providing the ability to compare based on size and/or date. Just showing two folders doesn't provide a comparison TEDickey (talk) 10:56, 11 April 2011 (UTC)

PowerDesk

about PowerDesk: by V-Com. Available in both free and purchased versions (Pro). A good file manager for Microsoft Windows based PCs. Single or dual pane views. Good feature set, network smart, FTP, Zip view make and extract.

Someone needs to add this file manager to the list for Windows OS. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.197.90.42 (talk) 09:59, 20 September 2007 (UTC)

Rather meaningless?

Unless you are using platform like Linux, users are most likely stick with the one provided by the OS, right? File manager, unless web browser, is much a fundamental OS feature... Its feature set is limited by factors like file systems. --minghong 09:19, 4 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Only if you use Windows, but then again, if you use Windows, you don't really have many choices since Explorer is the only file manager available for that platform. While I think most Mac users would use Finder, Linux, BSD and Unix users have quite a few choices, so it's not meaningless. Explorer and Finder should be included just for the sake of comparison, even if they're proprietary and come boxed with a particular OS. Also, with how the EU forced MicrosoftWhat will i work with? to release a version of Windows without Windows Media Player, it is possible (albeit unlikely) that Windows will in the future be the host of other file managers, as it is now the host of other media players. Tavris 00:27, 5 August 2005 (UTC)

What about orthodox file managers (see OFM) such as Total Commander? Personally I use Total Commander all the time on my Windows box, and will add the program to this article once I find the time for it.

Yes, most users of any platform just stick with the defaults. But that is sad and bad! Other file managers have many potential advantages to offer. Read about OFMs to find out more.69.87.200.120 19:48, 12 May 2006 (UTC)

I don't think platform has anything to do with use of alternate file managers. If you have a quick google session, I think you'll be amazed by the number of alternate filemanagers (both pay, and free) which are available for Windows and even OS X. This is deffinitely a useful article, although I have to think it would be more useful if it were broken up by OS with special mention given to cross-platform file managers. Most users are going to be looking for a comparison of file managers for their particular platform. --Jaykul 15:14, 16 October 2006 (UTC)

Manager Views

Windows Explorer is listed as a "no column view" right now, but I'm unsure what that layout mode even means. Windows Explorer definitely natively supports a column view of the kind of the output of *nix 'ls' or MS-DOS 'dir' commands anyway, and it also supports columns of icons, if that's what's spoken of. -- Jugalator 08:14, August 2, 2005 (UTC)

Can someone please explain "list view", "column view" and "groups"? -- Peter 13:01, 12 January 2006 (UTC)

List view is all of the files displayed in some sort of list. Column view is when different columns are different directories, meaning The first column could be Documents the second School Documents, the third 2004 School Documents etc... Groups are when instead of files just being a list there are groupings. That is, you can group files by kind or size. --Ctachme 20:38, 8 February 2006 (UTC)

Basic features

I dont know about the Gnome or KDE file managers, but compression on Finderis not handled by the file manager, slideshow and printing pictures are not handled by Finder or Explorer, but by external applications. Compressed folders in Explorer are really not part of explorer but an add-in DLL microsoft provides.

Nautilus and Konqueror most likely just use another tool, too. So the category should be fine. ¦ Reisio 00:14, 16 September 2005 (UTC)

Orthodox file managers are not file managers???

This item should be either renamed “Windows Explorer-like file managers” or substantially expanded. Mostly I am concerned with missing OFM file managers--Total Commander, Norton Commander, Midnight Commander, Krusader, there is one for GNOME as well). I have no idea whether there is anything like that for Apple Mac OS X.

This item should be ... substantially expanded.

...then get to work. ¦ Reisio 21:54, 24 September 2005 (UTC)

We should get something straight! Konqueror is NOT a twin panel file manager, nor is a multipanel file manager, since all managers have at least two panels, one tree view and one file view. Twin panel file managers have OBLIGATORY connected file panels usually left-right or top-bottom. Konqueror, Explorer, Nautilus and similar are not OFM's, but TC, Krusader, Tux Commander... are! There are a lot of links clearing this issue! Search the web.

You seem very passionate about this, but the fact is that you can use konqueror as a twin panel OFM file manager. See below.

