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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.
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  • Free • Open Source
  • Mac
  • Windows
  • Linux
  • BSD
  • Haiku
  • AmigaOS
  • OpenSolaris
  • MorphOS

Vim ("Vi IMproved") is an advanced text editor that allows syntax highlighting, word completion and has a huge...

Learn more about Vim

  1. 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.

    Screenshot
    Visual Studio Code vs Vim opinions
    Most users think Visual Studio Code is a great alternative to Vim.
    IndigoLily

    Can't be used from within terminal

    Negative comment • ago
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    4
    filiphanes

    Visual Studio Code is GUI only full IDE, not terminal based efficient text editor.

    Negative comment • ago
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    0

    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

    Negative comment • ago
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    -1
    M_O_Z_G

    VSC has very good Vi extension what helps to mix Vi experience with well-integrated Microsoft solution.

    Positive comment • ago
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    2

  2. 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.

    Edit side by side in widescreen
    Most users think Sublime Text is a great alternative to Vim.

  4. 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/

    Intro screen
    Atom vs Vim opinions
    Most users think Atom is a great alternative to Vim.
    fornve

    Atom is quick and light as vim, coder friendly.

    Positive comment • ago
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    -15

  5. 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.

    Screenshot

  6. Neovim is Vim out of the box.

    Screenshot
    Neovim vs Vim opinions
    Almost everyone thinks Neovim is a great alternative to Vim.
    Nyquist

    It'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.

    Top positive comment   ago
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    1

    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.

    Top positive comment   ago
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    1
    daviwalle

    Neovim it's like Vim, but without packages that aren't needed

    Positive comment • ago
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    -1

    Clean, faster than Vim but based on that.

    Positive comment • ago
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    0
    Semilin

    It's Vim except built with the future in mind, and certain backend improvements such as asynch processing

    Positive comment • ago
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    alerque

    Lots of cleanup to terminal handling, concurrency so plugins don't choke the UI.

    Positive comment • ago
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    1
    lukasfriedrich

    Its basically Vim, just better

    Positive comment • ago
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    0
  8. GNU nano icon

    GNU nano

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    • 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.

    Screenshot
    GNU nano vs Vim opinions
    Almost everyone thinks GNU nano is a great alternative to Vim.

    No where near the shortcut capabilities, and also no built-in syntax highlighting!

    Negative comment • ago
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    1

  9. 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.

    Geany 1.34

  10. 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.

    Screenshot

  11. 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:

    Emacs can compare two files and highlight their differences (M-x ediff)
    GNU Emacs vs Vim opinions
    Most users think GNU Emacs is a great alternative to Vim.

    Maybe much better than Vi? ;)

    Positive comment • ago
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    0
  12. gedit icon

    gedit

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    • 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.

    The Default look under GNOME with Adwaita
Showing 10 of 90 alternatives