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Total Commander

ghisler.com

107 pointsossusermivami107 comments

I've done things that people thought were magic. It was TC. There are about twenty similar programs, all descended from the Norton Commander. Any one of them is enormously better than the file managers that come with most OSs, especially windows. Ive read estimates that say you're about four times as productive if you use on, and I think that may be very conservative. There are a lot of things you can't do without one. A friend worked at a place where management disabled the search function in windows, probably because people were getting stuff done. I set him up with TC, which has its own search. The IT lead at one place I worked said, "I don't like that program. it makes things easier than they should be." TC is the best of its kind. It's so good I paid for it. (I've had twenty years of free upgrades.)

I remember once I needed to rename a bunch of files to a template similar to NewName_001, upwards of 100. TC lets you just set a name pattern and follows it, which meant I did it in about 10 seconds. My colleague took 10 minutes and a lot of groaning about "why isn't there a better way?".

(This is just to help macOS Finder users, not to say, "Well, Finder can do it too!!)

You can select multiple files in Finder > Right-click on one of them > Rename. That'll bring up a modal with some bulk-rename options, including a name pattern. It's not intuitive, but was really cool when I found it for the first time!

That's awesome! I use a Mac-based software similar to TC (after years of using TC on Windows), and always use it for bulk renaming. I had no idea I could do the same with Finder, I'll definitely take advantage of that in the future!

That works similar in Windows Explorer

I've been looking for a Linux alternative ever since I mostly switched away from Windows a few years ago, and so far this one is the best FOSS alternative I found: https://doublecmd.sourceforge.io/ - it's even written in Pascal, same as TC.

For GNU/Linux, you have Midnight Commander

https://github.com/MidnightCommander/mc.git

MC is great for the terminal, but I'm more of a GUI guy - Total Commander has introduced some improvements over the original Norton Commander (e.g. showing file icons, right-click context menus etc.) which I don't want to miss anymore...

I've used norton since 1993 IIRC, the 2-pane model is properly baked in my mind. Now with tabs, it is magical. At least to literally all colleagues I've shown it. Lightweight, performant, stable.

Sftp client, great recursive file content search including archives, file comparison, editing files directly in archives, plugins etc.

The thing is, everybody is wow at efficiency boost but almost nobody picks it up afterwards, they go back to slow basic clunky multiple windows. When I see how slow they are (easily 10-20x, more complex stuff they have to use other programs ot cant do at all), even my otherwise calm manners become... less calm.

I've tried gui variants on linux when I was toying with ubuntu few years ago, unstable, slow, basic. I hope its better now.

>Any one of them is enormously better than the file managers that come with most OSs, especially windows.

I duuno mate, I find the MacOS but especially the default Gnome file manager to be much more limited than the latest Windows Explorer in functionality. Gnome Files is a joke really, feels more like something on a mobile device.

The thing is, file managers that come with mainstream OSs are not designed to appease power users, as they will install their own personal favorite one anyway, but to make life easy for the average joe who doesn't know much about computers, files, extensions, etc. That's why they're so simplistic out of the box.

Something like TC, would be really confusing for the user who just wants to view the best photos in the download folder and drag and drop them to the Gmail in Chrome.

Trying to appease power users is an exercise in futility anyway, no matter what you do, someone will cry that his favorite and most used feature is still missing, so most SW companies don't even bother anymore with the tiny power-user market share if they also aren't paying customers. TC is one of the few exceptions that survived by including everything and the kitchen sink.

HN users should learn to detach themselves form the power-user mentality and empathize with the average joe who isn't tech savvy and has no interest in becoming tech savvy as they have other hobbies than learning how their computer works under the hood and becoming 40% more efficient with their file-management-fu.

> A friend worked at a place where management disabled the search function in windows, probably because people were getting stuff done.

> I don't like that program. it makes things easier than they should be.

Why are they trying to make things difficult for people?

Infantilization and job security

"...disabled the search function in windows ... Why are they trying to make things difficult for people?"

If you do embedded system development it is best to turn Windows Search off.

Windows Search will write index files to devices that are not expecting to have such files written to them, which often bricks the devices. Old Freescale/NXP boards are particularly prone to this, until their bootloaders are updated, which can only be done on a Windows-7 machine.

Oddly if you do turn Windows Search off via registry key, then the Microsoft Store stops working correctly. I've never found that behavior documented anywhere.

