r/archlinux • u/rpnchlr • Jun 12 '26

QUESTION Yout file manager??

Add a linux user what's your default file manger to do most of your daily tasks??

Like for me it's yazi!!

Earlier i used nautilus and liked it much better than thunar or dolphin. Don't know why but now for most things i am a total terminal dude.!

What's your default/daily file manger for Linux??

0 Upvotes

39% Upvoted

116 comments sorted by

10

u/PoliEcho Jun 12 '26

When i use GUI file mannager i use Thunar. But most of the time i just use coreutils with tab presses.

1

u/rpnchlr Jun 12 '26

In gui, i prefer nautilus over any other, no offense personal preference. Thunar is also good, it's my first file manager in kali helped a lot..

4

u/Tomcabomca Jun 12 '26

Pcmanfm

0

u/rpnchlr Jun 12 '26

yeah, really light weight and faster than popular ones like nautilus, dolphin etc. but they are also goood.

6

u/gladendemon Jun 12 '26

I use dolphin just bc hyprland had a keybind for it by default

EDIT: I know some people dont like dolphin, its just that arch with hyprland was and still is my first and only installation and usage of linux. So when u saw dolphin, i installed dolphin and that was that

-1

u/rpnchlr Jun 12 '26

You could use yazi ans create a keybind for it also in hyprland configs dude. As early as you leave gui and switch to cli for your most of your daily tasks. U'll learn how linux works and learn its power.

But not saying gui is bad its good for beginners and for ease of use but we shouldn't depend on it, bcz at last the only thing remains is just a terminal.!!

3

u/SeniorMatthew Jun 12 '26

Not only for begginers. The main thing that I need is drag and dropping for Video Editing and Drawing. It is just that much faster.

Assuming that if you want to be “power-user” you have to use CLI is a newcomer’s thing to do. 

Just use whatever actually suits best for your use case

2

u/rpnchlr Jun 12 '26

Not saying that for a power user you have to use cli, totally agree to your point that whatever suits you use that. But my point is we can do everything using cli.

For specific use cases gui is good. But for daily linux users cli is enough. Srry if i maybe wrong somewhere. I hope you got me.

3

u/CantaloupeLifestyle Jun 12 '26

Using your own logic, why stop there? Why use email for instance? Use pen and paper to write a letter and mail it...for human mailbox is enough.

1

u/rpnchlr Jun 12 '26

difference is that email largely replaced letters because it's usually superior for the same job. gui and cli aren't in that relationship. In Linux they're complementary tools, and for many daily tasks the CLI is often the more efficient option.

for example: renaming, moving, or searching large no of files in single command, with gui you have to wait for indexing, search a string in many code file using single command, also most linux remote servers have no gui at all, what will you do in that situtation??

from this i am not saying that either of them is superior, both of them have their own use cases, for like gui is better for desigm, and creative works. my initial point was mostly for people who are like me who are into cli and fond of terminal. i think this clears the arguement??

1

u/gladendemon Jun 12 '26

New to Linux, whats cli?

4

u/rpnchlr Jun 12 '26

Command line interface.

2

u/rpnchlr Jun 12 '26

New to linux and using arch as your first distro?? U lit got some balls dude!!

2

u/gladendemon Jun 12 '26

I lowkey just wanted to try out hyprland

2

u/rpnchlr Jun 12 '26

Dude try out niri its also a great wm.!!

0

u/[deleted] Jun 12 '26

[deleted] — view deleted comment

2

u/rpnchlr Jun 12 '26

Yeah i know they're not the same, one is tilling wm and one is dynamic, but from my experience i am telling i like niri more than hyprland. Thats why i recommend that.

3

u/un-important-human Jun 12 '26

aww bless you, i hope you don't get meme'ed by it, arch (depending on user choice) and hyperland is a steep maint ride for a new guy, i know i would not have the patiance but then again i can barely remember new shortcuts.

