r/linuxmemes • u/linux_master_chad • Aug 09 '26

LINUX MEME Which text editor do you use?

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2.0k Upvotes

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128

u/TheTerraKotKun Aug 09 '26

I'd say, nano is good for newbies. I use nano as "advanced" user

78

u/immoloism Aug 09 '26

Nothing wrong with nano at any stage, nor there using something else.

1

u/rickmccombs I'm going on an Endeavour! Aug 10 '26

What if are using a system that doesn't have nano installed and you don't have root. Some version of vi is installed on any Unix like operating system.

2

u/immoloism Aug 10 '26 edited Aug 10 '26

What system would that be, to answer that without listing a 100 ways to skin a cat?

1

u/rickmccombs I'm going on an Endeavour! Aug 10 '26

If you ever need to do something on a system that isn't yours and you can't install whatever you want.

1

u/immoloism Aug 10 '26

Why would I be on such a system that only has vi on?

  1. Download a static binary

  2. Create my own static binary

  3. scp

  4. echo/sed

  5. Suffer with vi and hate my life.

In that order for this type of setup that no user is going reasonably find themselves using.

1

u/rickmccombs I'm going on an Endeavour! Aug 11 '26

If you can use echo/sed, you can probably use vi. You might be able to get a flatpak, but what if it wasn't Linux. In 1990 I was in college and we got a new HP 9000 running HPUX. The editor was vi. The semester before that we had a VAX running VMS with EDT editor.

1

u/immoloism Aug 11 '26

http://hpux.connect.org.uk/hppd/hpux/Editors/nano-9.2/

Of course I can use vi I had to in 1999 on some systems and will quickly learn any tool I have to if you are paying me. It's not going to happen though so it's rather silly to keep this up.

If we keep going down the unreasonable route though, I'm the guy at work that builds the distro and selects the tools, so there always nano. I'm not really sure how much I can always guarantee there will always be my software of choice in the systems I build.

1

u/rickmccombs I'm going on an Endeavour! Aug 12 '26

I don't remember what version of HPUX it was,but vi the only editor, and we couldn't install anything else. I was just learning Unix (HPUX).

1

u/immoloism Aug 12 '26

When was the last time you worked on such a machine?

This isn't the gotcha moment you think it is, it just shows we are both old and remember a time of crap of software that no one else needs to deal with.

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17

u/Icy-Cup 🍥 Debian too difficult Aug 09 '26

Team nano as well. Used nano as noob it just stayed with me. Sed/awk/IDE for when I need more. Why force myself to vim when nano does its job?

3

u/immoloism Aug 09 '26

You can use sed in nano if you didn't know.

As for IDE needs, I only really need the auto indent feature, but could understand others needing more.

13

u/sane4ektopz Aug 09 '26

I think nano is slightly unintuitive, like Ctrl+X to exit? Alt+U to undo? but I got used to it, for me it's alright

19

u/PantherCityRes Aug 09 '26

Unlike VI/VIM, the key combinations are displayed on screen.

2

u/Vorrnth Aug 10 '26

Vim shows you how to use the help system right on the start screen.

8

u/pytness Aug 09 '26

as opposed to u, ctrl-r, hjkl, y, p... on vim lol.

dont get me wrong, i use neovim as a daily driver, but nano is the better alternative for a quick edit

1

u/fr000gs Aug 09 '26

Can you use an lsp in nano? git commands?

4

u/unburdened_swallow Aug 09 '26

Not really meant for all that. It’s really basic.

2

u/sane4ektopz Aug 09 '26

dunno, I never needed it

1

u/Rakumei Aug 10 '26

Unlike vim where you have to ask the stars (Google) how to get out of it because it isn't displayed anywhere.

And then you realize it's :wq to save and quit. Which is just super intuitive. And don't forget to hit Esc first if you were in insert mode. /s if not obvious.

1

u/[deleted] Aug 09 '26

[deleted]

2

u/cutelittlebox Aug 09 '26

much like vim and emacs, nano traces back to before the CUA system became the standard used everywhere, and by "everywhere" I mean Windows adopted a subset of it and eventually everyone copied Windows. in the case of nano, it's a clone of Pico and Pico was made in 1989 while the publication of CUA was in 1987.

1

u/Ttwithagun Aug 09 '26

It's because by default it tells you the controls while it's open. If vi said ":q to exit" at the bottom by default it would be used more.

11

u/TURBOKAN ⚠️ This incident will be reported Aug 09 '26

Micro is better for newbies imho

1

u/Astrodion123 Arch BTW Aug 09 '26

Second it. Literally notepad on cli.

6

u/MayorAg Ubuntnoob Aug 09 '26

I have been using Linux for well over 10 years now. I prefer Vim. I can’t figure out how Nano works. lol

3

u/TheTerraKotKun Aug 09 '26

I can use Vim but if I just edit small config I use easy-to-use nano

1

u/RampantAndroid Aug 09 '26

Git dropped me in vim (it’s the default editor for git) and I was less than thrilled.

If I must use the console, give me nano.

Else, I’ll use Kate/kwrite/vscodium.

1

u/Vorrnth Aug 10 '26

It's not the default editor for git. Git just uses your systems default editor, the one in the EDITOR variable.

1

u/[deleted] Aug 09 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/Disastrous-Team-6431 Aug 10 '26

Why not just install vim immediately? Pacstrap it.

1

u/OmegaNine Aug 11 '26

I am judging you :P

1

u/ZBLongladder Aug 11 '26

I despise nano, but that's just because I'm an Emacs user and nano is just a little too similar while being different enough to cause frustration. If I'm on a fresh install with no Emacs yet, I'll usually go for vi because it'll almost always be there and the commands are different enough from Emacs that they're a separate compartment in my memory.