I love Midnight Commander so much; I install it on every system I use. It's so much more efficient/pleasant when in comes to navigating the filesystem and doing basic operations, especially when you learn the shortcuts and learn how to use it along with other command-line tools (hint: if you press Ctrl+O in MC it will switch to a normal shell command prompt it the directory you're in, and you can press Ctrl+O again to get back to MC; this allows you to easily use MC for things it is the most efficient for, and normal command-line for things where that is better).
pimeys · 3h ago
I use it especially when moving files around in my NAS and it is awesome.
For GUI file managers, I have to say you can't get better than Dolphin. It has an integrated shell for the current directory, and you can split the view. It can also directly open ssh and SFTP URLs. For local things the combination of Dolphin and it's shell is unbeatable.
graemep · 13m ago
Konqueror (the old KDE file manager) lets you do multiple splits, horizontal as well as vertical, and preview files in the file manager.
Very nice, but no longer as well maintained.
unmole · 3h ago
> and you can split the view
You could do the same with Nautilus. But in their infinite wisdom GNOME developers decided to remove that ability.
overfeed · 1h ago
> It can also directly open ssh and SFTP URLs.
I wish mc could browse remote URLs, and I'm tempted to author an mc clone in Go to address this particular pain-point. Maybe some day handcrafting bespoke rsync/rclone commands will frustrate me enough to motivate me.
baumschubser · 57m ago
In the Left/Right menu in mc, you can select FTP, SFTP and SSH URLs to browse. Is this not what you mean?
1718627440 · 10m ago
And for other protocols like WebDAV you can mount them and then traverse with mc.
I think I love it more than you do. I am sure of it. It is ingrained into my workflow and how I think about files.
jwr · 1h ago
Midnight commander is a great tool, although I think most younger users do not realize that we lost something along the way. Norton Commander was fantastically fast for common file operations not just because of the dual-pane design, but because of several things working together. Thoughtful design of software while thinking of hardware. To get the most out of it, you were supposed to use the numpad on your keyboard. And it should be the classic IBM PC numpad: large +, large 0, [num]/*- in the top row. Then, you wanted your function keys as a top row above your keyboard. Also, ESC was supposed to work immediately, not after a delay.
I know many people think these things don't matter, because you can do everything with MC (and more), but I disagree. In this case, every fraction of a second matters. In the setup I described above, selecting all files in the current directory and moving them to the directory in the other pane is: one flick of the right hand (roll over + and Enter on the numpad), F6 with the left hand followed by another Enter immediately with the right hand. Now try to do that using the + that is on your = key and tell me it's the same thing.
nottorp · 53m ago
Stuff is still there as long as you get a proper keyboard.
Well, and monitor.
If you're slouching over your laptop for extended periods of time, you have bigger problems than not being able to use numpad +...
userbinator · 4h ago
dual-pane file manager
For some reason, the technical term for these is Orthodox File Manager, which I've always thought was an obscure cultural in-joke from the countries where these were most popular --- Eastern Europe and the former USSR.
The "orthodox" comes from a specific type of GUI, namely one that is driven by commands under the hood. UI elements are merely used to trigger commands that have the actual effect, and these commands could just as well be executed by hand, or automated into more complex commands.
This is an excellent way to build powerful UIs. It is what drives things like Vim, and often why Lisp-based software is so hackable -- think Emacs, StumpWM, etc. Instead of writing plugins against some small plugin API, you're wiring new functionality directly into the application.
The article you reference goes into more detail, as you say.
kiliankoe · 2h ago
Does Blender also qualify? It even shows you the name of the Python function behind each UI element on hover, which is great for discoverability when scripting. Or maybe it used to, can't see it now.
spookie · 1h ago
Still does if you enable dev mode, I think.
faangguyindia · 56m ago
Isn't this what tools like lazygit use?
Klaster_1 · 3h ago
At least in Russia, "orthodox" has an extra connotation that's not strictly coupled to church, akin more to "one true way", as in "orthodox way to learn a tech stack". With a negation, it becomes something like "wrong" or even "heretical", as in "pizza with pineapple".
abcd_f · 38m ago
This is incorrect.