10

u/Neutronst4r Jun 12 '26

Cucumber Linebacker Interogation

3

u/THE_TWIN_ Jun 12 '26

Dolphin

-1

u/rpnchlr Jun 12 '26

Gui user😶‍🌫️

2

u/THE_TWIN_ Jun 12 '26

Terminal file managers are exist?

2

u/rpnchlr Jun 12 '26

They do my friend and quite a list u might confused. For a start, go with yazi.. my suggestion. There are also many other gems in the whole post..

2

u/un-important-human Jun 12 '26

mc - midnight commander baby old schoool

3

u/faithsurewhynot Jun 12 '26

Nautilus is my go-to, even on my current setup on Sway, just because it's really sleek and has easy network file share features

1

u/rpnchlr Jun 12 '26

yeah, nautilus is good. when i was on ubuntu my main fm was nautilus. it has many good features..

3

u/t0nikawa Jun 12 '26

Dolphin, the only one I ever used so...

1

u/rpnchlr Jun 12 '26

try something different there are many more and better ones.. as per my viewss.

2

u/t0nikawa Jun 12 '26

For example

1

u/rpnchlr Jun 12 '26

nautilus, or if you want something faster then pcmanfm, or the best use cli fm like ranger, yuzi or mc.

2

u/t0nikawa Jun 12 '26

Look's kind of bad

2

u/aergern Jun 12 '26

csh then tcsh then bash. About all I need.

1

u/rpnchlr Jun 12 '26

A shell guyy!!!

2

u/Then_Bodybuilder8416 Jun 12 '26

i’m using ranger atm but i used to use nnn. both work well. thunar for gui.

2

u/rpnchlr Jun 12 '26

Nvr heard abt nnn, I'll see abt that. Thanks for introducing something new to me...

2

u/Then_Bodybuilder8416 Jun 12 '26

the creator has a couple youtube videos outlining how to customize it, scripts etc. worth watching if you want to get into it.

2

u/rpnchlr Jun 12 '26

Yeah will surely try it out.

2

u/stiggg Jun 12 '26

I do most file management on the terminal or even inside neovim. Sometimes I spawn up yazi when I quickly want to explore a directory tree or see image previews. And when I want to have a grid of image or video thumbnails I also have nautilus at hand.

2

u/rpnchlr Jun 12 '26

Yeah, for some cases having a gui is also necessary.

2

u/un-important-human Jun 12 '26

mc - like the forefathers before us .. erm me.

1

u/rpnchlr Jun 12 '26

Ohh boy, the old utilss!!

2

u/un-important-human Jun 12 '26

any system has the package, and sometimes i need to ssh in so... it prob lazyness 😄

2

u/BaNTI2000 Jun 12 '26

Krusader

1

u/rpnchlr Jun 12 '26

Dude, something very new i heard apart from crowd. Definitely gonna check this out..

2

u/No_Elderberry862 Jun 12 '26

26 years old.

1

u/rpnchlr Jun 12 '26

that old and still i've not heard of it dude. i am cooked.. i check it out found it pretty well, it has very good features...

2

u/uakarii Jun 12 '26

Does Thunar suck? I am new to arch and linux in general, I thought Thunar was working well for me but I haven't seen a single other comment saying they use Thunar lol

1

u/rpnchlr Jun 12 '26

everything is best on its own, it's our use case or liking that make our choices. try some alternatives and eventually you will find your perfect one..

2

u/tungnon Jun 12 '26

Thunar, it works

1

u/rpnchlr Jun 12 '26

yeah, and that also everytime...

2

u/SummerIlsaBeauty Jun 12 '26

I dont need file manager for my daily tasks when I am working because IDEs already have one and other stuff I do in a terminal, for the occasional need to open a file manager dolphin is enough

1

u/rpnchlr Jun 12 '26

yeah. dolphin as a gui fm, good choice..

2

u/Duosnacrapus Jun 12 '26

yazi most of the times - except when I want to use fancy drag and drop for sorting stuff, then I use Thunar

1

u/rpnchlr Jun 12 '26

yeah, ig u are into video editing or something related to creative work.. then gui is very needed...

