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What are the best Linux text editors?

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15 Options Considered

15 Options ConsideredPricePlatformsLicense
Vim
Linux, macOS, WindowsGPL
Sublime Text
Windows; macOS; LinuxProprietary
Visual Studio Code
Windows; macOS; LinuxMIT
Kate
Windows; OSX; *nixGPL
Neovim
Linux, Windows, macOS, *nix, AndroidApache
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Vim

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Monika
Top Pro

Keyboard-based, mouse-free interface, and trackpad support

•••
There's no need to reach for the mouse or the Ctrl/Alt buttons again. Everything is a mere key press or two away with almost 200 functions specifically for text editing. Vim does support the mouse, but it's designed so you don't have to use it for greater efficiency. Versions of Vim, l...
Monika
Top Pro

Extremely portable

•••
Vi/vim exists on almost all Unix-like platforms. It's the de-facto Unix editor and is easily installed on Windows. All you need to make it work is a text-based connection, so it works well for remote machines with slow connections, or when you're too lazy to set up a VNC/Remote Desktop conn...
Monika
Top Pro

Lightweight and fast

•••
When compared to modern graphical editors like Atom and Brackets (which have underlying HTML5 engines, browsers, Node, etc.), Vim uses a sliver of the system's memory and it loads instantly, all the while delivering the same features. Vim is also faster than Emacs.
Monika
Top Pro

Works in terminal over SSH

•••
Unlike other editors such as Sublime Text, Vim is a command line editor and hence can be used in remote development environments like Chromebooks via SSH.
Monika
Top Pro

Excellent performance

•••
As it loads the whole file into RAM, replacing all string occurrences in 100 MB+ files is quick and easy. Every other editor has sort of died during that. It is extremely fast even for cold start. Vim is light-weight and very compact. In terminal, it only uses a small amount of memory and anytime y...
Monika
Top Pro

Tons of plugins/add-ons

•••
This makes Vim the definitive resource for every environment (Ruby/Rails, Python, C, etc.), or simply just provides more information in your view.
Monika
Top Pro

Great productivity

•••
Vim's keyset is mainly restricted to the alphanumeric keys and the escape key. This is an enduring relic of its teletype heritage, but has the effect of making most of Vim's functionality accessible without frequent awkward finger reaches.
Monika
Top Pro

Vimtutor

•••
Vimtutor is an excellent interactive tutorial for people with no prior experience of Vim. It takes about 30 minutes to complete.
Monika
Top Pro

Free and open-source software

•••
Vim is open-source, GPL-compatible charityware.
Monika
Top Pro

By default in Linux

•••
Monika
Top Pro

Macros increase productivity

•••
Many text editors have programmable macros, but since Vim is keyboard-based, your programmed macros are usually far more predictable and easier to understand.
Monika
Top Pro

Amazing extensibility

•••
Vimscript provides a rich scripting functionality to build upon the core of Vim. When combined with things like Tim Pope's Pathogen plugin management system, it becomes easy to add support for syntax, debugging, build systems, git, and more.
Monika
Top Pro

Usable from a Terminal or with a GUI (GVim, MacVim)

•••
If you happen to be logged into SSH, you can use Vim in a terminal. It can also run with a GUI too.
Monika
Top Pro

Has multiple distinct editing modes

•••
Interaction with Vim is centered around several "modes", where purpose and keybindings differ in each. Insert mode is for entering text. This mode most resembles traditional text entry in most editors. Normal mode (the default) is entered by hitting ESC and converts all keybindings to c...
Monika
Top Pro

Productivity enhancing modal paradigm

•••
As with all vi-like editors, Vim provides a modal paradigm for text editing and processing that provides a rich syntax and semantic model for composing succinct, powerful commands. While this requires some initial investment in learning how it works in order to take full advantage of its capabilit...
Monika
Top Pro

Can never outgrow it

•••
The fact that very few, if any, people claim to be a "Vim Master" is a testament to the breadth and depth of Vim. There is always something new to learn - a new, perhaps more efficient, way to use it. This prevents Vim from ever feeling stale. It's always fresh.
Monika
Top Pro

Everything is mnemonic

•••
No need to memorize different key combinations for things like deleting the text inside of a block or deleting the text inside of a pair of quotes. It's just a series of actions, or nouns and verbs, or however you prefer to think about it. If you want to delete, you select "d"; if y...
Monika
Top Pro

Vim encourages discipline

•••
If you use Vim long enough, it will rewire your brain to be more efficient.
Monika
Top Pro

Has been supported for a long time and will be supported for many years to come

•••
Monika
Top Pro

Works on Android

•••
Monika
Top Pro

Built-in package management

•••
Starting with Vim 8, a package manager has been built into Vim. The package manager helps keep track of installed plugins, their versions and also only loads the needed plugins on startup depending on the file type.
Monika
Top Pro

Asynchronous I/O support

•••
Since Vim 8, Vim can exchange characters with background processes asynchronously. This avoids the problem of the text editor getting stuck when a plugin that had to communicate with a server was running. Now plugins can send and receive data from external scripts without forcing Vim to freeze.
Monika
Top Pro

