As a system administrator, you are responsible to make sure everything in your network is up and running. That means that running commands on the terminal is just not enough and changing configuration files or making small scripts to do certain tasks are also an important part of the job. In such a situation, you must have a text editor that you are very comfortable with and lets you get things done quickly and efficiently. Here is a roundup of the text editors that are the most popular.

VIM

Although many linux versions come installed with a text editor called VI, VIM (VI improved) is an enhanced version of the same. VIM has the capability to be used both as a command line text editor and as a GUI application. VIM was voted the most popular editor among Live Journal readers back in 2006. VIM doesn’t have any menus and all the functionalities happen over commands- even tabs are possible, but only using commands and keyboard shortcuts. VIM was developed in C, and there are a lot of plugins available to enhance your experience.

Emacs

Although emacs refers to a series of text editors under the same name, we refer the most popular version- GNU Emacs. Although VIM is considered good for beginners, Emacs is generally considered the next level, although there are people who beg to differ. There are loads of keyboard shortcuts, most of which involve the use of the Ctrl or Command key, which stresses your pinky, commonly known as the emacs pinky problem!

nano

Nano is another popular text editor, which was developed based on the Pico text editor, initially released with the name TIP (This isn’t Pico) in order to create a free alternative for the same! Nano has been known to be a very user friendly text editor, so if you want to just get your tasks done, nano should be your choice. So, if you struggle to work with configuration files, you should not use a text editor which makes the task harder.

gedit

Gedit is the default text editor for the Ubuntu desktop environment and is quite popularly used as an alternative to Notepad. Although it can be invoked from the terminal it doesn’t have a terminal view. Gedit focuses on simplicity and has resemblances to Microsoft’s Notepad. This is one text editor which is preferred by users new to Linux based environments.

Sublime Text

A relatively new text editor as compared to the other ones mentioned here, launched in 2008, Sublime Text has covered good ground in the few years of its existence. Sublime text has a good user interface, that caters to the need people beyond system admins or developers. It is highly customizable and you can change a lot of stuff- ranging from key bindings to menus. Some unique features include capturing the full content of a file, letting you know where you are. There are numerous plugins, which are developed and maintained by the community. Sublime Text is not free per se, but there is no limit to the trial period and you can extend it to any time period you want.

With this, we come to the end of our roundup of the best text editors out there.