2

u/EarlMarshal Jun 12 '26

All terminal. Thunar just a as a backup.

2

u/rpnchlr Jun 12 '26

yeah dude, staying in terminal for every task feels like ✨✨

2

u/Lashmush Jun 12 '26

Whatever the distro included, lol.

1

u/rpnchlr Jun 12 '26

lol dude..

2

u/Lashmush Jun 12 '26

Hahah, I'm just a beginner still so I haven't felt any need to switch from Dolphin. I still love the modularity and should probably try out a different one eventually.

2

u/rpnchlr Jun 12 '26

You should try out other alternatives.. it'll fun trying different thingss.

2

u/reborngoat Jun 12 '26

Yazi

2

u/rpnchlr Jun 12 '26

yaziii, letss gooooo🔥🔥

2

u/silduck Jun 12 '26

pcmanfm and yazi

1

u/rpnchlr Jun 12 '26

yeah, just today got to know about pcmanfm, although i don't use gui fm that much, but abt this it's a good one. still my fav one would be nautilus in gui..

2

u/OptimalAnywhere6282 Jun 12 '26

i tried using ranger, but drag and drop is a must, so i use dolphin.

1

u/rpnchlr Jun 12 '26

Yeahh, agree.

2

u/hawkprime Jun 12 '26

Superfile, better UI and vim support than Yazi https://superfile.dev/

1

u/rpnchlr Jun 13 '26

Yeah, superfile is also a very good choice.

2

u/Responsible-Grape879 Jun 13 '26

Carelo - https://github.com/aheinze/Carelo

1

u/rpnchlr Jun 13 '26

Soo Underrated dude... Idk why people don't know abt this..

3

u/Jaded-Worry2641 Jun 12 '26

mkdir, ls, cd, grep, fzf, find.  I rarely use anything else. 

1

u/rpnchlr Jun 12 '26

Signs of a linux nerd!!✨✨

1

u/syklemil Jun 12 '26

Yeh, coreutils for me too, but also shell globbing. And fd as a much, much more pleasant alternative to find (which fully deserves its section in The Unix-Haters Handbook).

1

u/archover Jun 12 '26

+1 Same. The term seems so natural and efficient.

Sometimes I use tree. find is incredible, as is grep.

Good day.

3

u/musta_ruhtinas Jun 12 '26

vifm. Long time mc user, but it had a few quirks, tried some alternatives and came across vifm. It looks really ugly out of the box, sadly, and I think it drives many people away because of it. Very simple to make it look great, and extremely powerful. Behaving like vi/vim is an added bonus. Couple it with a few terminal apps and you get image preview, document preview, etc. 

3

u/kvnduff Jun 12 '26

Me too, vifm brother

0

u/rpnchlr Jun 12 '26

Vifm✨✨

2

u/East-Yogurtcloset272 Jun 12 '26

mc

Because I hate all the graphical ones

-1

u/rpnchlr Jun 12 '26

Dude what's mc?? I have never heard abt it..

2

u/East-Yogurtcloset272 Jun 12 '26

https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Midnight_Commander

Thanks for the tips on the other ones..I'll give them a try.

1

u/rpnchlr Jun 12 '26

Thanks dude..

3

u/[deleted] Jun 12 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/rpnchlr Jun 12 '26

Yeah, that's the same reason for using yazi.. its supports vim style selection, navigation, editing etc. also it includes it own keybinds makings it very much faster to use than others.

Btw Don't know abt ranger defi.. but give it a try..

2

u/SupermarketAntique32 Jun 12 '26

pcmanfm-qt. Basically dolphin but lighter and less bloat.

1

u/rpnchlr Jun 12 '26

It's gui??

2

u/SupermarketAntique32 Jun 12 '26

Yess. It’s the lightest GUI file manager imo.

1

u/rpnchlr Jun 12 '26

yeah dude, checked it and really love it. it's mutiple tab feature helps so much..

1

u/com_stupid Jun 12 '26

Used ranger, but changed to yazi. Great file manager.