Donations and support to Vim.org helps children in Uganda through ICCF Holland

•••
Monika
Top Pro

Once learned, it's very hard to forget

•••
Vim's somewhat steep learning curve is more than made up for once you've mastered a few basic concepts and learned the tricks that allow you to program faster with fewer cut/paste mistakes.
Monika
Top Pro

Flexible feature-set

•••
Vim allows users to include many features found in IDEs and competing editors, but does not force them all on the user. This not only helps keep it lighter in weight than a lot of other options, but it also helps ensure that some unused features will not get in the way.
Monika
Elias Van Ootegem
Top Pro

Vim understands what you're working on, and breaks it up into text object

•••
Instead of an endless stream of characters, vim understands text, and allows you to navigate accordingly. Navigate through code by jumping to the next function block (]]), select an entire tag in markup (vat) - particularly useful when dealing with horrible SOAP API's... the list goes on and o...
Nathanael Higley
Top Pro

Can set up keymapping

•••
Monika
Top Con

Difficult learning curve

•••
You'll spend a lot of time learning all the commands and modes supported in Vim. You'll then spend more time tuning settings to your needs. Although once it's tuned to your needs, you can take your .vimrc to any machine you need and have the same experience across all your computers.
Monika
Top Con

User must remember commands instead of point at them in a menu

•••
Monika
Top Con

Poor feature discoverability

•••
Though basic features like syntax checking, autocompletion, and file management are all available out of the box or with minimal configuration, this is not obvious to new users, who might get intimidated or assume they need to install complex plugins just so they can have this functionality. Other...
Monika
Top Con

Consume brain energy for editing that should be used for logic

•••
Text editing in vim is awesome, but it requires thinking about combination of commands. In other editors, you don't have to think about how to delete this part of code. You just think about how to implement a feature, what is a good design for this code. Even after you get used to using vim, it...
Monika
Top Con

Foreign keyboards have a hard time on Vim out of the box

•••
A lot of frequently-used keybinds are way harder to access on foreign keyboards because they use different layouts. For example, Germans use the QWERTZ layout, while French use the AZERTY.
Monika
Top Con

Doesn't play nice with the system cut/paste mechanisms

•••
This can be worked around if you disable mouse for insert mode. You can then right-click your terminal and use paste like you would anywhere else in a terminal.
Monika
Top Con

Unintuitive mode switching

•••
Monika
Top Con

Difficult to copy, paste, and delete

•••
Monika
Top Con

High effort to customize

•••
Monika
Top Con

Slow when opening files with very long lines

•••
A lot of very long lines can make Vim take up to a minute to open files, where a few other editors take only seconds to load the same file.
Monika
Top Con

Modal editing

•••
Has a clean split between editing text (Insert Mode) and the other functions of the editor.
Monika
Top Con

Poor support for external tooling

•••
Many plugins depend on optional Python and Lua features, which may or may not be included in whatever binaries are available for your system. And without platform-specific hacks, it is difficult for plugins to operate in the background or use external tooling.
Monika
Top Con

No smooth scrolling

•••
Even with the GUI version, the lines jiggle line-by-line. If you are used to smooth scrolling, this is very annoying, especially when working with larger files.
Monika
Top Con

Works poorly out of the box with right-to-left

•••
See 39 more Pros & ConsSee 39 more Pros & Cons

Sublime Text

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Monika
Top Pro

Comfortable to work with

•••
Sublime Text has a minimap on the side that provides a top-down view of the file and keyboard shortcuts for most actions. It also supports a large number of languages and general text editing features out of the box.
Monika
Top Pro

Lightweight

•••
Sublime Text is very lightweight by default. Customization occurs on the fly thanks to Package Control.
Monika
Top Pro

Has tons of plugins available

•••
Monika
Top Pro

Very fast

•••
Sublime is quick to start and never slows down. The UI is always responsive and you know what is happening in the background.
Monika
Top Pro

Consistent cross-platform

•••
Sublime Text looks consistently the same across Windows, OS X, and Linux.
Monika
Top Pro

Multi-line select and editing

•••
Multiple cursors and column selection allows for versatile ways of editing. ctrl + d will select the current word and each time the command is repeated, it adds the next occurrence of the word to the selection. ctrl + click or middle-mouse click will place another cursor in the place that's c...
Monika
Top Pro

Beginner-friendly

•••
When you start using Sublime Text, it doesn't drown you in keyboard shortcuts or non-intuitive use-concepts. However, high-level functionality can still be easily accessed when the need for it arises.
Monika
Top Pro

Fully customizable

•••
Sublime Text allows for all sorts of customization to help users change almost everything in the editor: Key Bindings, Menus, Snippets, Macros, Completions, and many more. Essentially, just about everything in Sublime Text is customizable with simple JSON files. This system gives the user flexibili...
Monika
Top Pro

Multiple languages are supported

•••
Monika
Top Pro

Easy to get started

•••
All you need to do when starting up is to install a package manager and modify user configuration.
Monika
Top Pro

Freemium

•••
A Sublime license can be bought but it can still be used for free. However, a pop-up appears when you save multiple times.
Monika
Top Pro

Offers Command Palette

•••
Command Palette allows for fuzzy searching all available settings, snippets, etc.
Monika
Top Pro

Distraction free editing mode

•••
Distraction free editing takes over your screen and removes every UI element so you can focus on code.
Monika
Top Pro