Ортодаксальный doesn't carry these connotations at all.
If anything, it describes something that is stuck in old ways and/or pointlessly rigid.
andrewshadura · 3h ago
What you're describing is the meaning of the word in English. I suspect using the word православный with this meaning started as a joke transplanting the English meaning of the word onto the corresponding Russian word.
kgeist · 2h ago
"Orthodox" in Russian is "pravoslavny", literally "right faith" (pravyj = right, correct). I think it also contributes to the meaning. "The right way".
blks · 20m ago
Yes and no. Orthodox church is called “православная церковь”, yes, but the word “ортодоксальный” still exists to describe e.g. orthodox jews.
The word “православный” in a meaning of some object/technology/way being good and true only started being used in Internet culture during 00s, and it still used, but as a slang/joke.
rusk · 1h ago
Means the same thing in Ireland too! My understanding is it derives from greek for “ordinary teaching” we also use the term heterodox for a cultural setting that encourages different types of thought.
The term Paradox is a challenging or somewhat contradictory idea.
We also use the term orthodox for a right handed boxer. “Southpaw” is non-orthodox left handed.
gschizas · 1h ago
Greek here:
Orthodox = orthos + doxasia
Orthos = straight/correct
Doxasia = belief
orthodoxos = correct belief
rswail · 2h ago
The English word for that is "canonical".
bluetomcat · 2h ago
They were popular because there was no Unix culture in Eastern Europe at the time. Pretty much any computer geek was a DOS user. To me personally, it always seemed kind of lame because many of these people would not bother to properly learn the shell language.
k__ · 5m ago
I fondly remember my first PC, which only had DOS.
I came from C64 where I had GEOS, that allowed me to do anything with a nice GUI, so it felt like quite the step back.
However, PCs were all the rage at that time, so I got one and thanks to Norton Commander, I was able to use it with a nice(+ish) GUI too.
w4rh4wk5 · 50m ago
I've always found Midnight Commander to be underrated, perhaps because it "looks old". I still recommend checking it out if you want a terminal-based file manager.
In case you do prefer GUIs, consider DoubleCommander.
blks · 19m ago
For MacOS, I love Marta file manager.
snvzz · 43m ago
Worker[0] is a mature double panel GUI file manager that's often overlooked.
The thing about Orthodox File Managers when they first came about, that does not occur today, was the amount of time that had to be devoted to explaining that particular features would not work on OS/2, Unices, Linux-based operating systems, or Windows NT because only MS/PC/DR-DOS let programs do things like directly manipulate stuff in some other program's PSP or directly peek/poke video RAM or the keyboard buffer; or that filenames did not necessarily have "extensions"; or that there was more than 1 type of timestamp; or that links and symbolic links existed; or that different people can have different local times on a single machine; or that directories actually have sizes.
Today, the DOS Think is far less prevalent.
Midnight Commander's screenshots would have looked a little off to OFM users with DOS Think. Today, it's the original MS/PC/DR-DOS tools that will appear odd to novices. They did things like have a narrow 8.3 filename column, omit the dots, use graphics in the filename for system files, use glyphs that one could only obtain through poking C0-range codes into video RAM, change UI elements as one pressed and released the Alt key, and so forth.
thom · 1h ago
I still have great affection for Midnight Commander, like Norton Commander before it. I used to use the latter to initiate a parallel cable connection to my brother's computer for Doom deathmatches, pretty cool for a file manager.
For no good reason, here's a screenshot of both of them running side by side on an iPad, which is a thing you can apparently do these days:
For some strange reason I am attracted to try to use ZTreeWin, even though I am using a dual pane manager as my daily driver, but there is some nostalgic force driving me to try and force myself onto ZTreeWin.
I even bought the license for it more than 2 years ago, but still haven't touched it in any serious capacity. I mostly lack the convenience and speed by which I am able to accomplish tasks in my existing (dual panel) orthodox filemanager, and at the same time I am losing patience by learning every single thing in it from sratch. Does anyone know of a good learning resource for ZTreeWin?
pabs3 · 3h ago
This with the "Lynx-like motion" panel option and the "Quick view" enabled is the best way to review a source tree. So much so that the Debian ftp-masters use it and a plugin for doing license review of newly introduced packages.