Not passionate, just don't like mixing the two brands. :) Please take a look at: blogspot under "What's an asymmetric single panel file manager?". I see it very important, that the twin panel and single panel get separated in comparisons and polls. Ideology behind them is totally opposing and each serves their own users and also functionality.

Total Commander

Well, I think that in this comparision someone has ignored well known Total Commander file manager. It could be inserted into this comparision. Hołek ҉ 17:00, 6 October 2005 (UTC)

...um, read the section immediately above this one. ¦ Reisio 19:39, 6 October 2005 (UTC)

ADS Streams

Could we add a comparison to indicate which file managers are capable of manipulating ADS Streams (for security reasons)?

—gorgan_almighty 14:57, 30 November 2005 (UTC)

Go ahead. ¦ Reisio 20:58, 30 November 2005 (UTC)

LOL I would. I know Windows Explorer can't but I'm not sure about the others. It doesn't really apply to Linux file managers. —gorgan_almighty 15:20, 1 December 2005 (UTC)

Actually Windows Explorer has limited stream handling capability. This does not extend to actually manipulate arbitrary streams but meta info like author, keywords, etc. are stored in streams so that I wouldn't say that Explorer does not have any stream handling at all. Joey-das-WBF 18:23, 4 January 2006 (UTC)

Forbidden Characters

Isn't that actually a feature/flaw of the underlying file system and/or shell? As far as I know at least for Windows Explorer this restriction is not inherent to the Explorer itself but rather to the entire Win32 API (if not even the Native API) Joey-das-WBF 18:16, 4 January 2006 (UTC)

Some characters are forbidden cross-platform and some are forbidden in one system and some others are forbidden in another system. Some file managers have support for only one or just a certain number of character sets, some older ones don't support Unicode.

Maybe Unicode support should be added as a feature to be compared.

-Mardus 13:21, 16 November 2007 (UTC)

Cleanup

I removed Forbidden Characters, Slideshows and Print Pictures. The first one seems to me to be a Shell characteristic, the other two seem to me to be always performed by external applications.

Addition

Could someone add in Dired? I'm not familiar with this whole table system. --maru (talk) contribs 23:59, 20 February 2006 (UTC)

Start by adding such to the "List of file managers" article -- that is easy! Then maybe someday someone will feel like doing all the work to add it to the Comparison article. (It is not just the format that is the problem -- it is a great deal of work to track down all the information to fill out the tables.) 69.87.204.177 23:47, 20 June 2006 (UTC)

Explanations

Many of the tables here could really benefit from some explanation of terms. Some specific examples:

• File Features
  1. What does "File preview" mean?
  2. Isn't "rename busy files" a property of the filesystem?
  3. Does "file compression" refer to the ability to browse inside archives, or to transparent filesystem-level compression (NTFS, etc.)? (If it is the former, then the whole column is redundant, since there's a "browse compressed folders" column in the next table.)
• Search Features
  1. What is the difference between "basic" and "all" metadata search?

Suggestion: Set all cells in both colums to ? and define both columns exactly. Then, see which fm is meeting the newly added defintion. Proposed def: "basic metadata" all file metadata, like attributes supported by the file system (hidde, directory, compressed, system,...), upper and lower bound for file size, upper and lower bound for modification date etc. "additional metadata" are file format specific metadata, like PDF/Word/... author/title/keywords/... or MP3 ID3 tags. Whether they are supported by the OS/file system/daemons/services (like desktop search engines) or by the fm itself does not matter, only that one can find information stored in this metadata. Thoughts?

• Extensibility
  1. "File preview" again

Equalpants 09:34, 24 February 2006 (UTC)

"Paste clipboard as file": What does this mean? Having 20 files in clipboard and pasting them? I guess all support this. Or having some file content (eg some piece of picture or text) and then creating a file and directly pasting the cclipboard content into that file?