Portable settings

•••
Settings are modular and can be shared.
Monika
Top Pro

IDE features without the cruft

•••
Sublime Text, while being lighter-weight than an IDE, still supports many IDE features. Text from the current file is used to provide autocomplete. Project Support (folder browsing, scoped history, build-system declarations). Refactoring support is emulated through multi-select, projec...
Monika
Top Pro

Functionality can be easily extended

•••
Sublime Text uses TextMate's syntax declaration files to support new languages, it has all its menus and keybindings generated from JSON files, and it can be scripted to add new features using Python. If Sublime Text doesn't support a desired language or feature, it's usually not long...
Monika
Top Pro

Regex commands

•••
Regex commands help describe a certain amount of text.
Monika
Top Pro

Installable package manager

•••
The package manager is a plugin and can be swapped with something else custom.
Monika
Top Pro

Customizable keymapping

•••
From menus to commands, assign key maps to almost anything.
Monika
Top Pro

Highly Theme-able

•••
Create your own theme with online editor.
Monika
Top Pro

Permits instant file switching

•••
Open Goto Anything by pressing Ctrl or Command + P and by using fuzzy search you can look for a file in your project. The file will load even without pressing enter, so you can make sure you've found the correct file without committing.
Monika
Top Pro

Projects support multiple folders and git repos

•••
Monika
Top Pro

Allows for Vim-style editing

•••
Vintage mode is Vim-style editing that's already built into the text editor.
Monika
Top Pro

Dynamic Build System

•••
Choose from many build systems or craft your own.
Monika
Top Pro

Haxe and OpenFL integration via plugin

•••
Both of these programming interfaces are cross-platform, open source, and easy to use.
Monika
Top Pro

Support for TextMate themes and window decoration themes

•••
Sublime Text compatibility with Textmate bundles is good, but excludes commands, which are incompatible. In general, Sublime Text syntax definitions are compatible with Textmate language files (.tmLanguage extension).
Monika
Top Pro

Direct server upload

•••
Provides command line shortcut for server upload.
Monika
Top Pro

Functionalities

•••
With lot of functionalities, where other editor even not think to provide.
Monika
Top Con

Proprietary

•••
Sublime Text protects and copyrights its code and is thus not the freedom-ware some would like it to be.
Monika
Top Con

Paid

•••
Although paying for something good is far from a Con, having the competition this editor has and still having to pay for it is definitely a Con.
Monika
Top Con

Shareware

•••
Many users tend to forget it, but it is a shareware, with a nag prompt reminding the user should pay for this software. It is not a problem (the company must have a source of income), but it is something to consider when most of the alternatives are free.
Monika
Top Con

Interruption while work

•••
"Purchasing" messages box interrupts while saving file.
Monika
Top Con

No printing of files

•••
Sublime Texts offers no way of printing the files it edits.
Monika
Top Con

Annoying whitespace management

•••
All too often it does the wrong thing with indentation on otherwise blank lines.
Monika
Top Con

Often crashes due to poor quality plugins

•••
Some plugins are quite buggy, meaning that installing many can become quite a problem regarding stability.
Monika
Top Con

Not a full IDE

•••
It does not necessarily function on a project level
Monika
Top Con

No toolbar

•••
Sublime Text is more focused on keyboard users, meaning it doesn't come with a tool bar. Even plugins can't toggle bookmarks using the mouse.
Monika
Top Con

Inadequate language support

•••
Sublime Text offers poor support for Far-East languages in Linux.
See 36 more Pros & ConsSee 36 more Pros & Cons

Visual Studio Code

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Ricardo Rodrigues
Top Pro

Easy to use

•••
From customizable shortcuts to a simple UI, it is just simple to use.
Nikhil Prabhu
Top Pro

Language Support

•••
Visual Studio Code comes with out-of-the-box support for more than 30 programming languages, such as HTML, CSS, TypeScript, PHP, etc.
Ricardo Rodrigues
Top Pro

Extendable

•••
Lots of plugins are available. Additionally if it doesn't recognize a file type it will ask if you wish to install a plugin that helps with that.
Monika
SensibleLevana
Top Pro

Works flawlessly on major developers' platforms

•••
VSCode manages to keep the same user experiences while developing on either Windows or Linux.
CaringLachesis
Top Pro

Libre/open source

•••
Released under the MIT License.
CaringLachesis
Top Pro

Active development

•••
It's really nice to see how the code editor evolves. Every month there is a new version with great communication of new features and changes.
CaringLachesis
Top Pro

Great performance

•••
For a 'wrapped' web-based application, Visual Studio Code performs very well.
Monika
Marc Telesha
Top Pro

Great Vim support from the VS Code team

•••
This is the best Vim outside of Vim. They are also starting to add Neovim for ex commands. Their roadmap for the Vim extension is very extensive about every command and informative.
Inguna Gudareva
Ricardo Rodrigues
Top Con

Takes time to start

•••
Can take a bit of time to start. If you just want to edit a file and close the app it can take more time compared with more lightweight editors.
meikl
Top Con

Heavy-weight

•••
Endi Sukaj
Lucifer Morningstar
Top Con

Slow

•••
Even the repo list takes 5 minutes to load.
See 9 more Pros & ConsSee 9 more Pros & Cons

Kate

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Kristaps
Marc Telesha
Top Pro