I never could use mc. None of the keyboard shortcuts were at all intuitive to me, who had been using many different GUI file managers over the decades. Which is a shame, because I use SSH a LOT and doing normal file housework via pure CLI is super tedious and error-prone... Fortunately, I went looking more recently, and found the nnn file manager, which works properly with the basic keyboard commands I would expect, and really helped improve my workflow a lot:
Same here, nnn feels so much lighter too. It also works out of the box, no need to carry around "your" .rc file on dozens of systems as you work
ranger_danger · 2h ago
> None of the keyboard shortcuts were at all intuitive to me
They're exactly the same as Norton Commander had been since the 80s.
spookie · 1h ago
They probably weren't, huh... in front of computers when it was more of a thing.
It sure is a generational thing, I have the same problem with Emacs. But not with Vim.
hbbio · 2h ago
I have been using mc for almost 30 years, and the original Norton Commander as a kid before that!
Pleasantly surprised to see this topping HN today, and even more than the project and its website are still maintained in 2025.
vsviridov · 3h ago
I've been using `mc` for decades... In fact, in my early professional days as a software dev, I've written entire systems with PHP using `mcedit` (the built-in editor), because I didn't know `vim` then, and `mcedit` had syntax highlighting...
Joel_Mckay · 3h ago
Mostly used Notepad++ or SciTE ( https://www.scintilla.org/ ) over the years, as the number of languages/platforms I traverse made it a consistent option for dealing with various document encodings etc.
I thought mc and mcedit was cool, but needed something small and portable within a fairly locked-down environment ( "No [root] for you!" as the admin would say.) =3
kqr · 3h ago
For people on Android phones, Ghost Commander is neat.
For people who like the power of Emacs dired, there used to be Sunrise Commander but last I looked it wasn't so actively maintained and had some bugs, so I've sadly gone back to regular dired.
`mc` was a gateway drug for me to switch from DOS to Linux in 1995. Because I hadn't been gotten comfortable with other text editors and file management commands yet, mc and its own text editor (mc -e) had felt very intuitive at the time. I felt at home. I was also amazed by stuff like FTP VFS support. It was so complete and done right.
riffraff · 4h ago
When I was young and incompetent mc was the only way I knew to remove files starting with a dash :)
muppetman · 3h ago
Hahah same!!!!
penetrarthur · 1h ago
Total Commander is still the first thing I install on every fresh Windows install for the last 20 or so years. Copy/move/delete etc keys are the same as in mc.
pilif · 1h ago
They are the same because both projects are inspired by Norton Commander for DOS which also used those keys.
0points · 1h ago
I been using mc since mandrake days, coming from dos looking for a norton commander replacement.
Still use mc in 2025 :-)
KaiserPro · 29m ago
I never understood the fervent love for midnight/norton commander. Its not like its a new phenomenon. I remember people raving about it in the late 90s too.
is it nostalgia, or is it really that useful?
mrweasel · 4m ago
For some people it's just how they work. I did consulting for a company, and the developer I sat next to on my visits used Total Commander of all things. It was probably the first thing he'd install on any new Windows machine. He never open Explorer, everything related to files was done within the confines of Total Commander. For those who got started with Norton Commander and moved to Linux/Unix from there, Midnight Commander is probably just the tool they are used to and it's completely ingrained in their workflows.
Personally I really want to like Midnight Commander, well I do like it, I just don't use it that much. As someone else pointed out, the keyboard shortcuts just doesn't work for me for some reason. I think if you grew up using the F-keys a lot, then it probably makes total sense.
oytis · 26m ago
MSDOS shell language was completely awful as I remember, so Norton Commander came in really handy.
unwind · 2h ago
I never used MC (not very much into TUIs) but ages ago I wrote a graphical file manager in the same vein. For me the inspiration came from Directory Opus [1] on the Amiga, which was just awesome.
When GTK+ was released in the late 90s, combining my love of C programming with a newfound home in Linux and GTK+'s ability to make complicated graphical interfaces resulted in a dual-pane file manager. It was a great project.