• Browse Features
  1. Directory Sizes means showing the sizes of multiple directories/folders/subdirectories. Either selected items, or all of them. Ideally, this would be a mode that could be turned on and off. This is one of the biggest lacks of Windows Explorer. NDN and Total Commander offer this feature, but not well, not as a mode that can be turned on. 69.87.193.54 17:37, 22 May 2006 (UTC)

That seems to me a pretty poorly chosen expression to mean that. If that is what is intended, the definition needs to be a footnote beneath the table. I'd bet most people interpret it to mean that there is some useful number in the size column for directories, rather than a blank, or just a label like <dir>, or the literal size of the directory itself (which is consistent, but rarely useful, and confusing as heck to the average user). Nautilus for example, list the number of entries in the directory as the directory's "size". K4dirstat has no less than 4 different size columns, 3 of which apply only to directories, and although it is usually thought of as a special purpose utility, it can be used as a file manager. A lot of people, used to Nautilus and switching to some other file manager, such as Thunar or Pcmanfm, report this missing feature as a bug, so obviously it is a feature people would be interested in comparing. As a matter of fact, that's why I came here, looking for just that. I was excited to find the column heading, and then I noticed all the "yes"s for programs I know don't have that feature so I headed to talk page to point out the mistakes and find the mistake is my assuming that the column heading meant what it seemed so obviously to mean. So maybe there needs to be another column for this. Or another table. Maybe I'll see if I can figure out how to edit a table. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.96.210.230 (talk) 08:26, 17 September 2013 (UTC)

Advertisement

Certain fields are uncommon among other file managers and some of them are not defined:

(Manager views) Details + Thumbs; (File features) File coloring filter, File selection filter, File and folder reports, ACL; (Browse Features) Branch Sizes; (Search features) Boolean (nesting levels), Fuzzy logic

They serve nothing but to make one or two file managers stand out. They should be removed, or at least only append as notes.

+1. And even worse: I have absolutely no idea what "File coloring filter [7]" and "File and folder reports [7]" shall do/mean. At [7] there is no hint. IMHO delete this stuff.

"report" in XYplorer just means configurable file lists. In Servant Salamander, this is called "make file list" (CTRL+M). Any other hints?

I don't agree. If a file manager has a killer feature, that few or none other file manager can offer, this is a valuable information for the Wikipedia reader. It's not the fault of a good file manager if others are less performant or offer fewer features. --boarders paradise (talk) 09:53, 1 December 2016 (UTC)

I agree with you, but this is in direct opposition to TEDickey who states below that unless a majority of the file managers offer the feature, the feature is not encyclopedic. See the proposal below about adding a column to compare the ability to examine a flattened directory structure. Skelliam (talk) 22:15, 25 February 2018 (UTC)

Network protocols

At least in the case of the Finder, all the file systems listed as being supported by the Finder are really supported at the Darwin layer and the "mount by URL" mechanism - the Finder, to a large degree, doesn't know it's dealing with an NFS or SMB or WebDAV or FTP or AFP file system. The Windows Explorer works the same way for SMB and, if you have an NFS client installed, NFS.

Konqueror might do that with userland kioslaves (although, given that Linux and FreeBSD both have NFS and SMB client support at the kernel's VFS layer, one would hope they could browse mounted NFS and SMB servers transparently), and Nautilus might use userland GNOME VFS for that; I can't speak for the other file managers. Guy Harris 06:53, 16 March 2006 (UTC)

Konqueror OFM

Konqueror does support dual panel mode (OFM) mode, and it has for quite some time. There is actually a preset that you can select that emulates the feel of MC. In the "window" menu there are options to split the screen, and an option to show a term emu. In the "settings-loadViewProfile" you can actually select MC mode.

Please take a look at: blogspot under "What's an asymmetric single panel file manager?". We all work together so some conclusion will have to be made. If not othervise, then I propose two different columns one named OFM and other "Two Panels".

Konqueror column view?

Does Konqueror actually support column view? It has something called "multicolumn view," but this appears to be just like "icon view" except oriented horizontally rather than vertically. Theshibboleth 02:01, 13 April 2006 (UTC)

List/Comparison

What's happening with the merge of these two articles? I can't see much point in having both linked on Nautilus file manager and I'd to know what's happening? - Motor (talk) 15:06, 18 April 2006 (UTC)

Do Not Merge

This article should not be merged with the List of file managers or Orthodox file manager article. The List article is simple and inviting for anyone to contribute to. This Comparison article is almost all tables. Very valuable. Very awkward -- very daunting to contribute to. It is also difficult for the reader to get the information they want, because it is spread out in multiple tables, but there seems no help for that. Until there is a WYSIWYG editor readily available for this article, many potential contributors will be scared off. We need to make sure they have other easier places to make some contributions. (All I want to know about is the best opensource multiplatform currently supporting OFM. But that is leading me into many hours of research, trying to update the relevant web of Wikipedia articles.)69.87.200.120 20:02, 12 May 2006 (UTC)

I concur.