Great default settings and built in features

•••
Kate's defaults are great and working with many languages in many files are supported brilliantly. Newer editors have been influenced by Kate.
Kristaps
Marc Telesha
Top Pro

Fast and stable native editor

•••
Editing is incredibly quick and stable.
Paolo
ThoughtfulHunor
Top Pro

Fast and minimaistic

•••
Start-up is fast.
WhiteLilac
EncouragingYeomra
Top Pro

Syntax highlighting

•••
Kate supports syntax highlighting for over 180 languages, from Assembler to Zsh.
prash
Top Pro

Edit over FTP, SSH, or other protocols

•••
Kate uses KDE's input and output libraries to read and write files, allowing seamless integration with FTP, SMB, SFTP, and many other protocols.
prash
Top Pro

Integrated terminal

•••
Has a terminal that can sync to the location of your document, letting you compile or run your program quickly or run quick commands, all without leaving the editor.
Paolo
ThoughtfulHunor
Top Pro

Has a Vi entry mode

•••
Know any negative aspects of this option?
See 6 more ProsSee 6 more Pros

Neovim

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cosmo
Top Pro

Active development community

•••
iboyperson
Top Pro

Compatible with Vim plugins

•••
cosmo
Top Pro

Async plugin execution

•••
cosmo
Top Pro

Free, Libre, and Open Source

•••
Write your code with complete peace of mind, knowing the codebase has been thoroughly audited by programmers much like yourself. Enjoy a sense of security and privacy not found with many other popular editors and IDEs.
cosmo
Top Pro

UI Agnostic

•••
The core functionality is handled apart from the UI, meaning that Neovim can be embedded into any other GUI system, such as Atom.
cosmo
Top Pro

Better integration with external tools

•••
The core text editor is "headless", meaning it's detached from the user-interface so other programs can hook into it. This enables better integration with IDEs and browsers, where "Vim mode" has typically been a poor substitute because it was a partial rewrite or a partial p...
cosmo
Top Pro

Comes with some good configurations out of the box

•••
Some typical configurations most of VIM users make are default in Neovim.
Paolo
cosmo
Top Pro

Terminal mode is very convenient for testing code in a split window

•••
Alex
iboyperson
Top Pro

Asynchronous support

•••
Plugins have the ability to execute asynchronously.
cosmo
Top Pro

Opens a 3Gig Text File in a few seconds

•••
Not many editors can open such a large text file so quickly.
cosmo
Top Pro

Built-in terminal emulator

•••
This avoids the user having to make any installations.
cosmo
Top Pro

Modern code base

•••
As a refactor over Vim, Neovim has greatly improved its code base. For example, some functionality is handled by libuv, the same code base that powers Node.js.
cosmo
Top Pro

Powerful plugin model

•••
Vim plugins have always been useful, but tied to specific languages. Neovim's architecture provides better separation between plugins and the core product, so that plugins are completely flexible and can be written in any language.
cosmo
Top Pro

Still Vim but with upgraded features and some issues fixed

•••
NeoVim was a complete rewrite of Vim, with new features added and underlying issues resolved thanks to the Vim code base. The keybindings and configuration are the same as Vim, so the switch can be pretty simple.
Know any negative aspects of this option?
See 13 more ProsSee 13 more Pros

Emacs

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Monika
Top Pro

Enormous range of functionalities (way beyond simple "text editing")

•••
Through its programmability, a very broad range of functionalities can be integrated in emacs, turning it even into a "single point of contact" with the underlying operating system.
Monika
Top Pro

Great documentation

•••
With 30+ years of use the Emacs documentation is very thorough. There are also a lot of tutorials and guides written by third parties.
Monika
Top Pro

Free

•••
Licensed under GNU GPL.
Monika
Top Pro

Total customizability

•••
Customizations can be made to a wide range of Emacs' functions through a Lisp dialect (Emacs Lisp). A robust list of existing Lisp extensions include the practical (git integration, syntax highlighting, etc) to the utilitarian (calculators, calendars) to the sublime (chess, Eliza).
Monika
Top Pro

Provides org-mode

•••
Advanced planning and publication which can start as a simple list.
Monika
Top Pro

Keyboard-focused, mouse-free editing

•••
Emacs can be controlled entirely with the keyboard.
Monika
Top Pro

Lisp customizations

•••
With lisp customization, any behavior of Emacs can be changed. Update with pre-release patch can be also applied without recompiling the whole Emacs.
Monika
Top Pro

Ubiquity

•••
Fully compliant GNU-emacs is available on many platforms, and they all understand .emacs configuration files.
Monika
Top Pro

Cross-platform

•••
Works on Linux, Windows, Macintosh, BSD, and others.
Monika
Top Pro

Works in terminal or as a GUI application

•••
You can use Emacs' command line interface or graphical user interface.
Monika
Top Pro

Rectangular cut and paste

•••
Emacs can select rectangularly.
Monika
Top Pro

Self documenting

•••
Emacs has extensive help support built-in as well as a tutorial accessed with C-h t.
Monika
Top Pro

It's also an IDE

•••
You can debug, compile, manage files, integrate with version control systems, etc. All through the various plugins that can be installed.
Monika
Top Pro

Has been widely used for a long time

•••
Monika
Top Pro

(Almost) everything is implemented in Emacs Lisp. You are the limit.

