When comparing GhostWriter vs ReText, the Slant community recommends GhostWriter for most people. In the question“What are the best open source Markdown editors for UNIX-like systems?” GhostWriter is ranked 22nd while ReText is ranked 27th. The most important reason people chose GhostWriter is:
Minimalist interface, full screen writing and "Hemingway Mode" (which disables backspace to enforce writing rather than editing).
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Distraction-free
Minimalist interface, full screen writing and "Hemingway Mode" (which disables backspace to enforce writing rather than editing).
Pro Hemingway Mode
Prevents the use of backspace key to encourage forward momentum.
Pro Suitable for writing
Fast startup, resource light and encourages you to only write by Hemingway mode.
Pro Integration with Pandoc
Pandoc integration enables it to output various different formats.
Pro HTML preview
Pop-up rendered HTML preview window.
Pro Very fast
Native application wit Qt interface, very snappy.
Pro Themeable
Has a theme editor which allows for the creation of custom themes.
Pro HUD
There are various HUD windows which can show things such as document statistics and a Markdown cheat sheet.
Pro MathJax support
MathJax is a display engine that helps render mathematics properly.
Pro Preview incldues syntax highlighting
The syntax is highlighted in the Preview pane. The programming language in use is guessed. The code block has to be indented 4 spaces (or a tab) for the syntax highlighting to work.
Pro Package available for Fedora
Easy installation and auto-updates.
Pro Can export to Google Docs
Cons
Con Lacks synchronized scrolling
The editing and preview panes don't scroll together. They have to be manually adjusted to align.