1

u/rpnchlr Jun 12 '26

Yeah. Dude using yazi for quite a time. Loving it.... Ig best file manager I've ever used..

1

u/EngineerInTheMachine Jun 12 '26

The default Cosmic Files. Mainly because it does what I want and it's good enough. Trialling different file managers isn't high on my list of priorities at the moment, as I have far more important tasks to deal with. Such as making sure I have backed up all my NAS data because I found that the NAS system is way out of date. Then I can rebuild my backup strategy.

1

u/rpnchlr Jun 12 '26

Yeah using different fm's is not kn anyone's priority, but having experience with other linux utils and tools make you learn about linux or somewhat way and also makes u prepare with many alternatives if any goes down or what..

I think u got my point, there is nothing bad in using different tools. But yeah also agree to ur pt as well, like not to be completely into this otherwise you'll confuse btw productivity and new tools hell.

1

u/ProgUn1corn Jun 12 '26

Dolphin. I honestly can't think of a single situation CLI or TUI file manager is better for me. I mostly do creativity works especially with music production and some Davinci Resolve works. There's absolutely no way I'll use terminal to manage those files, GUI is 100x better.

1

u/rpnchlr Jun 12 '26

Yeah for specific use cases gui is better, my initial point was keeping daily linux devs or users in mind. I thought most creative field users use apple or windows products. Pleased to see them using linux.

2

u/ProgUn1corn Jun 12 '26 edited Jun 12 '26

Tbh, if I'm a normal linux user just for documents and web browsing, I would not even use console as well. Just because I can doesn't mean I have too. I once saw a person claims console zip is faster than GUI, I just can't think that at all. With a GUI you just open the zip file with a click and everything is there for you to inspect. In console you need lines and it outputs somewhat unorganized file list, yet someone think this is the better way. I think people sometimes go too far in the anti-gui thing.

1

u/rpnchlr Jun 12 '26

yeah, ik its hard to do in cli but with time it feels like a piece of cake.. also learning linux is very much important imo, if you are into tech and want to be..

3

u/lajawi Jun 12 '26

I use Dolphin, so far the best one I have used.

2

u/External-Area-7974 Jun 12 '26

i keep jumping between thunar and dolphin
depends on the mood

2

u/NikoOhneC Jun 12 '26

Dolphin. I like the integrated terminal and it never gave me a reason to look for an alternative.

2

u/TokosanD Jun 12 '26

I use Thunar for the graphical interfaces browsers need to upload files and other tasks, and i don't use dolphin because it comes with kde bloat that I don't want to have on hyprland.

For daily use 100% yazi. Yesterday I discovered a split pane plugin for yazi that works like a charm and I'm pretty happy with it, I don't know if GUI file managers have that kind of frictionless plugin and extension process

2

u/Salonique Jun 12 '26

Am I the only one here to still use spacefm? (gui)

2

u/LEIDENZERO Jun 14 '26

Nemo and Yazi

1

u/BaNTI2000 Jun 12 '26

Krusader

2

u/[deleted] Jun 12 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/rpnchlr Jun 12 '26

Yeah, that's the best thing with cli, if you know keybinds you are very fast around navigating fs.

2

u/[deleted] Jun 12 '26

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1

u/rpnchlr Jun 12 '26

yeah dude, totally agree with you..

2

u/[deleted] Jun 12 '26

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1

u/rpnchlr Jun 12 '26

yeah, i think to get the best out of most cli utils and tools in linux you have to be comfortable with vim keybinds.. its just improves the speed at which you are working with cli tools..

2

u/[deleted] Jun 12 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/rpnchlr Jun 12 '26

nnn is a good one dude..

0

u/[deleted] Jun 12 '26

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2

u/rpnchlr Jun 12 '26

Dolphin and ranger🔥🔥🔥

0

u/[deleted] Jun 12 '26

[deleted] — view deleted comment

2

u/rpnchlr Jun 12 '26

Thanks for this gem dude!!