•••
Monika
Top Pro

Mini buffer

•••
You can pass complicated arguments in the mini buffer.
Monika
Top Pro

Vi keybindings through Evil mode

•••
Evil mode emulates vim behaviors within Emacs. It enables Vi users to move inside the Emacs universe.
DazzlingWepwawet
Top Pro

Has a server/client mode

•••
Monika
CourteousMaximon
Top Pro

Keybindings by name

•••
Keyboard commands are easy to use with optimized keyboard layouts.
Monika
Top Pro

Support multi-line editing, multiple frame, powerful paren, crazy jumping style

•••
Review the "Emacs Rocks" video.
Monika
Top Pro

GTK+ widgets support

•••
Since version 25 you can run GTK widgets inside Emacs buffers. One of these is the WebKitGTK+, which allows the user to run a full-featured web browser inside Emacs with JavaScript and CSS support among other things.
Monika
Top Pro

Visual selection and text objects with Evil

•••
Evil is an extensible vi layer for Emacs. It provides Vim features like Visual selection and text objects.
Monika
Top Pro

dabbrev-expand (Alt-/)

•••
Dynamic word completion.
Monika
Top Pro

Helm plugin adds even more power to Emacs

•••
Powerful commands, search, and more with the Helm plugin.
Monika
Top Con

Learning curve is long

•••
While it's better than it used to be, with most functions being possible through the menu, Emacs is still quite a bit different from your standard editor. You'll need to learn new keyboard shortcuts.
Monika
Top Con

Takes a lot of effort to configure to fit your needs

•••
It definitely can be configured (and even programmed) according to anyone's habits, needs and preferences. For example, imagine a text editor which can handle typesetting and displaying English, Russian, Japanese and Sanskrit text, supporting LaTeX publishing workflow, Common Lisp development w...
Monika
Top Con

Chorded keyboard combinations can be baffling

•••
For example, for navigation it uses the b, n, p, l keys. Which for some people may seem strange. But don't worry, you can change it.
Monika
Top Con

Sometimes the extensibility can distract you from your actual work

•••
If I ever want to lose half a day, I'll start by tweaking my .spacemacs config file.
Monika
Top Con

A lot of jokes in this serious software

•••
See 27 more Pros & ConsSee 27 more Pros & Cons

Atom

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Monika
Top Pro

Extendable

•••
Due to its modular design, almost any aspect of the editor can be changed. Even seemingly core packages, like those taking care of search and replace functionality, can be forked on GitHub, and changed and replaced in the editor. The documentation for creating new plugins is also great, making it...
Monika
Top Pro

Free and open source

•••
Atom is free, open source, and written in C++, LESS, and CoffeeScript.
Monika
Top Pro

Modern feel and very customizable and extendable

•••
Monika
Top Pro

Multiplatform

•••
Atom can run on Mac, Windows, and Linux.
Monika
Top Pro

Extensive list of packages

•••
Atom has a built-in package manager and an extensive list of packages. Packages are written in CoffeeScript.
Monika
Top Pro

Built-in package management

•••
Atom was built from the ground up with the community in mind. Package management is therefore a first class feature.
Monika
Top Pro

Embedded Git control

•••
Atom will highlight folders, files, and lines that have any uncommitted edits made. It also integrates really well with GitHub.
Monika
Top Pro

Multi-line select and edit

•••
Multiple cursors and column selection allow for versatile ways of editing. ctrl + d will select the current word and each time the command is repeated, it adds the next occurrence of the word to the selection. ctrl + click or middle-mouse click will place another cursor in the place that's cl...
Monika
Top Pro

Themes

•••
You can theme and customize Atom to your liking.
Monika
Top Pro

Beginner friendly

•••
One of the goals of Atom is to be a text editor for both experienced and beginner programmers. You can add keyboard shortcuts, change themes, install plugins, and change core settings by clicking through a GUI, or by manually editing config files the old-fashioned way. It has the added advantage...
Monika
Top Pro

Command Palette support

•••
The Command Palette permits fuzzy searching all available functions, settings, snippets, etc.
Monika
Top Pro

Command line integration out of the box

•••
Installing Atom adds two command line commands - atom and apm. The first one runs the application itself while the second is the Atom Package Manager that's used to add and remove various components from the package listing. While these features can be set up with other editors as well, Atom ta...
Monika
Top Pro

Node.js integration

•••
The editor is built on top of Node. As such anything that can be done in Node can be done in the editor.
Monika
Top Pro

Allows for instant file switching

•••
By pressing Ctrl or Command + T and using fuzzy search, you can look for a file in your project.
Monika
Top Pro

Vim plugin turns Atom into a modernized vim

•••
Monika
Top Pro

HiDPI support

•••
Atom has built-in HiDPI support with zero scaling issues.
Monika
Top Pro

Best support for Arduino with Platformio

•••
Arduino is the most important platform for developing embedded systems.
Monika
Top Con

Very slow startup time

•••
Atom is very slow to startup, which is a big disadvantage if you are accustomed to using it to make quick changes on your files.
Monika
Top Con

High memory usage

•••
Atom has a relatively high memory usage, especially when compared to some other text editors not based on Electron. For those who develop on the go, this also tends to mean shorter battery life.
Monika
Top Con

