Vim Alternatives for Linux
There are many alternatives to Vim for Linux if you are looking for a replacement. The best Linux alternative is Visual Studio Code, which is free. If that doesn't suit you, our users have ranked more than 100 alternatives to Vim and loads of them are available for Linux so hopefully you can find a suitable replacement. Other interesting Linux alternatives to Vim are Sublime Text, Atom, VSCodium and Neovim.
Vim alternatives are mainly Text Editors but may also be Code Editors or IDEs. Filter by these if you want a narrower list of alternatives or looking for a specific functionality of Vim.Visual Studio Code is more than just a code editor, it provides the tools and extensions to compile, debug, compare, refactor, and even manage code repositories all within a highly-customised development environment.
Visual Studio Code vs Vim opinions
IndigoLilyCan't be used from within terminal
filiphanesVisual Studio Code is GUI only full IDE, not terminal based efficient text editor.
It is superslow and bloated. Even if you have 2-3 plugins you can tell the difference in speed and lightness of vim with vscode. Vim doesn't slow down at all even if you have a hell lot of plugins and now with neovim 0.5 release and lua substituting vimscript, there cannot be made a comparison between them
M_O_Z_GVSC has very good Vi extension what helps to mix Vi experience with well-integrated Microsoft solution.
Sublime Text is a sophisticated text editor for code, html and prose - any kind of text file. You'll love the slick user interface and extraordinary features.
- Free Personal • Open Source
- Mac
- Windows
- Linux
- Chrome OS
- BSD
- Electron / Atom Shell
Atom is an open-source, Electron based text editor with a massive ecosystem of plugins and themes that are easily accessible through a built-in package manager. Being built with Electron, it uses web technology (HTML, CSS, JavaScript and Node.
Discontinued
Atom will be discontinued at the end of 2022: https://github.blog/2022-06-08-sunsetting-atom/
Atom vs Vim opinions
fornveAtom is quick and light as vim, coder friendly.
- Free • Open Source
- Mac
- Windows
- Linux
- Electron / Atom Shell
- Code - OSS (vscode)
This repository contains a build file to generate FLOSS release binaries of Microsoft's Visual Studio Code - Open Source ("Code - OSS") project, the open source core of the proprietary Visual Studio Code.
- Free • Open Source
- Mac
- Windows
- Linux
- Android
- BSD
Neovim is Vim out of the box.
Neovim vs Vim opinions
NyquistIt's basically Vim, but with improvements like plugins that don't halt the user interface. At least on Linux, I'd recommend Neovim over Vim.
Neovim is "literally the future of Vim". Compatibility with Vim, but built from the ground up for asynchronous plugins. A good replacement for GVim is all that's missing.
daviwalleNeovim it's like Vim, but without packages that aren't needed
Clean, faster than Vim but based on that.
SemilinIt's Vim except built with the future in mind, and certain backend improvements such as asynch processing
alerqueLots of cleanup to terminal handling, concurrency so plugins don't choke the UI.
lukasfriedrichIts basically Vim, just better
- Free • Open Source
- Mac
- Windows
- Linux
- BSD
- Haiku
GNU nano is a small and friendly text editor. Besides basic text editing, nano offers many extra features like an interactive search and replace, go to line and column number, auto-indentation, feature toggles, internationalization support, and filename tab completion.
GNU nano vs Vim opinions
No where near the shortcut capabilities, and also no built-in syntax highlighting!
- Free • Open Source
- Mac
- Windows
- Linux
- BSD
- PortableApps.com
- Xfce
Geany is a small and lightweight Integrated Development Environment. It was developed to provide a small and fast IDE, which has only a few dependencies from other packages.
The Kate project develops two main products: KatePart, the advanced editor component which is used in numerous KDE applications requiring a text editing component, and Kate, a MDI text editor application.
GNU Emacs is an extensible, customizable text editor—and more. At its core is an interpreter for Emacs Lisp, a dialect of the Lisp programming language with extensions to support text editing. The features of GNU Emacs include:
GNU Emacs vs Vim opinions
Maybe much better than Vi? ;)
- Free • Open Source
- Mac
- Windows
- Linux
- Chrome OS
- BSD
- GNOME
- OpenSolaris
Official text editor of the GNOME desktop environment. Has syntax highlighting and is suitable for programming, with support for several languages. It is extensible with plugins.