When U moved to Czechia in 2014, I was amazed to find everyone used this app. In my 2nd job, the company had a site licence and it was preinstalled on all PCs.

I'd not used or seen a 2-pane file manager since about 1993 and I never missed them.

It's ubiquitous in central Europe and most people sneer at OS file managers. I was amazed and baffled.

I am perfectly capable of using them and occasionally did in the late 1980s, but I don't normally use them and have no need. My Czech friends and colleagues are as amazed and baffled as I am by them.

I easily do this stuff in the Windows Explorer or Mac Finder, but mostly I work on Linux in Nemo. I can do all this stuff and sometimes I have shown people how and they are amazed that I can do stuff that they think impossible.

My overall conclusion is that a lot of FOSS development is driven by people who don't know how to properly use the tools that the OS came with.

I keep hearing about "editing at the speed of thought" in Vim and so on. Users have to learn the keystrokes because that's the primary UI. Result, when you know it, it's fast.

Well, newsflash. Windows 3 had keystrokes for everything and by Win95 it was very customisable and extensible as well. If you learn to use the keyboard, the entire OS and all apps work as fast as Vim.

When I see the many Windows-like desktops for Linux that can't do a vertical taskbar properly (MATE, LXQt, Cinnamon, Enlightenment) then I know they were cloned from Windows by someone who didn't know how to use Windows.

When I see a hamburger menu on a computer with a keyboard, I know that that developer didn't know how to use a GUI properly.

When I see CSD window decorations, I know that that developer didn't know how to use a windowing GUI properly.

This is a little bit like saying that people wearing different types of trousers do so because they can't all wear the same identical type due to lack of knowledge on how to wear them.

People have varying tastes and use cases. To me eveyrthing you described as "proper" in windows looks the way you described linux - done by someone who doesn't know how to properly build an OS ui. I don't understand why someone would even want to use windows explorer with a keyboard.

But the beauty of life is that we are free to like whatever we like, and there's nothing wrong with that.

I am a bit baffled by the general comment as a whole, TBH.

I mean, as an obvious canonical example, there is an extremely common frequent example of wearing clothes wrongly that is so obvious you actively invite the comparison.

Baseball caps.

Caps have a reason for existing: the visor is to shade your eyes. That's its purpose.

For reasons, it became trendy for kids to wear them backwards, and now the majority are worn backwards. It makes them futile for the original purpose but that's fashion for you.

(Arguably it was Michael Jordan: https://hatheaven.com/blogs/news/the-beginning-of-wearing-ca... )

The bigger pictures here are two fold.

> I don't understand why someone would even want to use windows explorer with a keyboard.

I carefully spelled it out. Because it's faster.

But you expose a more general point: not everyone has your choices. Windows is the mainstream. It set the standards.

Most people use it. More people use it than Macs and Linux put together.

And some people are disabled. Lots of people can't see. If you can't see you can't use a pointing device, so you have to use a keyboard.

Commercial companies making commercial OSes have to make them accessible to people with disabilities as a matter of law.

So, they do.

So, the commercial OSes have lots of keyboard controls and other disability assistive measures, and they are open to everyone and if you learn them you can work your computer faster.

That is good and it's free and it's for your own benefit.

If there is something that makes life easier and faster and it's free then if you choose not to use it, you are a fool. But not everyone knows stuff. Some people don't know. That's OK.

But if you set out to copy something, learn what you are copying first!

Free OSes are not under any such pressures and do not have to conform to the laws because they are not being sold.

But the standards are still there.

There is a standard for PC UIs. It's called CUA. Everyone should know some of it because it makes life faster and easier and knowing stuff is free.

Unix folks historically ignore it because it's cool to hate on Windows and proprietary stuff. So they adopt obsolete junk like Emacs keystrokes or Vi keystrokes, not knowing that there are better, more standardised versions used by billions of people. Then they reinvent the standards, because they don't know them. And they do it badly because it's a dozen hackers in their spare time, not a billion dollar corporation complying with 1000 laws in 100 countries and working stuff out.

And then there's a crappy amateur version built by people who bodged together their own amateur copy of a pro tool and they are proud of it because they made it.

And some old a$$h0le (that, for clarity, is me here) comes along and says, hey, this isn't much good, and here is this better thing that, y'know, a few billion people have been using for 30 years now.

And I look like the bad person because I know something and point out that a bad reimplementation by ignorant folks isn't as good.

