Midnight Commander
Hacker ApprovedRanked 4 of 19 file managers by recommenders
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.
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.
39 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 34
- criticize it
- 5
- approval share
- 87%
Recommended in 12 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 34 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 6.8 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 12 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Comparable to GUI file managers
“The only file managers that I've used that felt competitive with the Mac are tools like Midnight Commander”
Comment from 7 Sep 2026 in “Finder is so frustrating and has been since day one” “Some are very good tools that have no clear GUI superiors.”
Comment from 22 Aug 2026 in “Stop Making TUIs” “it's very close in capability to the GUI versions”
Comment from 13 Feb 2026 in “Building a TUI is easy now” Long-term use, hard to beat
“I don't think anything can come close to Midnight Commander.”
Comment from 13 Jul 2026 in “Superfile: A fancy, modern terminal file manager” “I've used mc since my slackware days and still use it.”
Comment from 27 Jan 2026 in “Velox: A Port of Tauri to Swift by Miguel de Icaza” “I keep mc open in a few terminals all the time”
Comment from 12 Apr 2026 in “Midnight Captain – A midnight commander inspired file manager” Two-panel layout feels natural
“Two-panel is the only somewhat sane way to navigate the file system”
Comment from 26 Mar 2026 in “My DIY FPGA board can run Quake II” “the 2-pane layout is basically muscle memory at this point”
Comment from 12 Apr 2026 in “Midnight Captain – A midnight commander inspired file manager” Quick keyboard navigation
“it's so nice being able to walk around directories with arrow keys”
Comment from 18 Oct 2026 in “The history of development of Norton Commander (2011)” “I could never do things as quickly in them as I could in mc.”
Comment from 28 Aug 2026 in “GUIs should be fully keyboard-driven”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Hides terminal skills; shell is quicker
“a tool that actively prevents you from learning the way how things work in terminal”
Comment from 10 Jul 2026 in “Good Tools Are Invisible” “That's why I don't use `mc` I find `cp *.pdf ~/Documents` much more egonomic”
Comment from 23 Jun 2026 in “Ask HN: What is your opinion on TUI applications” Seen as flaky or slow
“I had bad feelings on MC, as it's flaky.”
Comment from 14 Feb 2026 in “Building a TUI is easy now” “they are too basic and slow”
Comment from 25 Mar 2026 in “Microsoft's "Fix" for Windows 11: Flowers After the Beating”
Other file managers people recommend
The four most recommended other file managers, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dolphin file manager | 77 | 19 | 80% | 12 | — | Approved |
| Finder (macOS) | 61 | 172 | 26% | 9 | 15 yrs22 owners | — |
| Windows Explorer | 36 | 141 | 20% | 11 | 2 yrs4 owners | — |
| Midnight CommanderThis page | 34 | 5 | 87% | 12 | — | Approved |
| File Pilot | 31 | 8 | 79% | 10 | — | Approved |
What people said
34 of the 43 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“it's so nice being able to walk around directories with arrow keys”
“Give it a shot if you wish Midnight Commander felt closer to Total Commander.”
“I mostly use clones like Midnight Commander, Krusader and Double Commander”
“to this day use GUI'fied (and TUI: Midnight Commander) incarnations of it”
“The only file managers that I've used that felt competitive with the Mac are tools like Midnight Commander”
“I could never do things as quickly in them as I could in mc.”
“I wouldn't touch Midnight Commander or whatever.”
“Some are very good tools that have no clear GUI superiors.”
“you always have an immediate view of the state of the system and the preview of the effect you're about to incur”
“I don't think anything can come close to Midnight Commander.”
“far more powerful than what is provided by default”
“a tool that actively prevents you from learning the way how things work in terminal”
“That's why I don't use `mc` I find `cp *.pdf ~/Documents` much more egonomic”
“as a long term user I can execute basically all the functions even though I've long since disabled the buttons, menus and hints”
“a good "writing station" applications are "mc" (Midnight Commander)”
“I found Midnight Command to be great for this, with its integrated file manager”
“Something like Midnight Commander can be way better than lots of manual copy and move commands.”
“mc adheres to NC standard, so you already have an extremely accessible system.”
“It has so many hidden capabilities that you may not even know about.”
“might be close to peak TUI for me”
“Or use mc (midnight commander).”
“That's why Midnight Commander was feeling so great.”
“I keep mc open in a few terminals all the time”
“the 2-pane layout is basically muscle memory at this point”
“Midnight Commander has always been my favorite terminal file manager. It's feature-rich, fast, and actually tries to be a file manager”
“Two-panel is the only somewhat sane way to navigate the file system”
“Being able to click in Midnight Commander makes this surprisingly usable for quick jobs!”
“they are too basic and slow”
“Great tui apps would to me be things like Norton/midnight commander”
“I had bad feelings on MC, as it's flaky.”
“it's very close in capability to the GUI versions”
“I've used mc since my slackware days and still use it.”
“still inferior to midnight commander in many ways”
“Also the TUI is genuinely good at simple-to-moderate complexity software. For an example, try out Midnight Commander.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.