Double Commander: the double-panel file manager for Linux that boosts your productivity

Introduction

Double Commander is an open-source file manager inspired by the classic Total Commander and offers a dual-panel interface designed to improve efficiency when working with file systems on Linux. Its Qt- or GTK-based architecture allows it to integrate natively into various desktop environments, from GNOME and KDE to XFCE and LXQt. Since its release, it has gained an active community of users who appreciate its speed, low resource consumption, and the ability to customize almost every aspect of its operation. In this article we will explore its most notable features, how to install it on the main Linux distributions, the first steps to get the most out of it, and the customization options that make it an indispensable tool for professionals, developers, and free software enthusiasts.

Main Features

• Synchronizable dual-panel interface, with the possibility to change orientation (horizontal or vertical) and to lock one of the panels for independent navigation.
• Native support for multiple file systems, including FTP, SFTP, SMB extensions and compressed files (ZIP, RAR, 7Z, TAR, GZ, BZ2) via plugins.
• Advanced batch operations: multiple renaming with regular expressions, folder comparison and synchronization, duplicate search and filtering by attributes.
• Internal file viewer with syntax highlighting for over 80 programming languages, hex view and basic media playback.
• Integrated terminal that allows opening a shell in the active directory of either panel without leaving the application.
• Fully customizable via font, color, icon, keyboard shortcut configuration and external scripts that can be launched from the tools menu.

Installation on Linux

Installing Double Commander is simple thanks to its presence in the official repositories of most distributions. On Ubuntu and its derivatives, just run:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install doublecmd-gtk

For those who prefer the Qt-based version, the package is doublecmd-qt. On Fedora, DNF is used:

sudo dnf install doublecmd-gtk

On Arch Linux and derivatives, the package is located in the community repositories:

sudo pacman -S doublecmd-g
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