If I said "hey, if you turn your cap around, it'll shade your eyes" that doesn't make me a bad person. It may make me less cool but if I don't get dazzled I am OK with that.

(I do not wear baseball caps outside the house, because I am old. But I do wear hats, and I wear them to keep my hair dry and keep my glasses dry, and for that, the same principles apply.)

Saying "hey grandad we all wear our caps backwards and shade our eyes and if you don't you are less cool" is fine. Silly but fine. I don't care much about cool and I have my own standards for it.

But saying "hey grandad we all wear our caps backwards and shade our eyes and if you don't you are stupid" is not fine, because there is a reason for wearing them forwards, and if you don't know that reason it's your problem not my problem, and me pointing out that cap bill forwards is useful because it shades your eyes doesn't make me a bad person.

This is an extended metaphor for me saying "there is a standard for keyboard shortcuts and your life will be improved if you know it".

Bill forward blocks some peripheral vision and sometimes get in my way.

Bill backwards hides my lack of a haircut, keeps my bald spot from getting sunburned, stays completely out of vision, keeps swear from dropping into my eyes, and with bill down along the back of my neck doesn’t take up any additional space.

Then when I need to block the sun glare I have the heat available on my head and can just spin it around.

> It makes them futile for the original purpose but that's fashion for you.

No, you just turn it around when you need to activate that function.

Total commander isn’t FOSS.

Ironically windows 11 can’t do vertical taskbars.

And where in windows can you change the system shortcuts?

> Total commander isn’t FOSS.

I'm aware of that. There are lots of FOSS equivalents, though. Including, I believe, on Windows. Wikipedia lists 23 of which I think -- haven't checked -- the majority are FOSS.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_manager#Orthodox_file_man...

> Ironically windows 11 can’t do vertical taskbars.

True. Easily fixed with Explorer Patcher, though. Which, ironically, is FOSS.

> And where in windows can you change the system shortcuts?

I don't use it much any more and stopped early this century, so my knowledge here may be out of date.

When I do, I use SharpKeys to put a GUI on editing the relevant registry keys for keyboard remapping.

https://github.com/randyrants/sharpkeys

In the NT 3.x era, it was the properties of every EXE's PIF file. So I set Crtl+Alt+(initial) to open my most used apps. Ctrl+Alt+D for DOS, E for Excel, W for Word, etc.

This still works with limitations under Win9x through to XP, which is when I jumped off the Windows ship.

But mostly it's about learning the many many built-ins.

Some of us are forced to use Windows in a corporate environment where your exaple programs to "fix" the wonderful OS are forbidden by IT policy.

Windows Explorer keybindings are _nothing_ like a proper tiling window manager, like XMonad.

There was (is?) a program that brought some of this to Windows. Can't remember it, but I remember it being a downgrade of sorts.

For all the MacOS dual pane file-manager fans: I tried them all and only recently discovered Marta (https://marta.sh/) which is now my favourite file manager!

Thanks wil give it a try

There is also QSpace btw... it's pretty solid

Indeed, its ability to do simple navigation with single alpha homerow keys is alone almost worth all the missing functionality (and then there are also programmable extensions)

Unfortunately its pace of development is very slow :(

Thanks for this. Been looking for a simple key-driven replacement for the Finder that I can keep open.

Tweaked a few of the options for fonts and opening terminals and things and it's great (and fast as well).

What about Nimble Commander (https://magnumbytes.com)? I’ve been using it for years and it’s great. Did you try it and if so, how does it compare to Marta?

Yes, Nimble Commander is wonderful. The developer took a lot of care and created a powerful and very fast tool. As a long time user of Total Commander on Windows I'd be crying sad tears if I had to limit myself to the basics that Finder provides on macOS.

Wow, just tried this out. Seems great.

The filter files, just by typing in a few characters. Nice.

Yeah! And it has support for SFTP, SMB, etc. The real-time filtering is awesome.

Yes! Came here to say this. I looked for years for a suitable TC replacement on Mac before I found Nimble Commander, which is just awesome.

I made a dual tab file manager 10 years ago for mac (https://github.com/neoneye/newton-commander). It's written in Objective C.

Unlike other dual tab file managers, it use the spacebar for quicklook which I find more handy. In order to select files, use shift arrowup/arrowdown.