The two articles serve a different purpose; linking to each other ought to be enough.

-- Vor0nwe 21:43, 4 June 2006 (UTC)

I concur

It should remain as is. You have "File Manager" --> "List of file manager" --> "Comparison of file managers". These are individual entities. I am all about organizing things and having all of this on one page is too much.

3 to 0 Vote --Rilloyd 04:41, 23 August 2006 (UTC)

I concur

Merging the articles would be inappropriate. Separating large articles into multiple articles is part of the technical writing process. --Goa103 16:55, 2 October 2006 (UTC)

Operating system support table Simplification

The Operating system support table could be reduced to just three columns. The Windows Mobile column could be deleted, and footnotes added for FMs that support this. Linux/BSD/Unix could be one column. If any case arises where "yes" or "no" would not suffice, notes could be added appropriate to that special case. (It may seem like there is no good reason to simplify this table, but the bigger the tables are, the more afraid people will be of contributing. Or adding a column.)69.87.200.120 20:27, 12 May 2006 (UTC)

Really? The item for Tux Commander asserts that it runs on Linux, "BSD", and "Unix", but if I go to the development page on the Tux Commander Web site it appears to indicate that it requires Kylix or, at least, some Pascal compiler - if it requires Kylix, it probably requires Linux binary compatibility in the OS in order to support building it and possibly to support running it. Or would that be a case where there'd be a "only if you have x86 and Linux binary compatibility" footnote? Guy Harris 21:29, 12 May 2006 (UTC)

Extensibility and file system plugins

To what does the "Filesystem support" column in the table in the "Extensibility" section refer? It shouldn't be used to refer to the ability of the OS core to be extended with new file system types, as those aren't file manager plugins, they're general file system plugins that add file system support to all applications, including the file manager - i.e., modules that plug in to the virtual file system layers in Solaris, OS X, Linux, Windows 95/98/Me, Windows NT, etc. aren't file manager plugins.

It should, instead, refer to what I infer are called "shell namespace extensions" in the Windows Explorer. Given that, the answer for the Finder is arguably "no", unless there's a documented and supported mechanism for adding plugins of that sort to the Finder or third parties have figured out how to do it and offer extensions of that sort. In addition, if KIO slaves are considered extensions of that sort, the answer for Konqueror is arguably "yes", although they plug into KIO rather than specifically into Konqueror, so one might argue they're closer to core OS VFS plugins than file manager plugins. Guy Harris 22:00, 22 November 2006 (UTC)

Interesting comments. I was wondering where on this page it summarized a comparable "Shell extension" capability in the other file managers. "Shell Extensions" is the one feature in windows that is so important to me as a software developer as it makes sweet tools like TortiseSVN/GIT/CVS and I have leveraged tons of my own extensions also to make software version control and programming tools more readily available. Its the one feature that is keeping me on Windows and away from MacOSX (although I tried for 12+ years). It sounds like Konquorer is the one of the few engines that has this. Is it possible to consider re-adding a column in the Estensibility section called "Namespace Extensions" maybe? I would be very happy assisting in the reaserching as its something near and dear to me. — Preceding unsigned comment added by TCQ (talk • contribs)

Table Tools Needed

We need good tools for working with large tables. This article is basically one giant table, of dozens of rows and dozens of columns, broken into pieces. Typical readers are interested in comparing a few of those rows and columns. It is currently very awkward to do that. Any programmers out there want to tackle this? 69.87.204.76 14:57, 5 December 2006 (UTC)

Paste clipboard as file?

