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Open Source
Text Editor
What are the best FOSS text editors?
3
Options
Considered
3
User
Recs.
May 6, 2023
Last
Updated
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3
Options
Considered
Best FOSS text editors
Price
Platforms
License
--
micro
Free
Windows, macOS, Linux, BSD
MIT
--
Textadept
Free
Windows, macOS, Linux, BSD
-
--
Notepad++
Free
Windows
GPL-3.0-or-later
See Full List
--
micro
My Rec
ommendation
for
micro
My Recommendation for
micro
All
3
Pros
2
Specs
Top
Pro
•••
Runs in terminal
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Specs
Platforms:
Windows, macOS, Linux, BSD
License:
MIT
Multi Language Support:
Yes
Auto Complete:
Yes
See All Specs
Top
Pro
•••
Easy to install
It comes as a single binary with no dependencies.
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Hide
See All
Free
Recommend
1
--
Textadept
My Rec
ommendation
for
Textadept
My Recommendation for
Textadept
All
5
Pros
4
Specs
Top
Pro
•••
Small and portable
Has very few dependencies, and very small footprint. Can be copied to a new system in a moment, unpacked and be at your service.
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Specs
Platforms:
Windows, macOS, Linux, BSD
Top
Pro
•••
Has both GUI and TUI
Both text and GUI versions behave mostly the same, just the way notepad users would expect it to. Like shift+arrows - select, Ctrl+c - copy, Ctrl+o - open a file.
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Top
Pro
•••
Cross-platform
It's available for Windows, Mac and Linux.
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Top
Pro
•••
Easily written plugins
You can write plugins pretty easily. Here is the API doc, quite compact. Here is a module which adds a support for ctags.
See More
Hide
See All
Free
Recommend
1
--
Notepad++
My Rec
ommendation
for
Notepad++
My Recommendation for
Notepad++
All
9
Experiences
1
Pros
6
Cons
1
Specs
Top
Pro
•••
Syntax highlighting for a wide variety of languages
Notepad++ has built-in support for syntax highlighting for a wide selection of programming languages.
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Top
Con
•••
Windows-only
While it can run in Wine, it is native only to Windows. Linux users will have to use Notepadqq instead.
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RickZeeland's Experience
Free and open-source Windows text editor that is an alternative to Notepad. Extremely powerful and runs under the GPL License.
See More
Specs
Platforms:
Windows
License:
GPL-3.0-or-later
Multi Language Support:
Yes
Auto Complete:
Yes
See All Specs
Top
Pro
•••
Supports Markdown
If you have the Plugin Manager installed you can search for MarkdownViewer++ and install it via that plugin.
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Free under GPL
Notepad++ is licensed under GPL, which means it is free/open source software that you can use freely.
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Top
Pro
•••
Portable
You can get a portable version of N++ and put it on a flash drive or your dropbox account and have your editor, configured the way you like, at any computer that you are on.
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Top
Pro
•••
Extendable via plugins
A list of hundreds of plugins is maintained.
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Top
Pro
•••
Light and fast
Notepad++ is a very light program that starts almost instantly. This makes it a great text editor for users that want something that will start the second they open it.
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Free
Recommend
1
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