In a restricted environment like a console only system these two pane file managers are very useful. I was a heavy user of norton commander (nc) back in my DOS days. Also these are useful on mobile.
However I rarely use them on a graphical environment like windows where I can open arbitrary explorer windows and arrange them as I see like. I guess it depends on what people have experience on...
atmosx · 1h ago
I use midnight commander to transfer files between my servers using FTP over VPN but supports multiple protocols. Great software, once you get familiar with the shortcuts there's nothing like it. Clean, simple and does the job. You can transfer in the background or foreground. It's a pretty complete tool.
aquir · 2h ago
After moving from Windows to MacOS mc is the closest to Total Commander - the only software that I’m still missing from MacOS. Reminds me to DOS Navigator and Volkov Commander or even FAR
hdrz · 2h ago
Try doublecmd[1], much better then tc, open source, updated frequently, works on all platforms. Oh and written in object pascal, which I like a lot!
Well while note open-source (but still free), Marta is the best MacOS TotalCommander alternative: https://marta.sh/
Havoc · 1h ago
Didn’t realize mc was under gnu banner. Nice.
I’ve been trying to get used to ranger since I’m learning vim anyway
yuvadam · 1h ago
For anyone looking for more modern terminal file managers: my favorite is yazi since it has great preview capabilities out of the box and requires zero config, but other alternatives are nnn, ranger, walk and lf.
haakon · 19m ago
mc user for decades here. I spent a long time teaching myself yazi and configuring it just to my liking, only to realize I don't really use a file manager that much anymore. It's hard to compete with shells for efficiency in most scenarios.
submeta · 1h ago
Yazi is absolutely phantastic. It can be extended by own scripts. I have configured it to jump to any folder via fzf, find any file in a folder and subfolders via `fd`, and navigate to any folder/subfolder on my system in seconds. I don't use my GUI finders on my Mac anymore. Absolutely recommended.
glimmung · 3h ago
I just couldn't live without this thing. Well, I could but I would be less productive and more grumpy.
Back in the mists of time when dinosaurs roamed the earth and I developed DataEase applications under MS-DOS there was a thing called "Pathminder" [1] which was a very useful tool. Moving to Linux and finding Midnight Commander felt like coming home...
MC is a great file manager, but Far2l is even better.
xdkyx · 1h ago
I used to install Windows Commander (later Total Commander) on every system I have used, so much so that I bought the Total Commander licence. However as time passes by I used it less and less, to the point that currently I run it once a month out of pure nostalgia.
unixhero · 45m ago
I still use it. Did you know it supports extensions? Such as being able to explore SQLite files and so on. A Polish team has put toghether as many extensions as possible into a self contained installer-distro for Total Commander. It is called Total Commander Ultima Prime. I enjoy it a lot.
Miguel de Icaza Rocks So Hard. And whatever he makes rocks as much.
hxorr · 1h ago
I am especially fond of mcedit, the midnight commander editor which can be run independently. Very easy to pick up and use as a casual user as opposed to something like vi
unixhero · 37m ago
Yes its really great. You should check out Jed's editor on Linux and MultiEdit on MSdos. It continues in the same spirit as MCView. Both are definitely inspired by Turbo Pascal.
keyle · 59m ago
I grew up using Norton Commander. It had everything I needed including a decent editor!
I'm not sure if midnight commander was a complete rewrite.
unixhero · 46m ago
It is a clean room imlementation and mostly feature complete with more modern support such as SFTP.
vim-guru · 2h ago
Nostalgia!
However; dired (and wdired) is more powerful, so I won't be switching back any time soon.
internet_points · 30m ago
you need a new username =P
pantulis · 3h ago
The killer feature in mc was the popup menu that you could configure to run several commands on the selected files. And if memory serves it could be customized on a global or directory specific way.
"was"? People still use it. Like a lot. I'm surprised
pantulis · 1h ago
Good shout!
unixhero · 35m ago
Which menu is that? I never tried it. Been an MC user since 1997.
Ambix · 1h ago
Still my default tool to install on any remote server. My secret weapon :)
bronlund · 1h ago
I still use both Midnight Commander and Total Commander daily. Those are hard habits to kick :D For macOS, I use Forklift.
shmerl · 4h ago
Very cool successor of Norton Commander idea.
ilvez · 4h ago
Volkov Commander anyone?