(Repeating and extending an unanswered question from above) "Paste clipboard as file": What does this mean? Having 20 files in clipboard and pasting them? I guess all support this. Or having some file content (eg some piece of picture or text) and then creating a file and directly pasting the cclipboard content into that file? Who can do this? Windows Explorer e.g. cannot but has a "yes" in that column. Hmmm... --Pollin Fritic 15:38, 16 December 2006 (UTC)

About feature comparison table

Can someone please add a new column "File Thumbnail Inside Floating Tooltip"? At least Dopus has this amazing feature.

Errors and ambiguities

I'm afraid I only have personal experience with Windows Explorer out of all of these, but even just that there seem to be a number of possibe problems:

• Out of all of the file managers, only WE is listed as not having file preview. Since WE does indeed have file preview for images, pdf documents, MS Office documents, and probably much more, I can only assume there is some specific list of filetypes that the file manager must be able to preview to qualify for a 'yes' in the table, which WE fails? If so, could someone produce this list; and preferably put it in a footnote in the article?
• WE is listed as a question mark for ACLs. xplorer², on the other hand, is listed as 'Yes', with the footnote "Via system File Properties dialog, NTFS-only". Since this is absolutely identical to Windows Explorer (with the caveat that the options have to be enabled first in consumer version of Widnows, but this takes only a few seconds), should this not be filled in?
• WE is listed as 'no' to a synchronizer. Explorer Briefcase, anyone? Been part of Windows since 95, I believe.
• What's the difference between a 'Basic metadata search' and an 'All metadata search'? I.e. what metadata is searched in the latter but not in the former? The article on Windows search mentions metadata searching, but doesn't say what if anything is excluded.
• And talking about the article on windows search, it says that it "allows users to add multiple filters to continually refine search results (Such as "File contains the word 'example'")". And yet WE is listed as 'no' to "Refined searches"?
• Often the headings either don't specify exactly what criteria they're using, or else are just ambiguous. For example, what does Fuzzy Logic mean with reference to file managers? The wiki page on Fuzzy logic doesn't help much, and a search for 'fuzzy logic File managers' on Google returns this article in first place. Explanatory footnotes would be helpful.

Sorry if this list seems somewhat Microsoft-centric; WE is just the only one I have any experience with, aside from a little time using Nautilus in Ubuntu. I'll correct some of these now, but others (e.g. basic vs all metadata searching) I'll leave to someone who knows more about that particular area. Thanks! -- Simxp 20:16, 2 June 2007 (UTC)

With regards to fuzzy logic, I share your feelings. The term should be explained in the context of file managers. --boarders paradise (talk) 09:56, 1 December 2016 (UTC)

emacs

can someone add emacs? http://xahlee.org/emacs/file_management.html Xah Lee 12:25, 14 August 2007 (UTC)

question: Isn't it Dired rather than Emacs? Because I have the uncanny feeling that it is Dired which provides the file managing capability of Emacs... Bert Racoon | Life is not a dream, it's a nightmare 13:26, 16 August 2007 (UTC)

Power File

Power File by Canyon Software is also a great file manager for Windows. It has a built in Zip function as well as viewer. Dickhi 23:39, 20 September 2007 (UTC)

If it has received significant coverage in reliable sources that are independent of the subject, and so passes Wikipedia:Notability; write an article for it. Once it has an article, then someone will integrate it into the comparison table. -- simxp (talk) 15:05, 21 September 2007 (UTC)

Added DOS Shell

Please fill in its features.--Dojarca 00:32, 12 November 2007 (UTC)

To add

OpenGEM, Seal, Cube, Norton Desktop for DOS, Norton Desktop for Windows, CDE.--Dojarca 00:37, 12 November 2007 (UTC)

"Manager views" and "File feature" examples gallery

I think the gallery should consist of free screenshots (those made of free software), as modern free software file managers are able to do what screenshots of non-free software currently depict there. -Mardus 13:26, 16 November 2007 (UTC)

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FAR Manager reported as freeware and open source

are you sure? anyway it's article says it's closed source shareware, and as far as i know that is it. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 213.140.2.6 (talk) 09:59, 28 May 2008 (UTC)

The upcoming Unicode-enabled version, 1.8, has been made open-source under the revised BSD license. The article has been already updated to reflect that. --Vladimir (talk) 03:38, 8 August 2008 (UTC)

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Dolphin is available for Windows

The cross computability table shows that Dolphin is only available on Unix systems, but I'm running it quite happily here at work on Windows XP using the KDE for Windows project. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Dsmith1974@googlemail.com (talk • contribs) 09:59, 29 January 2009 (UTC)

please note that Dolphin should be dis-ambiguated with respect to the Gamecube/Wii emulator of the same name

— vulcan_ (talk · contribs) 09:33, 10 July 2013 (UTC)

PCManFM?