Very useful, I bought it years ago and used it on Windows. I've been using only Linux for about 10 years now, but I'd like to use Total Commander on Linux.

Double Commander is open source, cross-platform and written with Lazarus / FPC : https://doublecmd.sourceforge.io/

But ... I am not able not to use Midnight Commander ...

Try Krusader!

Thanks for the suggestion, but I am on Linux Mint with Cinnamon (and evaluating to move to Debian testing with Gnome or XFCE when the Wayland support will be available). Installing Krusader would fill my GTK based system with KDE dependencies ... I'm not sure it is a good idea. It looks very well done in any case !

FWIW, the KDE support apps are excellent and disk space is cheap; although I am a KDE user whenever I am on a non-KDE system I invariably end up installing a bunch of them shortly. The dependencies just sit on your disk not doing anything when they're not used, it's not worth having apprehension over installing them unless you are extremely short on disk space or something.

You do yourself a disservice by avoiding them.

Just installed, many thanks for the suggestion !

I switched to Ubuntu recently and have tried to find an alternative to Konsole ever since (I heavily used the unlimited scrollback together with the search function, which is a feature most terminal emulators lack), and finally settled on WezTerm, which is pretty good, but still has some rough edges. Maybe I should just install Konsole?

MC has the bonus of retaining the original Norton Commander vibe for console fans, but I personally prefer Double Commander, which is a GUI app and feels more familiar because I went the Norton Commander (DOS) -> Total Commander (Windows) -> Double Commander (Linux) route. BTW, there was a Norton Commander for Windows too (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norton_Commander#Norton_Comman...), but it never gained much traction...

What I always miss with these alternatives compared to TC is that they don't work like a terminal when typing. For instance in TC when I type 'cd ..' it navigates one directory up in the focused panel. While in Double Commander it starts to search for 'cd ..'. I don't want to click on the bottom text bar each time I want to execute a command. Maybe this can be configured but I cannot find the right setting.

Let's not forget you can also type cd ftp://user@host/path in mc and it will connect :)

I've tried several TC GUI clones for Linux and Mac and every single one i've tried missed the terminal function, so I still use MC.

If anyone can point me to a GUI one that works like mc...

Tried Double Commander several times, GTK and QT versions, and while it is almost exact copy of TC, it seemed somehow "off", and I never could use it properly.

I tried many commander-style file managers on many OSes. Some of them deliberately imitating Total Commander. But none of them really feels like the original. Some even look better and can be more powerful in some aspects yet I don't really feel that comfortable using them. Many are tolerable though.

In my oppinion Total Commander is the number-one best and most useful computer program ever made and the best UX. And yes, despite spending years using Norton Commander when I was a child, I always liked Total Commander (Windows Commander back in the days) better than the Far Manager - another alternative which imitated Norton Commander more closely and is considered more powerful by some people.

Ah Norton Commander... I was wondering if someone would pop up the father of them all... Fond memories of that blue screen :-)

I cannot live without Midnight Commander !

I use it a lot when I have to operate on files in a terminal but it feels limited, inflexible and stagnant. Lack of background operations support is particulrly annoying. In my oppinion they should have made it more customizable and extensible, e.g. through a Python or a Lisp plug-in API or something like that. I can even imagine it being more powerful than Total Commander is whle keeping similarly user-friendly. One cool thing about a GUI file manager are file type icons which indicate a file type concisely without the ugliness and ADHD-nightmare of painting each file name in a different colour (the way terminal-based file managers do) but this can probably be solved using Unicode emojis modern terminals mostly support.

It's extremely popular in Hungary, almost everyone has it installed. I've been using in for at least 20 years. When I moved to the UK 10 years ago I was quite surprised that nobody knew it.

https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=now%201-d&q=%2...

Fascinating. I used it in the '00s and would never have thought to try it again. Why don't out think it's so popular in Hungary? And Cuba, Czechia, Slovakia...? UTF-8 capabilities?

I'm wondering it if is similar to Emacs Dired

I think it's because it resembles Norton commander

Or Volkov Commander.

Two panels + fast keyboard navigation across directories is big for me. I like the overview, speed and simplicity. File Explorer is just ... nope.

I am sure there are other programs, like Double Commander or maybe Salamander Commander if it still exists, but this is what I settled on.

