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Most of the time while running SSH connections to remote servers we need to edit configuration files, read log files, take notes for other people and we do all that in the command line with a text editor. Now Linux comes with a huge variety of text editors. Some of them are built in with the distribution you have installed, others can be downloaded and installed via tar or apt and so on. But whatever the case is the editor we use must be lite, fast and comfortable for us to use. One example of a great but hard to use for new users is the VI text editor. Vi is great and powerful and you can do great stuff with vi, but for new users is very uncomfortable.

So in this article we are going to check for text editors that are lite, have great options and also are easy to use for new Linux users.

Article content:

  1. Pico Command Line Text Editor
  2. Nano Command Line Text Editor
  3. Ne Command Line Text Editor
  4. Tilde Command Line Text Editor
  5. Jed Command Line Text Editor
  6. Micro Command Line Text Editor
  7. Midnight Commander Command Line Text Editor
  8. Mle Commander Command Line Text Editor
  9. Suplemon Commander Command Line Text Editor
  10. Joe Commander Command Line Text Editor
  11. The 10 best torrent clients for Ubuntu and other Linux distros [ in 2021 ]

1 – Pico Command Line Text Editor

pico text editor screenshot in ubuntu 21.04 Linux | lateweb.info
pico text editor screenshot in ubuntu 21.04 Linux

Pico is probably one of the most easiest text editors for the command line a new Linux user can start with. It’s straight forward and all the key shortcuts are always in front of you. It’s lite, agile, can edit extremely large amount of text and it’s very stable. Using pico in SSH connections is great, the search option to search in files is easy and good. For starters this editor is one of the best and if you are not from the people that say only vim and nothing else pico can be a reliable partner at all times. Also if you are a Ubuntu fan, pico is already there installed and waiting for your commands.

As every software pico has droll backs, here are the things that we don’t like:

You can read all about pico in Wikipedia from this link: Here

2 – Nano Command Line Text Editor

nano text editor screenshot in ubuntu 21.04 Linux | lateweb.info
nano text editor screenshot in ubuntu 21.04 Linux

Nano was developed because Pico’s earlier license had unclear redistribution terms, which means that nano is the son of pico an that means that it’s again lite, agile, easy to use and perfect for beginners or users which want a lite and agile command line text editor. One key difference aside from the license is that nano uses meta keys to toggle its behavior. For example, Meta+S toggles smooth scrolling mode on and off. Almost all features that can be selected from the command line can be dynamically toggled. And also if you are a Ubuntu fan, nano is already there installed and waiting for your commands.

For the droll backs we can say the same things as for pico:

You can read all about nano in Wikipedia from this link: Here

3 – Ne Command Line Text Editor

ne text editor screenshot in ubuntu 21.04 Linux | lateweb.info
ne text editor screenshot in ubuntu 21.04 Linux

Now ne text editor has more of the look of vim you have to press : and type q to quit just like in vim. Ne is a free (GPL’d) text editor based on the POSIX standard that runs (we hope) on almost every UN*X machine. Ne is easy to use for the beginners, but powerful and fully configurable for the wizard, and most sparing in its resource usage. If you have the resources and the patience to use emacs or the right mental twist to use vi then probably ne is not for you. However, if you need an editor for:

Then Ne is the perfect terminal text editor for you. Now it’s not built in Ubuntu Linux but it’s very easy to install like in this example:

# How to install ne text editor in Ubuntu 21.04 Linux ?
$ sudo apt install ne
Code language: PHP (php)

You can check ne official website from: Here

4 – Tilde Command Line Text Editor

tilde text editor screenshot in ubuntu 21.04 Linux | lateweb.info
tilde text editor screenshot in ubuntu 21.04 Linux

It’s not possible to talk about terminal text editors and not mention Tilde command line text editor. It’s undoubtedly one of the oldest and versatile text editors out there and is tailored for users who are normally used to GUI applications not the terminal. Now this may not be a power tool. But, for basic text editing operations, this text editor is absolutely very easy to use. For such simplicity we cant talk about droll backs! Now again it’s not built in Ubuntu Linux but it’s easy to install:

# How to install Tilde Command Line Text Editor In Ubuntu 21.04 Linux ?
sudo apt install tilde
Code language: CSS (css)

You can check ne official website from: Here

5 – Jed Command Line Text Editor

Jed text editor screenshot in ubuntu 21.04 Linux | lateweb.info
Jed text editor screenshot in ubuntu 21.04 Linux

