this post was submitted on 09 Aug 2026
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    Which text editor do you use?

    top 50 comments
    sorted by: hot top controversial new old
    [–] nixx@lemmy.ca 4 points 1 day ago

    The reasons us elders use VI is because on a new installation, it was the only thing available until:

    1. You are lucky enough to find a compiled version of PINE/PICO, or

    2. You have the compiler installed, and can get the source code and build it yourself.

    For some reason, some elitists decided that if you don't know that, then you are a failure. But honestly, when modern distros started coming out with WYSIWYG-type editors, it was a relief, even though I reverted to VI/VIM because of muscle-memory, I do not push it on new users. It's the same argument people make for driving manual vs automatic, sure it's useful, but when was the last time you even saw a manual car? (At least in North America).

    You want to live dangerously, go ahead and put NetBSD with just the basics and leave the rest of us who want to do something useful alone.

    [–] Rolive@discuss.tchncs.de 10 points 2 days ago

    Nano because I'm too lazy to learn vim or emacs. I want something that works and not something that operates like cheat codes in old video games.

    [–] Digit@lemmy.today 26 points 2 days ago

    It's worse than the picture depicts. It's not just the lovers, the elitists and the evangelists, it's the sheer range of choice too, beyond the loudest.

    same cat surrounded by dozens of text editor courgettes that look like snakes

    [–] zebidiah@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 day ago

    Nano in the CLI, kate in the GUI

    I use

    1. sublime-text when not confined to a terminal
    2. nano for example with git's CLI
    3. vi/vim when the others are not available.
    [–] nonentity@sh.itjust.works 5 points 2 days ago (1 children)
    [–] HawtP0tat0@sh.itjust.works 3 points 2 days ago

    head n-1 > tmp && echo "line replacement" >> tmp && tail -n+1 >> tml && mv tmp orig

    [–] SigHunter@discuss.tchncs.de 102 points 3 days ago (9 children)
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    [–] Allero@lemmy.today 21 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (5 children)

    First choice: use a normal damn GUI text editor

    Second choice: Nano. It's simple and comprehensible, and a best CLI choice for newbies. You can then turn to vim, emacs, or whatever, but don't make your life harder from the get-go

    People suggesting to start with Vim are probably the same ones pushing for Arch as a first distro. C'mon.

    [–] zerofk@lemmy.zip 11 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

    That’s how you breed scrubs who can’t M-x-butterfly. I say give them a distro that boots into vi and starts a background process that block internet access around them. If they manage to quit vi and kill the daemon, they’re ready for Linux.

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    [–] Skullgrid@lemmy.world 88 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

    Me no love nano, me brain only can use nano.

    E macs scary. vim no let me leave :(

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    [–] DarkCloud@lemmy.world 4 points 2 days ago

    Noobs get hit with friendly fire.

    [–] plateee@piefed.social 67 points 3 days ago (2 children)

    vim, because that's how my father taught me, and how his father's father taught him.

    Choose vim! The generational trauma of file editors!

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    [–] jenesaisquoi@feddit.org 9 points 2 days ago (1 children)
    [–] wetsoggybread@lemmy.world 3 points 2 days ago (1 children)

    I feel called out but the only time I'm editing a file is tweaking a config or .env file and its just so simple for me

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    [–] this@sh.itjust.works 9 points 2 days ago (4 children)

    All I'm gonna say is than nano is installed on almost every Linux os and has the keyboard shortcuts written on the UI.

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    [–] crakila@lemmy.world 4 points 2 days ago

    kate when I am using GUI and vim when I am using CLI.

    [–] DarrinBrunner@lemmy.world 51 points 3 days ago (5 children)

    As a new Linux user who spends as little time editing config files as I can manage, I'm fine with nano.

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    [–] BlackLaZoR@lemmy.world 7 points 2 days ago

    Kate master race of KDE

    [–] Tattorack@lemmy.world 5 points 2 days ago

    I want whatever is closest to Notepad++. Honestly, KDE already comes with that built in.

    [–] guy@piefed.social 2 points 2 days ago

    My distro came with Nano, so here I am

    [–] rustydrd@sh.itjust.works 26 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (6 children)

    Why would you need a text editor when you can just do cat > file ?

    smh

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    [–] ian@feddit.uk 3 points 2 days ago

    I think it comes with a text editor already built in. I don't need a text editor though.

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