My most used features are:

Archives:

* Comparison of files in Zip file/directories, just go to the zip file and do synchronize directory to see differences

* Edit file and save it to zip after modification - no need to copy to temp location, it does it for you

* Pack/unpack are common

Lister

* Easy switch from hexa to text, fast, lightweight.

* Checksums - create and verify

I think in Cuba, Belarus, Uzbekistan... "total commander" has a different meaning :D

I don't think it's UTF-8 as Windows has been able to handle non-English alphabet letters for ages. I don't not know whether it has any specific, location related reason. I can work a lot faster with it than with File Explorer.

It's like the Bud Spencer and Terence Hill movies. They are extremely popular here, in Germany, Austria, Italy but the rest of the world have not even heard about them. https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&q=%2Fm%2F0...

We even have a statue of him at a frequented area. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bud_Spencer

As many here I'm in love with Total Commander for a long time and it was my first purchase.

I find equally amazing that it's a one man shop. Christian Ghisler created, maintains and supports this application for 30 years (initial release: 29th Sep 1993).

I have boundless admiration for this kind of dedication.

Check out the full changes file, it has dates of changes:

https://www.ghisler.com/history1100.txt

Even after 30 years there are still things to fix pretty much every day. Maintenance is really endless task

I still use Total Commander on my Android phones/tablets.

For MacOS, the closest ones are:

- https://apps.apple.com/us/app/commander-one-file-manager/id1...

- https://github.com/elfmz/far2l

I prefer Free Commander https://freecommander.com/ and even donated for it.

I’ve used it for a long time, probably more than a decade (switched to Macs in 2010). Even in the 00s it had so many features. I think the first time I’ve encountered regular expressions was in a mass rename tool in Total Commander.

Ever since I’m not using windows anymore I just want Directory Opus to be available on Linux.

There is worker: http://www.boomerangsworld.de/cms/worker/

Directory Opus has evolved far far beyond that.

or on a Mac, it's the single best file manager app out there!

It's been my default file manager since the Amiga days of the early 90s. I do love TC and have been using it at work a lot on and off but DOpus is forever.

I wonder how big of an effort is to keep it compatible with every Windows version since 95.

Even Windows 3.1!

https://www.ghisler.com/wcmd16.htm

To be fair: that’s an old version (v6 vs v11).

Given that win 3.11 doesn’t change, you can expect the old version to keep running too

I was looking recently for an application on Windows that can show me simply a content of EML file (Outlook mail format).

I found only TC and Thunderbird; but Thunderbird started showing me stuff about setting a mail and address and everything, TC just opened it.

First program I have paid for, and after 20 years I still use it every day.

Same here. Best piece of software, ever. Period.

I use this on Windows because of the dual pane layout which allows me to easily move/copy files around, but also do other nice stuff like file diffs, though probably other apps out there can also do these things. It's also preety snappy when dealing with zip archives unlike Windows file explorer.

To be noted this app is also available on Android, comes in very handy and it also has plugins for network storage shares such as SMB. I got bitten in the past by other file managers on Android that turned into adware infested cesspools.

Eastern European here (Romania) - I am here to give lots and lots of thanks to Christian ! When Norton Commander was not a choice anymore .. Total Commander was the replacement. I can attest that outside of Europe (living in US now) NC/TC is almost unknown. The company I was working for employed a lot of Eastern Europeans - hence we 'lobby' and got 50 licenses for it. To this day, after installing a fresh Windows , TC is the next thing I am installing (followed closely by Notepad++). Personally I cannot browse files (comfortably) without it. Thanks again Christian !

Total Commander lacks many useful features from Norton Commander.

The preview panel for example. There was a Windows version of Norton Commander and it used all available registered Windows preview handlers.

I am using Double Commander instead. And I can use it on Linux as well.

It's also a miracle on Android, with SFTP plugin and an integrated media player.

DoubleCmd is amazing to... (and cross platform)

I tried Total Commander while I was still using Windows but in the end settled on Servant Salamander (later renamed to Altap Salamander). Somehow I liked it better haptically than Total Commander at the time. Sadly development of it stopped a few years ago and it is now free for everybody. Download it here: https://www.altap.cz/

Nowadays I use Krusader and Linux.

> Servant Salamander

Does not support Unicode in filenames. They had plans for it like 10 years ago but they never actually got around to do it. I ditched Salamander for Freecommander years ago primarily for this reason. Freecommander is in active development as well. https://freecommander.com/en/summary/

Ouch - yes I was torn if i wanted to mention that. 10 years isn't cutting it they announced it as the next feature in 2005/6

I've always liked the Windows Explorer Treeview+Listview style file managers (XYplorer is vey good), but for heavy workloads, nothing beats Total Commander!

