I am a big fan of Notepad++ in windows and I have been using Notepadqq, a linux clone. Lately though, I have been experiencing more and more crashes and bugs with it. Looking for advice and wisdom. Is there something better? Should I stick it out and try and troubleshoot my problems with Notepadqq?
Edit: Just wanted to thank everyone for all the great advice! I know people can sometimes be territorial and/or religious about their choices here, but people in this thread were helpful and informative, so thank you!
I am trying out Notepad Next but I also installed Notepad++ with Wine. Both seem promising, thanks.
Helix, Kakoune, build Codium from source would be my suggestions.
I use Helix now mainly - I use Codium if I need a graphical editor for something, or one of it’s plugins.
At work the systems use VSCode but I use the Dance plugin with Helix bindings to get some of that functionality back.
I also used Notepadqq for the first year I used Linux, I ended up switching to Kate since it did everything I liked about Notepad++ and it came installed with my KDE desktop soooo.
Also for the few times I gotta use a terminal text editor I use Micro (It really should be the default instead of Nano)
Emacs has entered the chat.
Fuck you.
Love,
Neovim(Just meming, emacs is actually pretty cool tbh and you probably are too.)
With emacs you don’t learn once, nor twice but at least 100 times. but seriously, it’s a very nice editor that you either fall for life or not at all.
I used it for a couple of years then stopped 🫣 org mode was nice. except for on mobile. except if you wanted images. and discovering the right packages was a bit of a chore
it was fun while it lasted tho
Sublime isn’t freeware but it also doesn’t seem to have any nags if you use it beyond 30 days. Up to your own software morals if you decide to pay the $99 for it or not but it is a rock solid editor and may be worth the money.
Absolutely love sublime. Im not entirely sure but if I remember correctly they are perfectly fine with you using it for free as along as you don’t use it commercially. I used it for free during university and then at work I just asked if they will buy me a personal license since I am much faster with sublime than without and had all my keybinds and python scrips for automation.
Try Zed.
What kind of text editing do you do? Coding? Config files? Hard to recommend if we don’t know the use case :P
If you want to get into terminal text-editors, I recommend https://helix-editor.com/ . It’s modal like vi/vim/neovim etc., but has much easier and more intuitive keybinds, and comes batteries-included and doesn’t require extensions.
Downsides: Not fully mature, there’s no extension support so not suited for very niche use-cases. And if you ever have to administrate a server through SSH, it will likely only have vim which has different motions and keybinds.
Been using it for 99% of my coding for three ish years, very happy.
Vim!
If you really don’t want to then try kwrite for something more simple or kate for a full IDE. There both developed by kde and been around for a while.
Someone recently recommended me Textadept: https://orbitalquark.github.io/textadept/. Haven’t tried it on linux, and I am not really using it, but the interface is clean, it also has a CLI, and I thought I could give you another option :)
I prefer editing in the terminal, but when it comes to gui editors i’ve heard a lot of good things about kate and geany.
If push comes to shove, you can still use Notepad++ under Wine. It works.
I use Kate for my editing needs, fast and good regexp work, which is important for me.
Neovim is the way and here’s imo why:
- Vim keybinds: yes, we take more time editing then actually writing text/code so it’s faster to use a modal text editor, you just have to learn it a bit at the start. Vim language is easy, you just tell it what you want it to do (ie. diw: delete inner word, ciw: change inner word etc.)
- highly customisable, even if you don’t want to cherry pick your plugins and choose a config, there are many out of the box configured (lazyvvim comes to mind but there are many)
- if you’re a developer you can find plugins for everything you need, debugger, lsp, autocompletion etc.
Honestly just use whatever you want whenever you want. I mean for myself I’m currently using DOOM Emacs but that’ll change in a month or two when I decide to use something else. I’ll routinely rotate through Neovim/LazyVim, DOOM Emacs, Zed, Kate, whatever really. if something new comes along, i’ll use that for a bit. Hell sometimes I just can’t be bothered and will just use Nano.
But yeah, they’re all fine. use whatever you want.
Ultra Edit 32 was excellent.
It depends on what you are doing wiþ it. Programming? Taking notes? Writing books?
For all-around, vim is a good choice. Þere’s even gvim, which helps get over þe learning curve a little. Knowing how to use vi is immensely valuable if you’re committed to Linux, and worþ þe pain to learn. And it is a pain to learn.
Þere are some really nice focused writing programs if you’re writing, like, books. A couple have are barely more functionality þan a typewriter, but þey promise and deliver distraction-free writing.
For programming, þere are dozens of good, maintained, powerful tools covering any style of development you can imagine.
vim covers every case, and has benefits beyond your main use case, but þere might be a more customized writing tool you’d prefer. What sorts of þings are you writing?
If you want a gui editor maybe Kate?
+1 for Kate
