Last Updated on December 24, 2022
13. emelFM2
emelFM2 is an orthodox file manager that implements the popular two-pane design.
It features a simple Gtk interface (GTK2+), a flexible filetyping scheme, and capacity for executing commands without opening a terminal-emulator application. It handles archives and mounted filesystems. Every feature, including user-created functions, can be used through the GUI or with keyboard shortcuts.
This file manager is designed to be small, and as fast as possible. It’s also extensively customizable.
There’s no active development as far as we can establish.
Website: github.com/tom2tom/emelfm2
License: GNU General Public License v3.0
14. Gentoo
Gentoo is a graphical file manager for Unix-like operating systems. It is written completely in the C programming language. All file system access is done through the GIO library.
It’s quite fast, and configured graphically. While the interface looks positively prehistoric, it’s actually quite reasonable in use. Sadly, there’s been no development since 2016.
Website: sourceforge.net/projects/gentoo
License: GNU General Public License v2.0
15. Rox-Filer
Rox-Filer is the file manager at the heart of the ROX desktop. You can use it as a small and fast filer within your current desktop. But it’s very dated, idiosyncratic, and lacking tons of functionality.
This file manager is very hard to recommend, as things are unlikely to change given that development of the desktop environment is snowballed.
Website: rox.sourceforge.net/desktop/ROX-Filer
License: GNU General Public License version 2 or any later version
Next page: Page 6 – Memory consumption
Pages in this article:
Page 1 – PCManFM, Files, Double Commander
Page 2 – GNOME Commander, 4Pane, Sunflower
Page 3 – SpaceFM, Thunar, Polo
Page 4 – Tux Commander, Donatella, Files (Elementary)
Page 5 – emelFM2, Gentoo, Rox-Filer
Page 6 – Memory comparison
Page 7 – Summary
Why no mention of Caja and Nemo?
They are mentioned…
Hi Steve. I think they deserve better than just “(and forks)”.
They do, that’s why they have a special mention in the section in question, not merely (and forks).
In general we don’t think it’s a great idea to fork actively maintained high quality software. It’s much better to contribute to the active project than fork.
I think Files (Nautilus) is awful compared to Caja and Nemo. Files has had many features ripped out.
And maybe in a future article you could cover non-GTK/non-QT window managers including XFE which uses the Fox widget library.
We’ve already covered XFE in File managers article, but there are other good non-GTK/non-QT file managers, so yes, we will.
Hey folks. Thanks for mentioning Sunflower. Development has been stale for a bit due to my personal life and work taking most of my free time. However in the background I’ve been preparing new release for a while now, which will be based on GTK+ 3.20. This release will have better and simpler interface but without removing any of the existing features. It will be much faster and better optimized.
If you need any help in testing your new release let us know. And when it’s ready, we’ll be happy to reevaluate.
my favorites are Thunar and Caja, even they’re not perfect. nowadays I’m more than a terminal based FM guy though, I use Midnight Commander a lot.