After 15 years, KDE’s Dolphin File Manager gets its columns view back

Published Nov 8, 2026, 2:55 PM EST Simon is a Computer Science BSc graduate who has been writing about technology since 2014, and using Windows machines since 3.1. After working for an indie game studio and acting as the family's go-to technician for all computer issues, he found his passion for writing and decided to use his skill set to write about all things tech. Since beginning his writing career, he has written for many different publications such as WorldStart, Listverse, and MakeTechEasier. However, after finding his home at MakeUseOf in February 2019, he would eventually move on to its sister site, XDA, to bring the latest and greatest in Windows, Linux, and DIY electronics. Sign in to your XDA account Summary Dolphin restores the Miller columns view after 15 years for clearer folder navigation. Column view existed in KDE 4, was removed in 2011, and became a top-requested feature. Try it now: build Dolphin with kde-builder and press Ctrl+4 to enable columns view. Sometimes, it takes a little while for things in the Linux scene to move, and that's totally fine. Earlier this year, we saw Nvidia cards get a boost on KDE after two years of work. Now, after 15 years, the KDE Dolphin File Manager has finally gotten its columns view back after it was left on the wayside. KDE Plasma's Dolphin File Manager is getting a columns view It was a bit overdue Credit: KDE The community announced the return of this feature on KDE Blogs. It's a cool little layout that uses what's called "Miller columns" to make it easier to see where in your computer you are. When you open a folder, its contents appear in the next column. Open a folder in that column, and another one is added. Eventually, you can see the path you took through your filesystem. Very handy. The interesting part is that this isn't a new feature, per se: "Dolphin had a column view from KDE 4.0, built on Qt's QColumnView. When Peter Penz moved the views to the new KItemViews engine for Dolphin 2.0 in 2011, the column view was not ported, and it was gone. Bug 387455, "Column view in Dolphin", was opened in 2017. With 32 people in CC, it has been one of the most requested features. It is now closed." Right now, KDE is deciding whether the feature should arrive in Dolphin 26.12, and will make its final decision on November 12th. In the meantime, you can run the following console commands to try it out: kde-builder dolphinkde-builder --run dolphin If you use an OS that also uses KDE Frameworks, you can tag the commands with "--no-include-dependencies" to just build Dolphin, then press Ctrl+4 to activate the columns view. Give it a spin and let KDE know how you like it.