When comparing Kate vs LibreOffice Writer, the Slant community recommends Kate for most people. In the question“What are the best note taking apps for UNIX-like systems?” Kate is ranked 21st while LibreOffice Writer is ranked 24th. The most important reason people chose Kate is:
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.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
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.
Pro Project mode
Kate allows you to make projects to simplify the organisation of your code. This brings in additional organization of an IDE without the overhead.
Pro Fast and minimaistic
Kate is pretty fast and lightweight. This helps it with it's start up speed.
Pro Syntax highlighting
Kate supports syntax highlighting for over 180 languages, from Assembler to Zsh.
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.
Pro Thriving plugin ecosystem
Lots of plugins allow Kate to expand or shrink based on your needs. It includes GDB integration, XML completion, and symbol viewing to speed up programming.
Pro By far one of the best and lightest text editors.
Notepads alternative (for the Windows users).
Pro Vi entry mode
Kate has a vi entry mode.
Pro Familiar interface
The GUI is reminiscent of Microsoft Word and just as easy, if not easier, to use.
Pro WYSIWYG
What you see is what you get when you hit print!
Pro Mouse-friendly interface
Unlike command line editors, Writer doesn't require learning special keybindings or memorizing specific commands. Every option and setting is available at the click of a button!
Pro Really fast
Pro Easy to use
Pro Open source
Cons
Con Hard to install on Windows or OS X
Kate can be a little hard to install and configure, especially for beginners.
On Linux or BSD, it can be easily installed from your distribution's repositories.
Con Not as powerful as command line editors
This is true of any GUI WYSIWYG editor as it simply isn't possible to match the efficiency and utility of a CLI editor with an interface intended for mouse control.
Con Terrible image handling
Arranging images is nigh impossible.
Con Obtuse UI / UX / menus
Con Limited extensibility
Not many cool or interesting plugins are available.
Con Not as Good as the Windows Version
Glitchy, adds more spaces when indenting but you can't fix it as it just keeps doing it. Can't wrap text around tables but Windows version can. Both versions won't place page count outside margins where it belongs.
