CLI integration
Can you pull up a command line when you need to?
You never know when a terminal window will come in useful. Midnight Commander has a single line terminal that automatically changes directory as you browse. It picks up all your non-file navigation keystrokes, so if you need to rattle off a quick command you can. This is no use if you want to use commands displaying more than a single line of output, but you can toggle in and out of a plain shell with Ctrl-o. If you’re feeling brave, you could combine Midnight Commander’s macrovariable functionality with the terminal, exporting those variables to Bash ones. Obviously, we did not try this.
Press F4 in Dolphin to open a handy shell panel at the bottom. This means you don’t have to drag a selection of files all the way to another terminal window. Dolphin’s terminal panel also changes directory with your browsing. Krusader also has an integrated terminal, and if you just want a single line then an Midnight Commander-style command line is available too. 4Pane can open a terminal application in the current directory, and like Krusader also has a terminal emulator or single line prompt. Careful though, the built-in efforts provide only a very basic shell and won’t work with advanced Bash-isms or environment variables or the like.
Ranger can open a shell with one keystroke, but unlike Midnight Commander you’ll have to exit to return to Ranger. Since you can open a new shell at the same place this is a distinction with at most three keystrokes difference. You might want to use a terminal multiplexer with Ranger (or Midnight Commander), in which case you could have as many terminals as you like. Otherwise you can tweak Ranger to work with an xterm compliant terminal if you wanted to, say, play music from/in a separate window.