Shouldn't PCMan File Manager be included, as the default file manager for LXDE? 86.136.248.127 (talk) 23:48, 29 June 2009 (UTC)

Done. In all tables, but i didn't fill in all the cells. Have at it. --Jerome Potts (talk) 00:30, 4 April 2010 (UTC)

Mac OS X

File manager	DOS	Windows	Mac OS X	Linux	BSD	Unix	AmigaOS	OS/2 & eCS	OpenVMS
PCManFM	No	Needs POSIX-compliant platform	Needs POSIX-compliant platform	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Needs POSIX-compliant platform	Yes

Mac OS X is POSIX compliant. [1]

5.172.255.173 (talk) 20:36, 11 December 2016 (UTC)

Ability of use file magic in comparation?

I think this feature is important, especially on *nix systems, where the file extensions is "optional". —Preceding unsigned comment added by Eprst Lalaikin (talk • contribs) 22:39, 9 December 2009 (UTC)

Not existing find-as-you-type of Konqueror

Table Browsing features claim that Konqueror has functionality Find-as-you-type (Type-ahead find). I have checked it ( you need to press / and next type) and it does not work. It only works in web browser mode of Konqueror. That is completely different part of Konqueror not related to File Browser. If somebody else have different information please provide link. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Omdiv (talk • contribs) 09:28, 1 March 2010 (UTC)

Keyboard control

I think one of the important features is full keyboard control. Some file managers support it (like FAR manager) and some don't or do in a very inconvenient way (like Windows Explorer). It should be reflected in one of the comparison tables. Podlec (talk) 15:44, 21 May 2010 (UTC)

Undo

Looking for a Windows Explorer replacement, I found several that had all the features I needed, but no UNDO. I think this essential feature deserves a column in one of the tables...

Some file managers without UNDO:

   - CubicExplorer
   - FreeCommander
   - UltraExplorer
   - MuCommander

—Preceding unsigned comment added by 173.177.165.4 (talk) 19:23, 18 December 2010 (UTC)

WInNc

I cannot find WinNc in the comparison list. I made a small wiki on it on [Winnc]. WinNc is active since 1995 and is still alive. Could this be added? Ramon Speets (talk) 19:26, 22 June 2011 (UTC)

WinNc article has failed to meet Wikipedia:Notability requirements. That's why. Fleet Command (talk) 20:01, 22 June 2011 (UTC)

Included file managers not consistent between tables

GNOME Commander is missing from the Search features & Extensibility tables. Thunar is missing from those two, & also Network protocols & File features. That's just a couple of examples. Are there differing unstated criteria for inclusion in each table, or have the tables evolved that way through ad-hoc additions? HuwG 203.208.87.51 (talk) 07:13, 12 October 2011 (UTC)

Column suggestion: Drag and drop behaviour ?

Might suggest including a column titled "Drag and drop behaviour" or abbreviation thereof. Options being Copy, Move, Selectable, or Idiosyncratic. (Windows Explorer is Idiosyncratic if you use leftmouse, Selectable if you use rightmouse)

A lot of work to compile this info, I know, but very useful when selecting a filemanager on basis of useability. --Anteaus (talk) 19:58, 10 September 2012 (UTC)

Long name support

Perhaps it isn't important to most, but I switched to XYplorer because of the program's ability to move files that the normal filemanager that comes with Windows isn't capable of moving due to long name support (or lack thereof -- in the case of Win32 systems.)

Is this known as something else and I just missed it in the charts, or is it just a "function oversight"? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 96.231.59.48 (talk) 04:47, 7 February 2013 (UTC)

Conventions for naming and date stamps

Why are there various parts of this page that are absolutely horrid to use? Because the editor(s) Have not felt the need to use the same date format or naming convention throughout the entire page.

