Double Commander is a cross platform open source file manager with two panels side by side. It is inspired by Total Commander and features some new ideas.
It is written in Lazarus - some people think that pascal is a language only for learning. But on the other side, it is possible to easily implement support for plugins from Total Commander, a little speed up development and give the user a choice of libraries to display the user interface (QT or GTK - is relevant only for Linux).
Consider the upper part of Double Commander a little more detail:
1 - main menu. Is not used very often, but if something is missing - take it there.
2 - toolbar. By default, there is quite a few buttons, the usefulness is questionable. In the screenshot there is placed the main used programs: GIMP, a notepad, a browser, a player. Maybe someone handy. Personally, I have it all either on the desktop or in the Quick Launch toolbar. So it was very pleased to be able to disable this toolbar.
3 - Disk buttons. I have used them occasionally in Total Commander, but in Double Commander somehow immediately liked the selection button of the current drive in the 4 line. Leaving only the button.
The 4 line except buttons drive has useful buttons on the right is: the return to a higher level, moving into a home / root directory, menu, the favorite directories, which is proposed to replenish itself to the user.
5 - tabs. When working with files very useful thing. However, with just one tab there is not rational to display it - on-screen space is wasted. Fortunately, Double Commander has the option of ``Folder tabs - Show tab header also when there is only one tab''. Just uncheck this and tabs bar will appear only when creating the second tab (Ctrl + T). If the close tab (Ctrl + W), the line will disappear automatically.
6 - current directory name. There you can see a full path. If you lose where you are is enough to look at this line and everything will be clear 
7 - tabstop header. The behavior of the standard - click for sorting, pull the edge to resize.
As a result, my Double Commander looks like this:
By the way, preferences dialog rather intuitive, friendly and pleasant. A pleasure it was to dig, setting up a program for yourself. For example, to get a Double Commander as in the previous screenshot, I used the following layout configuration:
A little more cool features of Double Commander. One of the most pleasant surprises was ``Behaviors - Lynx like movement''. This means that to go to the directory you can press Enter or the right arrow. To return to the directory above - the left arrow. The result is a very useful job whole-only the keyboard arrows.
``Quick Search - Letter only'' turns on a quick search, similar to Total Commander. That is, you simply start typing the file name on the keyboard and the cursor automatically moves to the closest match.
Well, the most important super opportunity - support for plugins from Total Commander. I wondered exactly Ext2+Reiser. You can find it on page http://www.ghisler.com/plugins.htm. Periodically you need to download a music form Linux-partition, watch some config files. Run a separate program for that lazy and strange. This plugin also allows you to display ReiserFS/Ext2/Ext3/Ext4 partition almost like a local folder (read only). Also with version 1.4 supports UTF-8, which solved the problem with strange symbols instead of letters, if your system language is not English. The viewer also has no problems with viewing text files and allows you to change the encoding on the fly.
Installing the plugins into Double Commander is in exactly 3 times harder than Total Commander 
This means that just click 2 times on the archive is not enough - you need to unpack it anywhere. For simplicity, I extract it to a subfolder plugins of program.
Then, go to the settings dialog `` Configure - Plugins - File system plugins''. Next, click the ``Add'' button and select the unzipped WFX-file.
By the way for the functioning of the UTF-8 do not forget to create a file ex2fs.ini in a directory with a wfx-file. The content is:
[Options]
utf8=true
Not without some drawbacks. Thus, the shortcomings of Double Commander: 1) It is slow. Of course not really, but for a while waiting for the opening of the directory still exists. Total Commander displays the contents almost instantly. 2) No wrapping in the embedded text editor. Built-in viewer and editor as a whole looks very good and promising. However, to date (version 0.4.5.2), there are some problems with the folding of long lines.
3) The project is under active development. Periodically, there are disadvantages or drawbacks. This is especially evident when using the plugins from Total Commander - Double Commander periodically issues an error and crashes. Have to restart 
4) Not all rosy for Linux. For example, not a capacity for dark themes and area of the folders displayed in the standard bright colors. I still have a very slow rendering when resizing the window with the mouse. In truth, I have not used Double Commander on Linux along time and do not plan do it - mc (Midnight Commander) our all
Conclusion:
A great free alternative! Despite some minor shortcomings, you can forget about proprietary Total Commander and use the free Double Commander.
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