JdeBP · 4h ago
If we're going to individually name every Orthodox File Manager, we are going to take some while. (-:
xiphias2 · 4h ago
You mean like FAR commander? ;)
gschizas · 1h ago
FAR Manager. They went civilian :)
machomaster · 55m ago
Dos Navigator.
lepicz · 44m ago
m602
lepicz · 4h ago
volkov was a great virus detector
its size was right at the edge of segment (64k) so when a virus appended to the .com binary, volkov stopped working
selcuka · 3h ago
Unfortunately there were also badly written, overwriting viruses that destroyed the host.
I made a COM-to-EXE convertor back in time so that I can compress them with LZEXE (I don't remember anything about it, but I guess I just prepended an empty relocation table). It would have been interesting to incorporate that functionality in a virus.
tyfon · 3h ago
I still use volcov commander on my dos machines :)
And MC on the *nixes of course.
auselen · 3h ago
I remember asking to my friend how do you use ‘nc’ in Linux and he answering “type ‘mc’”.
zaptheimpaler · 3h ago
I've been using OneCommander [1] on Windows for a few years now, it's great. Also dual pane with lots of extra features and active development.
Lots of comments here review the (OFM) concept, not the particular implementation.
I have plenty of criticism for MC, I wish it had the sufficient amount of features so that it becomes a better representative of its genre and I could start recommending it to other users. Krusader and Total Commander are lightyears ahead, try these first.
It now even supports true keyboard reporting (through Kitty TTY protocol on compatible terminals) for SSH connections.
mischief6 · 3h ago
my one gripe after using mc for a few years is no parallel transfer support. it slows down significantly when transferring small files compared to one large file.
unixhero · 33m ago
That I agree with. In Total Commander I typically do F5 copy and then put it in the background F2. Then start another.
This isn't possible in MC. And also a concrete parallelization is not available. This sounds like a feasible feature request to the upstream MC project! I'm sure Gnu Parallel or just pure C code would be able to handle this.
latchkey · 3h ago
Brings back memories. This is one of my older open source contributions that's still visible. I helped port it to a/ux in the early 90's. Line 98: https://fossies.org/linux/mc/AUTHORS
It was originally written by Miguel de Icaza who became a semi-famous for his work on Mono and others.
mongol · 2h ago
I think Miguel's greatest legacy is starting the Gnome project.
roywashere · 3h ago
And who started Gnome Desktop! That always strikes me as funny. That he made the ultimate tool for in the terminal, and then move on to write a desktop environment
It was kind of the evolution of the time though. We were coming from dumb terminals hooked up to VAX/VMS and Ultrix boxes with kermit, to computers that had a tcp/ip stack and could actually do graphics.
EbNar · 3h ago
Great FM. I still use it consistently, especially when dealing with a large number of files.
olaf · 1h ago
I preferred snappy XTree
Ringz · 3h ago
If only you could redefine the keyboard shortcuts...
JNRowe · 2h ago
You can, it even ships with two files you can use as examples in mc.{emacs,vim}.keymap. The vim one has my favorite comment in a config file:
[editor]
# No remapping, just use vim instead of mcedit
Given that you can specify the bindings config to use at startup with --keymap you can even configure task specific sets of bindings. This combined with extfs and custom menus makes it a great way to make a personal interface to non-file data sources too.
Ringz · 19m ago
Thanx! I completely missed that. That’s helpful even though a „Operator Pending Mode„ is missing.
bmackenty · 3h ago
Still used in Poland. I still manage some systems using mcedit.
sigttou · 4h ago
Brings back great memories, used to be my default diff viewer for several years.
lepicz · 4h ago
Mouseless Commander :)
Nursie · 4h ago
I haven't used this for a long old time. Back in the day it was the only way to recover your university dissertation when you'd rm -rf'd in the wrong directory.
Go on, ask me how I know ...
I've not had much cause to use it since then though.
danielktdoranie · 4h ago
Okay, I’ll bite mate:
How do you know?
antonvs · 4h ago
They rm -rf'd the wrong directory, lost their dissertation, and used mc to recover it.