Slow

•••
Atom is not a native application. As such performance is subpar and the lag is especially noticeable on larger projects. It also opens a surprising amount of sub-processes and leaks a considerable amount of memory.
Monika
Top Con

Slows down exponentially with plugins

•••
Extending it needs sacrificing responsiveness
Monika
Top Con

Has difficulty with large text files

•••
Tends to crash or hang with large >(10MB) text files, making it less useful as a general text editor.
Lucifer Morningstar
Top Con

Slower than VScode

•••
Better stick with non Electron based TE for now, like gedit/sublime/nano/vim or in extreme cases Ultraedit, don't choose anything JS based.
William Kennedy
Top Con

Bloated

•••
Tries to be too many things for too many people. (non-native & cross-platform)
Monika
Top Con

Not known when a new window will open

•••
It's not really clear why and when a new window is opened when you open a file out of the tree view.
Monika
Top Con

No text UI

•••
Monika
Top Con

Missing additional touches

•••
As Atom is still relatively new, it's missing nice little touches that other text editors have implemented over the years. From simple ease-of-use items like middle-mouse button multi-cursor select, to the ways pasted information from a spreadsheet is interpreted in multi-select situations.
Monika
Top Con

Depends on old software

•••
Depends on python 2, which dies out.
Monika
Top Con

Doesn't recognize some keyboards

•••
Monika
Top Con

Doesn't handle RTL (right-to-left text) well

•••
Text can't be highlighted and manipulated properly, cursor isn't displayed visually according to where it is logically (you have to type to find out), and similar issues.
See 28 more Pros & ConsSee 28 more Pros & Cons

Spacemacs

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Chloe Montanez
LuckySterquilinus
Top Pro

Preconfigured emacs distro

•••
Spacemacs is just a well-configured Emacs distribution with community-sourced best in class plugins and layers selected to take the setup pain out of Emacs. Evil mode gives the Vim bindings and modes for fast editing, while Helm makes everything discoverable to make learning to be more productive s...
Marc Telesha
Top Pro

VIM Keybindings with EMACS ecosystem

•••
EMACS ecosystem and language support is best in show. The EMACS is a great IDE that was in search of a good text editor. Spacemacs makes EMACS have a good text editor.
Chloe Montanez
LuckySterquilinus
Top Con

Emacs is slow

•••
Emacs is single threaded which means that if you enable all the great features you might be used to from Vim, it will run noticeably slower which can be quite frustrating at times. There are efforts at a concurrent Emacs, but they don't seem to be going anywhere.
See 1 more ProSee 1 more Pro

Gedit

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Kristaps
Top Pro

Great UI

•••
The UI is lean and minimal. Everything feels quite fast and it is easy to add custom shortcuts for doing things like compiling, deploying, or testing.
Lucifer Morningstar
Top Pro

Minimal

•••
Not bloated with millions of plugins and themes and stuff and very fast due to that.
Kristaps
Top Pro

Plugins allow for added functionality and customization

•••
There are tons of plugins for productivity available in many different workflows, such as a dictation plugin, an encryption add-on, a whitespace remover, and more.
Kristaps
Top Pro

Available on all systems that use Gnome

•••
Gedit is the official text editor for Gnome and it's available wherever any version of Gnome is installed. With thousands of people using it daily and not even realizing it.
Ricardo Rodrigues
Top Pro

Fast

•••
Opens very quickly. Good to use on small and medium sized files.
Chloe Montanez
Ricardo Rodrigues
Top Con

Doesn't scale on HiDPI screens

•••
Kristaps
Top Con

Confusing interface

•••
For example, finding anything in the settings menu is hard. Most other text editors use Edit->Preferences for managing settings but this is not the case for Gedit.
Kristaps
Top Con

Not a lot of features

•••
Gedit is a text editor. Though it's simple and fast, it misses a lot of features, most notably auto-complete for several languages.
See 6 more Pros & ConsSee 6 more Pros & Cons

Howl

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schlaumeier
Top Pro

Beginner friendly

•••
schlaumeier
Top Pro

Split screens supported

•••
schlaumeier
Top Pro

Code highlighting for many languages

•••
schlaumeier
Top Pro

Themes availabe

•••
New themes can be easily selected and it’s not difficult to create your own.
schlaumeier
Top Pro

Plugin system

•••
schlaumeier
Top Pro

Easy to discover or remember funtions

•••
All functions can be searched and executed from the command line
Know any negative aspects of this option?
See 5 more ProsSee 5 more Pros

Brackets

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Kristaps
ProductiveAmaethon
Top Pro

Has better defaults than most text editors

•••
Brackets has better fonts, scheme, file opening, etc. than Atom, Geany, GEdit, Nano, Sublime Text, Visual Studio Code.
Viljami Virolainen
Top Con

On linux you can not open a file in Brackets from command line or file browser. Only once opened Brackets you can open files in it.

