There is quite a funny, almost religious, debate within the Linux community between the two venerable command line text editors vi or Vim and Emacs. Sure they have loads of features and plugins but do you really need that from a command line editor? I think for the most part, or perhaps for most people at least, the answer is no. Instead I’m going to do something really stupid and publicly state, on a Linux related website, that you should ignore both of those text editors and instead use what many consider an inferior, more simplistic one instead: nano.

Sure it doesn’t have all of the fancy bells and whistles but honestly half the time I’m using a command line editor it’s just to change one line of text. I don’t generally need the extra fluff and when I do I can always use a graphical editor instead. Besides it’s so easy to use… just look at how easy it is to use:

Create/edit a file:

Open the file in nano Make your changes Save the changes

Open the file:

nano doc.txt

Make your changes:

Save your changes:

No complicated key combinations to remember – it’s all listed at the bottom of the screen. Want to save, “Write Out,” your changes? Easy as Ctrl+O and then Enter to confirm.

So let’s all come together, stop the fanboy wars, and all embrace nano as the best command line text editor out there! 😛

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