Nursie · 4h ago
Yeah, the answer was there in the question really :)
That was not a good day, about a week before submission was due. I unmounted the disk the second I realised what I'd done and started to look for guides on finding lost ext2 inodes. MC to the rescue!
ksynwa · 3h ago
mc can recover deleted files?
Nursie · 3h ago
Back in the 90s it certainly had some features that made it easier to do so, yes. On ext2 file systems (no journaling or other advanced features) it had some method to browse unlinked inodes that were still on disk so you could recover them. They’d then show up in “lost+found”.
If you were quick and unmounted as soon as you had realised what you’d done, and the space had not been re-used for anything, you could often get the file back because rm just unlinked the inodes on ext2 IIRC.
I imagine that the commands it used under the hood were accessible to anyone with the right know-how, but at the time that’s not something I had, and all the guides started with “use midnight commander” so I did :)
(Saying “only way” to recover might be a stretch, it’s true)
faangguyindia · 3h ago
most of the russian programmers i worked with use this. Not sure if it's taught in university or something.
lproven · 25m ago
Orthodox file managers seem to be very much a thing across the Eastern Bloc.
I moved from England to Czechia in 2014 and was amazed to discover almost everyone used them. My first job in a Windows company, it had a site licence to Total Commander, and it was preinstalled on all machines.
When I told them I found the Windows Explorer to be perfectly fine, people genuinely gaped in amazement at me as if I said I chose to type with my feet or something. But I do. It's very keyboard-controllable, and was fast and efficient until MS started to cram the ribbon UI into it. Since Windows 8 it's been destroyed.
witrak · 1h ago
It seems nobody remembers the reason for the F-key assignment in the original i.e. Norton Commander... The assignment was very logical and easy to remember (and use) on the original PC keyboard, where F-keys were located in two columns on the left edge of the keyboard: F1, F2, then F3, F4, and so on. You can immediately see the advantages of the F9 location (the leftmost key at the bottom) and of the proximity of the Browse and Edit keys. I used my left thumb to press F10 - it was in the correct place almost without palm movement...
Nowadays I almost don't use Mc (except for file manipulation) because the Linux version has a serious weak point - it blocks the most important keystroke in shell: Tab. It is of course traditionally reserved for panel switching but this role could be deactivated when instead a single command line zone MC would allow to have a multi-line (in NC it was 3 or 4 line) zone for the shell scrolled display. This way it would be possible to have the full-size panel display (with the Tab switching panes) and one keystroke away reduced-size panels with full functionality of the shell tab key in the alternative panel mode...
Another disadvantage is the complicated way of changing settings (especially the colors and file attributes display format) in practice forcing trial and error mode... True, it's not needed often but spending hours on it is rather deterrent.
inoffensivename · 4h ago
Can I get it in a Docker container?
p0w3n3d · 3h ago
It would be like having `ls` in a container
kqr · 3h ago
I think this is one of the cases where Nix would be easier. To try it out without polluting your global namespace, nix run nixpkgs#mc.
sira04 · 2h ago
docker run --rm -it -v "$(pwd):$(pwd)" -w "$(pwd)" nixery.dev/mc mc
EbNar · 3h ago
I guess so, but what would be the use case for it?
Vaslo · 1h ago
I have it in a Docker container in UnRaid to move all my Media around. It’s great.
batrat · 3h ago
why bother? I use mine in my AI powered, headless, kubernetes cluster
serf · 4h ago
unraid has a docker container for Krusader - same thing different flavor, why not.
BlaDeKke · 3h ago
This is not a chat client.
qalmakka · 4h ago
Lol. Realistically speaking, you'd have to bind mount your entire home for it to be usable then
fulafel · 3h ago
Maybe you're just looking to shell around in your container deployed in a pod somewhere.
jalk · 2h ago
That should be doable with `kubectl debug ...` - e.g. attach an ephemeral sidecar container with mc to already running pod.
And you would ofc. configure that in K9S as a plugin to easily launch it :)
balamatom · 3h ago
Yes. Probably even a distroless one.
fithisux · 4h ago
Fun fact, on Windows I stopped using File Explorer and use Midnight Commander.
