We are all familiar with file managers. It’s that piece of software that allows you to access your directories, files in a GUI.
Most of us use the default file manager included with our desktop of choice. The creator of Polo hopes to get you to use his file manager by adding extra features but hides the good ones behind a paywall.
What is Polo file manager?
According to its website, Polo is an “advanced file manager for Linux written in Vala)”. Further down the page, Polo is referred to as a “modern, light-weight file manager for Linux with support for multiple panes and tabs; support for archives, and much more.”
It is from the same developer (Tony George) that has given us some of the most popular applications for desktop Linux. Timeshift backup tool, Conky Manager, Aptik backup tools for applications etc. Polo is the latest offering from Tony.
Note that Polo is still in the beta stage of development which means the first stable version of the software is not out yet.
Features of Polo file manager
It’s true that Polo has a bunch of neat features that most file managers don’t have. However, the really neat features are only available if you donate more than $10 to the project or sign up for the creator’s Patreon. I will be separating the free features from the features that require the “donation plugin”.
Free Features
- Multiple Panes – Single-pane, dual-pane (vertical or horizontal split) and quad-pane layouts.
- Multiple Views – List view, Icon view, Tiled view, and Media view
- Device Manager – Devices popup displays the list of connected devices with options to mount and unmount
- Archive Support – Support for browsing archives as normal folders. Supports creation of archives in multiple formats with advanced compression settings.
- Checksum & Hashing – Generate and compare MD5, SHA1, SHA2-256 ad SHA2-512 checksums
- Built-in Fish shell
- Support for cloud storage, such as Dropbox, Google Drive, Amazon Drive, Amazon S3, Backblaze B2, Hubi, Microsoft OneDrive, OpenStack Swift, and Yandex Disk
- Compare files
- Analyses disk usage
- KVM support
- Connect to FTP, SFTP, SSH and Samba servers
Donation/Paywall Features
- Write ISO to USB Device
- Image optimization and adjustment tools
- Optimize PNG
- Reduce JPEG Quality
- Remove Color
- Reduce Color
- Boost Color
- Set as Wallpaper
- Rotate
- Resize
- Convert to PNG, JPEG, TIFF, BMP, ICO and more
- PDF tools
- Split
- Merge
- Add and Remove Password
- Reduce File Size
- Uncompress
- Remove Colors
- Rotate
- Optimize
- Video Download via youtube-dl
Installing Polo
Let’s see how to install Polo file manager on various Linux distributions.
1. Ubuntu based distributions
For all Ubuntu based systems (Ubuntu, Linux Mint, Elementary OS, etc), you can install Polo via the official PPA. Not sure what a PPA is? Read about PPA here.
sudo apt-add-repository -y ppa:teejee2008/ppasudo apt-get updatesudo apt-get install polo-file-manager
2. Arch based distributions
For all Arch-based systems (Arch, Manjaro, ArchLabs, etc), you can install Polo from the Arch User Repository.
3. Other Distros
For all other distros, you can download and use the .RUN installer to setup Polo.
Thoughts on Polo
I’ve installed tons of different distros and never had a problem with the default file manager. (I’ve probably used Thunar and Caja the most.) The free version of Polo doesn’t contain any features that would make me switch. As for the paid features, I already use a number of applications that accomplish the same things.
One final note: the paid version of Polo is supposed to help fund development of the project. However, according to GitHub, the last commit on Polo was three months ago. That’s quite a big interval of inactivity for a software that is still in the beta stages of development.
Have you ever used Polo? If not, what is your favorite Linux file manager? Let us know in the comments below.
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I have used Polo, but since I discovered Thunar can be twin paned, have abandoned Polo, I donated and found the download facility useful and easy, but not much else for me.
I rely on dual-paned Thunar for ease of daily use.
now you make me curious so i vill try free Polo but for now, Dolphin is an absolute winner and Thunar is my second favourite file manager because it’s reliable and practical like a classic Swish knife.
I agree with you on Thunar. I haven’t used Dolphin much. I don’t spend much time on KDE.
I like the quad pane layout of Polo. And the way you can save a layout as a “workspace” so you can keep tabs open of folders or locations you access often.
On Windows I use Q-Dir file manager which also has the quad pane layout and can save layouts.
Also, this software works fine out of the box and the donation request is only for extra plugins. Some of the negative comments here seem to assume that it requires a donations to install or run, which is not the case. There doesn’t seem to be a “paid version” as suggested by the article, but only extra plugins you can receive by donating to the project. And the extra plugins are beyond the scope of normal file manager functions. This file manager seems to have a lot of unique features more than most file managers even before considering the extra plugins.
But there does not seem to be much development recently at GitHub and it remains in Beta, and does have some UI bugs. Also it starts slow and opening saved “workspaces” is slow.
I have used whatever file manager comes with the distro I install. And they all do their jobs, which is all I want them to do. Thunar, Caja, Nautilus, Nemo, doesn’t matter…when I open a folder? as long as I can see the files / folders / directories in it, and do what I need to do with the files / folders (which 9 times out of 10 is either “Open/Close” – “Copy/Delete” or check its properties) then that is all that matters…Why I would need to PAY for something my systems already COME with? Is beyond me. Not to say that this might not be useful for the person who needs those features, but I think there’s way too much impetus put on such things. I’ve seen articles and forums where people go at each other over things like Dolphin vs ManFM! For the love of pickles people!….ITS JUST A FILE MANAGER, and here’e the kicker: It really DOESN’T matter which file manager YOU use, because its not going to change my mind on the file manager I USE.
I mean, don’t get me wrong, there will ALWAYS be a “helping hand” mentality in the FOSS community….and its very much needed, I’d say its what has made the FOSS community the powerhouse that it is today. And someone positing this information to help someone who indeed NEEDS some, most, or ALL of these features, it the very essence of Open Source and teaching others to teach themselves, but it just seems to me that sometimes? People put WAY too much emphasis on the small issues and kind of ignore the bigger ones…but that’s just MY opinion and I’m sure yours will vary.
Great article though!
EGO II
I use PCManFM aside with Caja. fast and good to set up also with dual windows. I tried a lot so I will test Polo but paying as a must is aweful. I spent often if I like the developement like I did with Mint in the beginning and others.