# Midnight Commander

Hacker Approved page: https://hackerapproved.com/p/midnight-commander/

29 people recommended Midnight Commander in Hacker News comments, 5 had mixed feelings and 5 criticized it, November 2025 to October 2026. It was recommended in 11 of 12 months, in 26 threads. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** Fast, feature-rich two-panel terminal file manager people have used for years and find hard to beat. Common caveat: some find it flaky and say it hides how the terminal works.

Summary written by Claude from 34 comments.

## Why people recommend it

- Comparable to GUI file managers (3 comments in the sample): "The only file managers that I’ve used that felt competitive with the Mac are tools like Midnight Commander" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49602708)) "Some are very good tools that have no clear GUI superiors." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49398371)) "it's very close in capability to the GUI versions" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47008336))
- Long-term use, hard to beat (3 comments in the sample): "I don't think anything can come close to Midnight Commander." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48898562)) "I've used mc since my slackware days and still use it." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46786755)) "I keep mc open in a few terminals all the time" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47737701))
- Two-panel layout feels natural (2 comments in the sample): "Two-panel is the only somewhat sane way to navigate the file system" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47527595)) "the 2-pane layout is basically muscle memory at this point" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47735239))
- Quick keyboard navigation (2 comments in the sample): "it's so nice being able to walk around directories with arrow keys" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50137670)) "I could never do things as quickly in them as I could in mc." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49481470))

## What people warn about

- Hides terminal skills; shell is quicker (2 comments in the sample): "a tool that actively prevents you from learning the way how things work in terminal" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48861140)) "That's why I don't use `mc` I find `cp *.pdf ~/Documents` much more egonomic" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48640973))
- Seen as flaky or slow (2 comments in the sample): "I had bad feelings on MC, as it's flaky." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47016969)) "they are too basic and slow" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47517217))

## Other file managers people recommend

- [Dolphin file manager](https://hackerapproved.com/p/dolphin/): 66 recommend, 8 mixed, 16 criticize
- [Finder (macOS)](https://hackerapproved.com/p/finder/): 43 recommend, 18 mixed, 165 criticize
- [Windows Explorer](https://hackerapproved.com/p/windows-explorer/): 29 recommend, 4 mixed, 138 criticize
- [File Pilot](https://hackerapproved.com/p/file-pilot/): 24 recommend, 4 mixed, 8 criticize

## The badge

A product earns the Hacker Approved badge when at least 10 people recommend it, recommenders outnumber critics at least 2 to 1 (mixed feelings count toward neither side), it was recommended in at least 4 of the 12 months and in at least 5 different threads, and no single thread supplies more than half of the people who recommend it. Health and money products are never badged.

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Midnight Commander", https://hackerapproved.com/p/midnight-commander/ (29 recommend, 5 mixed, 5 criticize; Hacker News comments, November 2025 to October 2026).

Counts updated 2 Nov 2026, with data through October 31, 2026.