•••

UltraEdit

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WhiteLilac
Top Pro

Probably the most versatile general editor in existence

•••
If you need a general editor, UltraEdit is the way to go. If you were writing C/C++ all day, then this would be your editor. If you need to slog through large files then this is your go to editor. If you need to go through XML files, then this is your editor. If you need to sort data, then this yo...
WhiteLilac
Top Pro

Highly flexible

•••
UltraEdit allows you to handle groups of files as a project.
WhiteLilac
Top Pro

Extremely customizable GUI editor

•••
UltraEdit offer the best of both worlds. it has a full on GUI along with all the shortcut commands you need. There's no need for the user to suffer 80 char limitations of a terminal editor.
WhiteLilac
Top Pro

Fast, stable, easy to use

•••
WhiteLilac
Top Pro

Works perfectly with remote files

•••
Supports several protocols for accessing remote files and working on them with the same ease as local files. Files can be integrated in the projects as normal files.
WhiteLilac
Top Pro

Handles large files (>1GB) extremely well

•••
UltraEdit has small memory usage and allows for fast parsing/searching when handling large files.
WhiteLilac
Top Con

The themes introduced in version 20 regressed certain aspects of syntax coloring

•••
The themes simplified the syntax highlighting which lost the capacity to have as many colors as one wanted to define. Now it is limited to around 20 different colors. In general it's not a problem but in certain cases it broke coloring.
WhiteLilac
Top Con

Proprietary

•••
It's not free and a license costs $79.99.
See 6 more Pros & ConsSee 6 more Pros & Cons

micro editor

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schlaumeier
Top Pro

Beginner friendly

•••
schlaumeier
Top Pro

Themes available

•••
Easy to change themes or build your own one
schlaumeier
Top Pro

Help system integrated

•••
schlaumeier
Top Pro

Plugin manager

•••
schlaumeier
Top Pro

Easy to install

•••
Everything is in one file. Just download
Know any negative aspects of this option?
See 4 more ProsSee 4 more Pros

Write!

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John Bricks
Top Pro

Endless undo/redo

•••
Write! uses a file format that saves all versions of a document. Meaning even if the app is closed and then opened up again, Write! can restore any previous version of the document.
John Bricks
Top Pro

Interface doesn't get in the way of work

•••
The interface is minimal, when it's windowed there are no buttons or toolbars, so it doesn't distract from work. When it's in fullscreen, there's just text, no interface at all.
John Bricks
Top Pro

Picks up where you left off next time you start the app

•••
Write! saves the state that it's in when closed and restores that state when opened. You can pick up working on documents in the exact same place you left off - same documents open, same cursor placement, etc.
John Bricks
Top Pro

Can double as a to-do list app

•••
Write! has a to-do list mode that allows creating lists of items in groups (tabs) that can be ticked off when completed.
John Bricks
Top Pro

Allows easily switching between working on multiple files

•••
Write! has tabs at the top and a tree view on the left that allows quickly switching between different files.
John Bricks
Top Con

Not free

•••
There are free markdown editors for windows, this is not one of them.
John Bricks
Top Con

You need to login to the App, and it reconnects to their server

•••
There is no offline use.
See 5 more Pros & ConsSee 5 more Pros & Cons

Nano

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thibdb13
Top Pro

Very easy to use

•••
Know any negative aspects of this option?