This page needs some serious work. I'm not going to do it and have all my work be removed because I stepped on someone's toes. I also don't know much about file managers - this is why I was *trying* to read this wiki article.

Honestly, I think there should just be a new article - Comparison of Modern File Managers, things that have been updated, used and are quality products from the last 10 or so years. Yes, *Commander is a nice, nifty non-graphical file manager, but when I'm shopping for a replacement for Windows 8's craptastic Explorer, I want something that's an honest replacement, not something I would use on an IBM Peanut. ~AeSix 71.100.236.237 (talk) 08:06, 5 June 2013 (UTC)

Incomplete entries should be tolerated ... for a while

I have just added rows in Table 1 for Xfolder and DCommander (Mac OS X apps) but do not have time at the moment to update the rest of the tables. I will get back in here to update the rest of the tables soon so please no one undo my edits

thanks

— vulcan_ (talk · contribs) 09:21, 10 July 2013 (UTC)

Freecommander

This filer manager doesn't seem to have been included. --109.189.231.146 (talk) 12:47, 4 December 2013 (UTC)

Double commander

Please add double commander, here is the link: http://doublecmd.sourceforge.net It follows Total Commander only this is an open source port for windows/linux/mac os, quite stable and usable. --79.113.75.29 (talk) 23:31, 26 January 2014 (UTC)

See [2] - was deleted (not notable) TEDickey (talk) 00:16, 27 January 2014 (UTC)

MyCommander

I think you can add MyCommander to the list. I don`t know if any commnader can beat it compared to its size and features... http://myco.yonan.ro/ — Preceding unsigned comment added by 85.9.8.147 (talk) 09:54, 23 December 2014 (UTC)

Flatten directory structure

ZTree is the only file manager (that I am aware of) that supports viewing and manipulating files in an entire directory branch as a flat list of files. This is an extremely powerful feature that, once you understand it, is difficult to live without. Some simple tasks that ZTree makes ridiculously easy with this concept:

• Show me all Excel files in a filesystem directory branch that were modified in the last three days
• Copy all .txt files in this filesystem branch to a new destination and keep their relative locations intact
• Zip all *.c and *.h files in this entire filesystem branch and keep relative location intact
• Search only *.c files in an entire filesystem branch for a specific string and tag the files where that string was found. Now with only the set of files where the string was found (doesn't matter in which directories they live), I want to search for another string.

I think it might be useful to add another column to represent this feature. If there are others out there that can do this, especially for Linux, I want to know what they are. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Skelliam (talk • contribs) 14:37, 4 April 2015 (UTC)

If the feature isn't used by a sizable fraction of the total, then it's not encyclopedic. TEDickey (talk) 17:52, 4 April 2015 (UTC)

I disagree that a feature needs to be implemented by a sizable fraction of the total to be encyclopedic. Citation? I found out that Double Commander offers this, and Beyond Compare offers something like this as well. See a view in direct opposition to your statement above under Advertisement, where it is discussed whether to remove columns that describe esoteric features. The columns are still there. Skelliam (talk) 22:15, 25 February 2018 (UTC)

Commander one - New Dual Pane File Manager for Mac

Hi! Please let me know if it is possible to add information regarding new App - Commander One to this page? You can find more information regarding this app in Eltima's Press Kit here http://mac.eltima.com/press/file-manager-press.pdf

Please inform me what should I do to add this information.

Thanks!DashaG11 (talk) 11:58, 7 September 2015 (UTC)

Start by creating a topic for the program, using independent, verifiable reliable sources which demonstrate its notability. A useful comparison would not use any information which cannot easily be found in the sources used for the topic. TEDickey (talk) 13:18, 7 September 2015 (UTC)

Commander One

I added topic, like you said.

Here it is https://en.wiki.x.io/wiki/Commander_One

What's next?DashaG11 (talk) 14:29, 17 September 2015 (UTC)

File Managers that are "Part of Windows"

It is confusing that Microsoft's File Manager (MFM) & Windows Explorer (W.E., now called File Explorer (F.E.)) both say that they are "Part of Windows" in the Cost column of the General Information table. Those 2 F.M.s aren't available together in any version of Win. & only W.E./F.E. is available in the current version of Win. I suggest the 1st & last version (instead of dates since each version have multiple release dates) of Win. that included MFM (3.0? - NT 3.51?) & W.E./F.E. (Win. 95?-10) be added as a suffix to the respective Cost fields for those 2 F.M.s. 104.178.189.70 (talk) 19:13, 17 April 2016 (UTC)

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Add Explorer++?

