4Pane is a very powerful quad-pane file manager.
If you’ve ever used Q-Dir on Windows you already know how useful a quad-pane file manager is for power users. I was looking for a similar file browser on Linux with quad panes so that I can access multiple directories at once. Tabbed interface helps to some extent but I don’t like that extra click to select a new tab every time. 4Pane along with its nice looks and features is the closest to what I want. Currently it is available for Linux but seeing that it is written using wxWidgets I guess it can easily support Windows too. And yes, it supports tabs as well. Feature highlights:
- Multi-pane, detailed-list file manager without bloat
- Up to 26 four-pane tabs with unique orientation in each
- Navigation made easier with bookmarks, user-defined GoTo buttons, and a history of “Recently-visited directories”
- Integrated console
- Drag and drop copy, move
- Almost every action like deletion can be undone
- Normal tar and zip handling. Most archive types can be browsed, their contents altered, individual files read or launched; all without opening the archive.
- Automatically mount external devices and access easily from the corresponding toolbar icons
- Multi-renaming or duplication of files, either by prepending / appending, incrementing or using Regular Expressions.
- Extend using your own User-Defined Tools
- Highly configurable – use different shortcuts, consoles
Packages for many distros are available for download. If you are still unlucky you may need to compile 4Pane from source and install it.
Webpage: 4Pane