Now that I am more into the command line, I may need to give it a try.
lucas_membrane · 2h ago
Fun fact (???) wayback about 40 years ago Central Point Software was humiliating Microsoft with its suites of utilities for Microsoft's OS's, which included file managers for Windows (and MS-DOS IIRC), and was a top rated #1 best seller. Microsoft graciously offered to buy a license for said software from Central Point, which they would make a standard part of windows. This was the kind of deal that practical realists tend to accept, even though it spells DOOM with a capital 3-finger salute. 'Tis great to see something as versatile as the wheel and axle or the Oklahoma speed wrench still rolling along.
For GUI file managers, I have to say you can't get better than Dolphin. It has an integrated shell for the current directory, and you can split the view. It can also directly open ssh and SFTP URLs. For local things the combination of Dolphin and it's shell is unbeatable.
Very nice, but no longer as well maintained.
You could do the same with Nautilus. But in their infinite wisdom GNOME developers decided to remove that ability.
I wish mc could browse remote URLs, and I'm tempted to author an mc clone in Go to address this particular pain-point. Maybe some day handcrafting bespoke rsync/rclone commands will frustrate me enough to motivate me.
Try <https://krusader.org>. Same KDE underpinnings, but orthodox interface.
I know many people think these things don't matter, because you can do everything with MC (and more), but I disagree. In this case, every fraction of a second matters. In the setup I described above, selecting all files in the current directory and moving them to the directory in the other pane is: one flick of the right hand (roll over + and Enter on the numpad), F6 with the left hand followed by another Enter immediately with the right hand. Now try to do that using the + that is on your = key and tell me it's the same thing.
Well, and monitor.
If you're slouching over your laptop for extended periods of time, you have bigger problems than not being able to use numpad +...
For some reason, the technical term for these is Orthodox File Manager, which I've always thought was an obscure cultural in-joke from the countries where these were most popular --- Eastern Europe and the former USSR.
This origin is elaborated at length here: https://softpanorama.org/Articles/introduction_to_orthodox_f...
This is an excellent way to build powerful UIs. It is what drives things like Vim, and often why Lisp-based software is so hackable -- think Emacs, StumpWM, etc. Instead of writing plugins against some small plugin API, you're wiring new functionality directly into the application.
The article you reference goes into more detail, as you say.
Ортодаксальный doesn't carry these connotations at all.
If anything, it describes something that is stuck in old ways and/or pointlessly rigid.
The word “православный” in a meaning of some object/technology/way being good and true only started being used in Internet culture during 00s, and it still used, but as a slang/joke.
The term Paradox is a challenging or somewhat contradictory idea.
We also use the term orthodox for a right handed boxer. “Southpaw” is non-orthodox left handed.
Orthodox = orthos + doxasia
Orthos = straight/correct
Doxasia = belief
orthodoxos = correct belief
I came from C64 where I had GEOS, that allowed me to do anything with a nice GUI, so it felt like quite the step back.
However, PCs were all the rage at that time, so I got one and thanks to Norton Commander, I was able to use it with a nice(+ish) GUI too.
In case you do prefer GUIs, consider DoubleCommander.
0. http://www.boomerangsworld.de/cms/worker/
Today, the DOS Think is far less prevalent.
Midnight Commander's screenshots would have looked a little off to OFM users with DOS Think. Today, it's the original MS/PC/DR-DOS tools that will appear odd to novices. They did things like have a narrow 8.3 filename column, omit the dots, use graphics in the filename for system files, use glyphs that one could only obtain through poking C0-range codes into video RAM, change UI elements as one pressed and released the Alt key, and so forth.
For no good reason, here's a screenshot of both of them running side by side on an iPad, which is a thing you can apparently do these days:
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GYRYTq6WUAAt_1t?format=jpg&name=...
https://lists.debian.org/msgid-search/20191228133344.GA4943@...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nnn_(file_manager)
They're exactly the same as Norton Commander had been since the 80s.
It sure is a generational thing, I have the same problem with Emacs. But not with Vim.
Pleasantly surprised to see this topping HN today, and even more than the project and its website are still maintained in 2025.