Imho tree-view or 'single pane' style file managers are okay if you're just browsing. Open a file here or there, move something to elsewhere in the directory tree, etc.

For more serious work I always gravitate towards 2-pane file managers like TC (#1 favourite on Windows, which for me is back in the stone age).

Could you guys give some examples of “heavy workloads” or “serious work”?

Fro me, it's things like comparing directories, filename search-and-replace/multi-rename, copying/syncing (locally or over ftp) with editable queues, etc.

AI training data, can be thousands of files.

And what are you doing with these files?

Shameless self promotion of my own AI experiments.

Around 110000 files checked out related to the OEIS database. The project is open source here: https://loda-lang.org/

I'm experimenting training a vision transformer with ARC tasks. There are 800 tasks, and each task augmented yields around 10000 files. However my ViT code cannot solve any ARC tasks, but my non-ViT code solves 6 ARC tasks. https://lab42.global/arcathon/leaderboard/

Has it added a must have undo feature? I remember the author of TC had a weird tak that undo gives you "a false feeling of security" as the reason

Best software program. Period. Used from good old days when it was called "Windows Commander", and, admittedly, first versions were used in unregistered mode. While I have a license now and am legal user of software, unfortunately I'm on Linux now. I would gladly pay again just to be able to use it on Linux as a native application. Sad, that Linux port never took off.

A question for experts on the matter, is Sunrise Commander (OFM for Emacs) on par with the the programs cited in this thread?

I haven't used it for decades, but when I did use it, it is amazing how efficient it is.

And I mean the whole legacy of such stuff, all the way to Norton Commander under DOS. Don't remember if there was prior art to that.

Miguel de Icaza (of Gnome/Mono fame), also started, way before Gnome, by doing a Norton Commander clone: Midnight Commander

I love it, recently after many many years of using it I finally bought it. On linux closest what I can get is Krusader.

I've stopped using NC and derivatives since Windows 98 (but in DOS it was a must-have), but if somebody looks for nowadays alternative for Linux, try Far2L https://github.com/elfmz/far2l

Yes, absolutely based and essential. Especially once you learn all the Alt-Shift-Enter, Ctrl-M, etc.

Also, recently learned that there's mc on scoop: https://scoop.sh/#/apps?q=mc

Scrolling a pane is "slow", or simple jumpy. Not enjoyable at all.

Plus... 37 euros????

I feel compelled to mention Directory Opus^0 whenever Total Commander comes up.

0: https://www.gpsoft.com.au/

I tried it 7 years ago and just clicked your link now to see it is still on the same version (12). I wasn’t expecting that. I wonder why?

When I tried Dopus didn't even allow to browse inside archives as folders. Has that changed?

It's about mad efficiency, not enjoyable UI

Been using it since the late 90s, and I still use it to this day. Grew up in Total Commander. Thanks Christian Ghisler for this amazing software.

Oh wow This hits some strange memories My dad installed it on our family PCs back then. I used it through my whole childhood and teens until I moved to MAC.

Thanks for sharing

Still looking for a good replacement on Mac, the software mentioned by this site all are lacking important features.

Double Commander is the closest. Basically a clone of TC. Not as polished, still good. Beware, there multiple different builds for mac, some are good, some are bad

P.S. i don't remember which one is better

https://sourceforge.net/projects/doublecmd/files/macOS/

https://doublecmd.sourceforge.io/site/eng/snapshots.php

P.P.S. Screenshots

https://r2.pocketmoon.me/upload/2023-09-01_2023-09-01---11.2...

I’ve been happy with nimble commander - https://magnumbytes.com/

Available on the Mac App Store - recommend getting the pro version if you need the features. Actively developed.

There are several, one I've used which is kinda similar but not 100% the same is ForkLift

Marta with single key home-row navigation and other commands is the best Mac file manager, but it's also lacking important features :(

There are couple which will have two panels by default, but in my opinion, ForkLift is very native macOS commander-like app -- https://binarynights.com

Total/Windows Commander with plugins is the best. What plugins do you use?

The ones bundled with Total Commander Ultima Prime https://tcup.pl

Used it since 1995

Great product

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