Text Editors

Linux offers many options for editing text files such as scripts or configurations. Here are a few of the common editors you will find.

nano

Probably the best option for people who do not have much experience in Linux using a terminal-based interface. Commands are similar to normal word processing applications.

gedit

A good option if a remote graphical display (X11) is available. Commands are similar to normal word processing applications.

vim

Powerful but very different from a typical word processing application. There are two modes of operation: moving mode, and editing mode. To move the cursor around the document, you have to be in move mode. To interactively change the document, you switch to edit mode. You can programmatically make changes, too. Say, "change all occurrences of the string 'foo' which occur at the start of the line to 'bar'". Or, "delete the next 4 words".

emacs

Very powerful and extensible. You can run an email app and even a web browsing app written as Emacs applications. Commands are also very different from a typical word processing application.