Could somebody more knowledgeable add Explorer++? That article even links to this comparison page, but itself isn't included in the comparison. If nobody else wants to, I'll see if I can get around to it soon. Leostaley (talk) 04:32, 14 January 2017 (UTC)

Missing [ FreeCommander XE ] File Manager

Although almost complete the [ Comparison of file managers ] list still misses another Free Alternative for the Windows operating system with an extensive set of features, similar to TotalCommander, being fully Portable and Completely Free.

[ FreeCommander XE ] is Officially available from [ http://freecommander.com/en/summary/ ]

briefly Described at the Wiki page [ http://freewareonline.altervista.org/wiki/index.php/FreeCommander ]

and in More Detail at its Help page [ http://www.freecommander.com/fchelpxe/en/FreeCommander.html ]

In my point of view its a Strong and Potential candidate to be effectively [ Included ] in the actual [ Comparison of file managers ] Main Article list, since it has plenty of features, is a stable and Long Term well established project, and most of all, Completely Free.

Android

There is no mention here of file managers for Android, but several exist. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.114.146.117 (talk) 15:41, 15 July 2017 (UTC)

FreeCommander

I've been using FreeCommander for a few years now. I've added information about it to a couple of tables so far, but there is still plenty of information about it I still need to add to describe it. I'm actually surprised it wasn't listed. --Bushido Hacks (talk) 03:22, 12 November 2017 (UTC)

Midnight Commander not DOS-compatible

So far as I can determine, Midnight Commander is not available for DOS, as shown in the table. Not sure why DOS support is listed. Has a DOS version existed in the past? 67.169.136.253 (talk) 21:30, 2 April 2020 (UTC)

References

Discontinued or no longer in active development

Because some File Managers in the article are discontinued or no longer in active development, it would be very helpful to easily know which ones. One way to identify them would be to change the background color of their names in the tables. They shouldn't automatically be deleted because they may still be in use & are useful for comparison to newer FMs.

Comparison of email clients has "Clients listed on a light purple background are no longer in active development.".

Comparison of web browsers has "Browsers listed on a light purple background are discontinued.".--2600:1700:B6F0:A200:3181:DDF7:A730:F0DD (talk) 05:37, 19 February 2019 (UTC)

Documents by Readdle

This is apparently a non-notable product. Some investigation of this found only advertisements by its developers. TEDickey (talk) 12:50, 6 October 2019 (UTC)

Double Commander - neither alpha nor beta.

The article suggests that the program is still in the alpha stage, while it is neither alpha nor beta. I have been using the program for years, and early versions did have some issues, but even in 2016 the program was pretty mature. The first release, not marked as beta, was 1.0.7. Currently, I use the version 1.0.8 - every day, very extensively, for serious works and cannot see any problems. The program seems to be extremely mature and stable. The current official stable version is 1.0.9 (as of 2023-01-04) - see here and here. Unfortunately, I do not know how to change it in Wikidata. 85.193.215.210 (talk) 14:54, 4 January 2023 (UTC)

Q-Dir - The Quad Explorer

Very active file manager New in version 11.48 // 27 February 2024 https://www.softwareok.com/?seite=Freeware/Q-Dir/History Ladnerg310 (talk) 22:14, 6 March 2024 (UTC)

Start here: reliable sources and notability. If there is no in-depth topic with reliable third-party sources, it is unlikely to be notable. TEDickey (talk) 23:16, 6 March 2024 (UTC)

- https://www.howtogeek.com/4030/q-dir-multi-pane-file-manager/

- https://www.techradar.com/best/the-best-file-manager

- https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/best-windows-file-explorer-replacements/

- https://www.ghacks.net/2015/04/28/supercharge-q-dir-with-custom-commands-and-administrative-privileges/

Ladnerg310 (talk) 18:22, 7 March 2024 (UTC)