I thought mc and mcedit was cool, but needed something small and portable within a fairly locked-down environment ( "No [root] for you!" as the admin would say.) =3
For people who like the power of Emacs dired, there used to be Sunrise Commander but last I looked it wasn't so actively maintained and had some bugs, so I've sadly gone back to regular dired.
Still use mc in 2025 :-)
is it nostalgia, or is it really that useful?
Personally I really want to like Midnight Commander, well I do like it, I just don't use it that much. As someone else pointed out, the keyboard shortcuts just doesn't work for me for some reason. I think if you grew up using the F-keys a lot, then it probably makes total sense.
When GTK+ was released in the late 90s, combining my love of C programming with a newfound home in Linux and GTK+'s ability to make complicated graphical interfaces resulted in a dual-pane file manager. It was a great project.
[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Directory_Opus
However I rarely use them on a graphical environment like windows where I can open arbitrary explorer windows and arrange them as I see like. I guess it depends on what people have experience on...
[1]: https://doublecmd.sourceforge.io
https://brew.sh/
The command to install it is:
brew install mc
I’ve been trying to get used to ranger since I’m learning vim anyway
Back in the mists of time when dinosaurs roamed the earth and I developed DataEase applications under MS-DOS there was a thing called "Pathminder" [1] which was a very useful tool. Moving to Linux and finding Midnight Commander felt like coming home...
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PathMinder
https://tcup.pl
I'm not sure if midnight commander was a complete rewrite.
its size was right at the edge of segment (64k) so when a virus appended to the .com binary, volkov stopped working
I made a COM-to-EXE convertor back in time so that I can compress them with LZEXE (I don't remember anything about it, but I guess I just prepended an empty relocation table). It would have been interesting to incorporate that functionality in a virus.
And MC on the *nixes of course.
[1] https://www.onecommander.com/
https://tcup.pl/
I have plenty of criticism for MC, I wish it had the sufficient amount of features so that it becomes a better representative of its genre and I could start recommending it to other users. Krusader and Total Commander are lightyears ahead, try these first.
It now even supports true keyboard reporting (through Kitty TTY protocol on compatible terminals) for SSH connections.
This isn't possible in MC. And also a concrete parallelization is not available. This sounds like a feasible feature request to the upstream MC project! I'm sure Gnu Parallel or just pure C code would be able to handle this.
It was originally written by Miguel de Icaza who became a semi-famous for his work on Mono and others.
Go on, ask me how I know ...
I've not had much cause to use it since then though.
How do you know?
That was not a good day, about a week before submission was due. I unmounted the disk the second I realised what I'd done and started to look for guides on finding lost ext2 inodes. MC to the rescue!
If you were quick and unmounted as soon as you had realised what you’d done, and the space had not been re-used for anything, you could often get the file back because rm just unlinked the inodes on ext2 IIRC.
I imagine that the commands it used under the hood were accessible to anyone with the right know-how, but at the time that’s not something I had, and all the guides started with “use midnight commander” so I did :)
(Saying “only way” to recover might be a stretch, it’s true)
I moved from England to Czechia in 2014 and was amazed to discover almost everyone used them. My first job in a Windows company, it had a site licence to Total Commander, and it was preinstalled on all machines.
When I told them I found the Windows Explorer to be perfectly fine, people genuinely gaped in amazement at me as if I said I chose to type with my feet or something. But I do. It's very keyboard-controllable, and was fast and efficient until MS started to cram the ribbon UI into it. Since Windows 8 it's been destroyed.
Nowadays I almost don't use Mc (except for file manipulation) because the Linux version has a serious weak point - it blocks the most important keystroke in shell: Tab. It is of course traditionally reserved for panel switching but this role could be deactivated when instead a single command line zone MC would allow to have a multi-line (in NC it was 3 or 4 line) zone for the shell scrolled display. This way it would be possible to have the full-size panel display (with the Tab switching panes) and one keystroke away reduced-size panels with full functionality of the shell tab key in the alternative panel mode... Another disadvantage is the complicated way of changing settings (especially the colors and file attributes display format) in practice forcing trial and error mode... True, it's not needed often but spending hours on it is rather deterrent.
Now that I am more into the command line, I may need to give it a try.