Now not only system administrators use the terminal or do ssh connections to use a terminal text editor. Software developers sometimes need such editors to make changes to they code as well. So Jed is a command-line editor with support for GUI like features such as dropdown menus. But it’s also developed purposely for software development and one of its important features is the support of Unicode mode. It’s not pre installed in Ubuntu Linux but the installation if as simple as in Tilde:

# How to install Jed Command Line Text Editor In Ubuntu 21.04 Linux ?
sudo apt install jed
Code language: CSS (css)

You can check ne official website from: Here

6 – Micro Command Line Text Editor

Micro text editor screenshot in ubuntu 21.04 Linux | lateweb.info
Micro text editor screenshot in ubuntu 21.04 Linux

Micro is a command line-based text editor built to be easy and intuitive enough for users to take advantage of the features in other terminal-based text editors without the need to steep the learning curve. What we really like here is that it has mouse support. Also you can use multiple cursors and it has terminal emulation. Another good feature is that it’s highly customizable and has a plugin system. Again like the above editors it’s not pre installed in Ubuntu but is a one code line for the install:

# How to install Micro Command Line Text Editor In Ubuntu 21.04 Linux ?
sudo apt install micro
Code language: CSS (css)

You can check ne official website from: Here

7 – Midnight Commander Command Line Text Editor

Mc text editor screenshot in ubuntu 21.04 Linux | lateweb.info
Mc text editor screenshot in ubuntu 21.04 Linux

Midnight commander is a visual file manager, which means it’s not a command line text editor right? Well not entirely, mc has a built in text editor and can be used to navigate through folders and editing files quickly so if you need a smart way for editing configuration files and making quick changes this is the perfect file editor and is also a file navigator – smart right? For the installation in Ubuntu we don’t have even to mention it it’s super easy:

# How to install MC Command Line Text Editor In Ubuntu 21.04 Linux ?
sudo apt install mc
Code language: CSS (css)

You can check ne official website from: Here

8 – Mle Commander Command Line Text Editor

Mle text editor screenshot in ubuntu 21.04 Linux | lateweb.info
Mle text editor screenshot in ubuntu 21.04 Linux

Mle is a small, flexible, terminal-based text editor written in C. Notable features include: full Unicode support, syntax highlighting, scriptable rc file, macros, search and replace (PCRE), window splitting, multiple cursors, and integration with various shell commands. Now this editor to be installed we have to use the snap store so:

# How to install Mle Command Line Text Editor In Ubuntu 21.04 Linux ?
sudo snap install mle-editor
Code language: CSS (css)

Key features:

* Keep codebase small and hackable
* Minimize build-time and run-time dependencies
* Make extensible and configurable
* Favor simplicity over portability
* Use shell commands to enhance functionality (e.g., grep, tree)

What we don’t like:

You can check ne official website from: Here

9 – Suplemon Commander Command Line Text Editor

Suplemon text editor screenshot in ubuntu 21.04 Linux | lateweb.info
Suplemon text editor screenshot in ubuntu 21.04 Linux

Suplemon is a modern, powerful and intuitive console text editor with multi cursor support. Suplemon replicates Sublime Text style functionality in the terminal with the ease of use of pico and nano. We realy like suplemon it’s realy easy to use has a very nice color theme, has tons of features but the installation is sh*t, not that it’s hard it’s just that it’s not a 1 click installation and you have to use pip3:

Key features:

# How to install Mle Command Line Text Editor In Ubuntu 21.04 Linux ?
sudo pip3 install suplemon
Code language: CSS (css)

You can check ne official website from: Here

10 – Joe Commander Command Line Text Editor

Joetext editor screenshot in ubuntu 21.04 Linux | lateweb.info
Joetext editor screenshot in ubuntu 21.04 Linux

JOE is a full featured terminal-based screen editor which is distributed under the GNU General Public License (GPL). JOE has been around since 1988 and comes standard with many Linux distributions. Now we really like Joe it’s small, lite, easy, has a million features it’s easy to install in Ubuntu and we can’t find any droll backs so we think that you have to look no further for a excellent terminal text editor, here are the key features:

Key features:

# How to install Joe Command Line Text Editor In Ubuntu 21.04 Linux ?
sudo apt install joe
Code language: CSS (css)

You can check ne official website from: Here

Conclusion

In this article we reviewed 10 easy, lite, agile and really cool terminal text editors both for professionals and absolutely new Linux users.

From all 10 terminal text editors for us the three absolute best are in third place Joe in second place pico and in first place nano. But why nano? Well it’s built in and there is no installation needed so new users don’t need to make installations, it’s by far the most easy to use with the greatest amount of options that can a new user use with ease and it’s almost zero change for it to crash so in our opinion it’s the best to start with and after that you can go to vim.

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