I never got used to the Explorer/Nautilus way of managing files - I’m simply a dual-pane commander guy. I used Krusader at first, then I switched to Double Commander (since it was more light-weight), and now I’m back to Krusader.

Preparation/KDE integration with GNOME

Install qgnomeplatform-qt5 to enable proper window borders around doublecmd/krusader. Then, edit /etc/environment and add QT_QPA_PLATFORMTHEME='gnome'. The borders will be applied after reboot.

Krusader

Install: sudo apt install krusader. Don’t omit recommended dependencies otherwise fish (ssh) support and icons will be missing. Then, open configuration:

• Panel
  • General > Navigator bar: check “Edit Mode by default”
  • View > View font: Ubuntu, 11
  • Buttons > Check “Equal”, uncheck “Up” and “Root” buttons
• Colors
  • Uncheck “Use the default KDE colors”
  • Folder foreground: Dark Blue
  • Executable foreground: Dark Green
  • Symbolic link fg: Dark Cyan
  • Invalid symlink: Dark Red
  • Current background: Light Gray
• General
  • General > Terminal: gnome-terminal
  • Viewer/Editor > Editor: gnome-text-editor -n

Configure Keyboard Shortcuts:

• Rename: F9
• Term: F2
• Multi-rename: Shift-F9

Sort by extension.

Double Commander

sudo apt install doublecmd-qt

Note: install doublecmd-qt rather than doublecmd-gtk since GTK version doesn’t support wayland.

Go to Configuration:

• Colors / File Panels / Text Color: black
• Colors / File types:
  • category name: executable, mask: *, attributes: -*x*, color: Green
  • dir, *, d*, Navy
  • symlink, *, l*, Teal
• Files views / Files views extra / Show system and hidden files
• Folder tabs / “Show tab header also when there is only one tab” - uncheck
• Fonts:
  • Main Font: Ubuntu 11 Regular
  • Viewer font: Ubuntu Mono 13
• Icons / File panel: 16x16
• Keys: “Ctrl+Alt+Letters”: None
• Keys / Hot Keys:
  • cm_RunTerm: F2
  • cm_PackFiles: Alt+P (or ⌘P when in Mac mode)
  • cm_ExtractFiles: Alt+U (or ⌘U when in Mac mode)
  • cm_TargetEqualSource: Alt+= (or ⌘= when in Mac mode)
  • cm_ChangeDirToHome: ` (grave accent)
  • cm_RenameOnly: F9
  • cm_Search: Shift+Alt+F
• Tools / Editor:
  • Use External Program;
  • executable: gnome-text-editor
  • additional parameters: -n

Sort by extension.