Nemo file manager
Shares rank 11 of 15 file managers by recommenders
Recommended as a compact, feature-rich alternative to Nautilus; critics say it lacks convenient navigation and does not make AppImages executable.
6 people recommended Nemo file manager in Hacker News comments, 1 had mixed feelings and 3 criticized it, November 2025 to October 2026.
Summary written by Claude from 9 comments.
10 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 6
- mixed feelings
- 1
- warn against or regret it
- 3
The record
Recommended in 3 of 12 months
In 6 different threads.
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 6 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- 2 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 3 of 12 monthsNeeds 4 or more, not met.
- Recommended in 6 threadsNeeds 5 or more, met.
- The biggest thread supplies 17% of its recommendersNeeds half or less, met.
The same rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. Mixed feelings count toward neither side. How the badge works
What people say about it
Reasons grouped from a sample of 9 of the 10 opinions about it, picked in proportion to how many people recommend it, have mixed feelings and criticize it. Each mark is one comment in the sample. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Preferred over Nautilus
“I stumbled on nemo the other day while looking for nautilus. That… was a breath of fresh air: compact UI, menus, features, etc.”
Comment from 3 Jan 2026 in “2026 will be my year of the Linux desktop” “I always end up with Nemo or a patched Nautilus.”
Comment from 25 Nov 2025 in “Google's new 'Aluminium OS' project brings Android to PC” Good alternative worth trying
“there are so many options, try nemo”
Comment from 30 Nov 2025 in “People keep flocking to Linux, not just to escape Windows” “The possibilities are endless!”
Comment from 13 Nov 2025 on Hacker News
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 | Mixed | Criticize | Approval | Months | Had for | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dolphin file manager | 66 | 8 | 16 | 80% | 12 | — | Approved |
| Finder (macOS) | 43 | 18 | 165 | 21% | 8 | 15 yrs21 people | — |
| Midnight Commander | 29 | 5 | 5 | 85% | 11 | — | Approved |
| Windows Explorer | 29 | 4 | 138 | 17% | 10 | — | — |
| Nemo file managerThis page | 6 | 1 | 3 | 67% | 3 | — | — |
Also compared with File Pilot, Total Commander, Yazi and Nautilus.
What people said
9 of the 10 opinions about it, picked in proportion to the three counts, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“Nemo (Cinnamon) and Dolphin (KDE) open WebDAV URLs as directories.”
“it no longer uses special tokens correctly, probably because it's based on Nemo which also does not.”
“despite its shortcoming this integration has changed the way i work”
“That Nemo still won't tell you that you need to make an appimage executable to run it.”
“I stumbled on nemo the other day while looking for nautilus. That… was a breath of fresh air: compact UI, menus, features, etc.”
“neither nautilus nor nemo provides you convenient way to navigate”
“there are so many options, try nemo”
“I always end up with Nemo or a patched Nautilus.”
“The possibilities are endless!”
Counts come from 1,791,911 Hacker News comments labeled by Claude, November 2025 to October 2026, with data through October 31, 2026. Counts updated 2 Nov 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.