158 Community Recommendations

Lucifer Morningstar
Jake Gage
schlaumeier
Omega9
Ricardo Rodrigues
William Kennedy
cosmo
Buster Blu
Stéphanie
Adam Winn
Daniel Gallegos
+99
Request recommendations from the community
Elias Van Ootegem
Elias
Contributor for 7 months
31
Total 
Recs.
3.7K
Total 
Karma
Vim
Recommended 2 months ago
Not just the best linux text editor. The best editor all round. I'd even argue Vim is an IDE: integrated debugging, code completion, searching, cross-file refactoring, lint checks, you name it; Vim does it. All while using less resources than its (non-free) alternatives, and having the extremely powerf...
Pro
 Extremely portable
Pro
 Keyboard-based, mouse-free interface, and trackpad support
Pro
 Free and open-source software
Pro
 Tons of plugins/add-ons
Pro
 Lightweight and fast
Pro
 Has multiple distinct editing modes
Pro
 Great productivity
Pro
 Excellent performance
Con
 Poor feature discoverability
Pro
 Can never outgrow it
Pro
 Productivity enhancing modal paradigm
Pro
 Vim encourages discipline
Pro
 Vim understands what you're working on, and breaks it up into text object
See full
Buster Blu
Buster
Contributor for 2 years
154
Total 
Recs.
5.5K
Total 
Karma
Neovim
Recommended 2 months ago
I only used Neovim for a short time, and didn't expect it to replace Emacs, my current goto "text editor". It didn't, but it left me very impressed, regardless. I wouldn't be surprised if Neovim replaces Vim as the arch rival of Emacs in the future. From the little I've used of it,...
Pro
 Better integration with external tools
Pro
 UI Agnostic
Pro
 Async plugin execution
Pro
 Active development community
Pro
 Free, Libre, and Open Source
1See full
Buster Blu
Buster
Contributor for 2 years
154
Total 
Recs.
5.5K
Total 
Karma
Emacs
Recommended 2 months ago
It's an elisp engine disguised as a text editor, that's both timeless, and limitless.
Pro
 Ubiquity
Pro
 Total customizability
Pro
 Free
Pro
 Works in terminal or as a GUI application
Pro
 It's also an IDE
Pro
 Keyboard-focused, mouse-free editing
Pro
 Great documentation
Pro
 Self documenting
Con
 Learning curve is long
Pro
 Vi keybindings through Evil mode
Con
 Takes a lot of effort to configure to fit your needs
Pro
 Lisp customizations
Pro
 Provides org-mode
Pro
 Cross-platform
Pro
 Enormous range of functionalities (way beyond simple "text editing")
See full
cosmo
cosmo
Contributor for 3 months
38
Total 
Recs.
4.1K
Total 
Karma
Neovim
Recommended 2 months ago
Lighter, faster, and yet, more featureful than Vim, Neovim is the editor to end all editors. It's jam-packed with all the Vim goodness you've come to know and love in a heroically smaller footprint. It works with all of your old plugins and a load of new ones, enabling you to build the IDE of your dr...
Pro
 Compatible with Vim plugins
Pro
 Asynchronous support
Pro
 Still Vim but with upgraded features and some issues fixed
Pro
 Better integration with external tools
Pro
 Powerful plugin model
Pro
 Modern code base
Pro
 UI Agnostic
Pro
 Built-in terminal emulator
Pro
 Async plugin execution
Pro
 Opens a 3Gig Text File in a few seconds
Pro
 Active development community
Pro
 Comes with some good configurations out of the box
Pro
 Terminal mode is very convenient for testing code in a split window
Pro
 Free, Libre, and Open Source
See full
CapableNencatacoa
CapableNencatacoa
Contributor for 2 months
1
Total 
Recs.
0
Total 
Karma
Emacs
Recommended 2 months ago
I think of simple editors for simple, quick, edits; but invariably those edits turn into nightmares; "how does regex work here...". Stay with what you know and Keyboard Macros FOREVER!!!
Pro
 Free
Pro
 Great documentation
Pro
 Enormous range of functionalities (way beyond simple "text editing")
See full
cosmo
cosmo
Contributor for 3 months
38
Total 
Recs.
4.1K
Total 
Karma
Sublime Text
2 months ago
ABSOLUTELY PROPRIETARY! There are so many secure, privacy-respecting, open-source alternatives that it's difficult to justify the use of this software as a programmer.
Pro
 Comfortable to work with
Pro
 Consistent cross-platform
Con
 Proprietary
Con
 Shareware
Pro
 Fully customizable
Pro
 Has tons of plugins available
Con
 Paid
Con
 Interruption while work
See full
Daniel Gallegos
Daniel
Contributor for a year
63
Total 
Recs.
1.8K
Total 
Karma
Atom
Recommended 4 months ago
Atom is a very well designed text editor, but chokes consistently on larger files. Startup is slow compared to other text editors such as Sublime, along with using a lot of memory due to how it's built on Electron.
Pro
 Free and open source
Pro
 Node.js integration
Pro
 Extensive list of packages
Con
 Slow
Pro
 Multiplatform
Pro
 Built-in package management
Pro
 Embedded Git control
Pro
 Extendable
Pro
 Beginner friendly
Con
 High memory usage
Pro
 Themes
Con
 Very slow startup time
Pro
 Modern feel and very customizable and extendable
See full
Brenton Horne
Brenton
Contributor for 3 months
1
Total 
Recs.
0
Total 
Karma
Vim
Recommended 3 months ago
It is everywhere, blazing fast and makes you more efficient.
Pro
 Extremely portable
Pro
 Keyboard-based, mouse-free interface, and trackpad support
Pro
 Amazing extensibility
Pro
 Free and open-source software
Pro
 Tons of plugins/add-ons
Pro
 Lightweight and fast
Pro
 Has multiple distinct editing modes
Pro
 Great productivity
Pro
 Usable from a Terminal or with a GUI (GVim, MacVim)
Pro
 Excellent performance
Pro
 Can never outgrow it
Pro
 Productivity enhancing modal paradigm
Pro
 By default in Linux
Pro
 Vim encourages discipline
See full
UnbiasedAmunet
UnbiasedAmunet
Contributor for 3 months
2
Total 
Recs.
0
Total 
Karma
Atom
Recommended 3 months ago
Works just as well as sublime text and it's free
Pro
 Free and open source
Pro
 Extensive list of packages
Pro
 Multiplatform
Pro
 Built-in package management
Pro
 Embedded Git control
Pro
 Multi-line select and edit
Pro
 Extendable
Pro
 Themes
Pro
 Modern feel and very customizable and extendable
See full
CourteousMaximon
CourteousMaximon
Contributor for 5 months
1
Total 
Recs.
40
Total 
Karma
Emacs
Recommended 5 months ago
Works everywhere and with everything.
Pro
 Ubiquity
Pro
 Rectangular cut and paste
Pro
 Total customizability
Pro
 Free
Pro
 Works in terminal or as a GUI application
Pro
 It's also an IDE
Pro
 Keyboard-focused, mouse-free editing
Pro
 Great documentation
Pro
 (Almost) everything is implemented in Emacs Lisp. You are the limit.
Pro
 Lisp customizations
Pro
 GTK+ widgets support
Pro
 Has been widely used for a long time
Pro
 Support multi-line editing, multiple frame, powerful paren, crazy jumping style
Pro
 Provides org-mode
Pro
 Cross-platform
Pro
 Enormous range of functionalities (way beyond simple "text editing")
Pro
 Keybindings by name
See full
Currently displaying 10 out of 158 total recommendations.
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