Hello Linux Geeksters. As you may know, Double Commander is an open-source two panel (placed side by side) file manager, similar to the good old Total Commander.

Main features:
- Support for Unicode
- The operations run in the background only
- Support for tabs
- The ZIP, TAR GZ, TGZ, LZMA and also BZ2, RPM, CPIO, DEB, RAR archive formats are treated as subdirectories, enabling the users to easily copy files to and from the archives
- Search function
The latest version available is Double Commander 0.5.10 Beta, which has been recently released. For information about the latest release, see the changelog.
In this article I will show you how to install Double Commander 0.5.10 Beta on Ubuntu 14.04 Trusty Tahr, Ubuntu 13.10 Saucy Salamander, Ubuntu 12.10 Quantal Quetzal, Ubuntu 12.04 Precise Pangolin, Linux Mint 17 Qiana, Linux Mint 16 Petra, Linux Mint 14 Nadia, Linux Mint 13 Maya, Pinguy OS 14.04, Pinguy OS 12.04, Elementary OS 0.3 Isis and Elementary OS 0.2 Luna.
Because it is available via PPA, installing Double Commander 0.5.10 Beta on the listed Ubuntu, Linux Mint, Pinguy OS and Elementary OS systems is easy.
All you have to do is add the ppa to your system and update the local repository index:
$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:alexx2000/doublecmd
$ sudo apt-get update
And install the doublecmd:
For GTK based desktop environments:
$ sudo apt-get install doublecmd-gtk
For Qt based desktop environments:
$ sudo apt-get install doublecmd-qt
To start Double Commnder, type doublecmd in the terminal. For an easier usage, create this alias:
$ echo "alias doublecmd='nohup doublecmd &>/dev/null &'" >> ~/.bashrc
What does the alias do:
- nohup keeps doublecmd open after the terminal is closed
- &> /dev/null throws away the output and & starts the app in the background, in order to keep the terminal clean and usable
Optional: To remove the recently added PPA, uninstall Double Commander and downgrade all the packages that got upgraded, do:
$ sudo apt-get install ppa-purge
$ sudo ppa-purge ppa:alexx2000/doublecmd