Uploaded February 2017 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Wondering which text editor to use for programming, system administration, or other text-heavy work? This video covers the editors that I find the most useful, in the order I recommend learning them in.
When you're just starting out in your tech career (or hobby), it's easy to be overwhelmed by the huge choice in text-editing software. It's hard to find answers to questions like
-Which text editor is best for beginners?
-Which text editor should I choose for programming?
-What's the difference between text editors like nano, vim, and emacs?
-What's the "best" text editor?
In this video I'll cover my recommended progression:
0. nano (or whatever you have available in your first learning environment e.g. Ubuntu).
1. vi (for more efficient editing, and because you can find vi on almost every Linux and Unix system you'll ever work on).
2. Graphical Source Code Editors like Sublime Text, Atom, and TextMate. IDEs like Eclipse and Pycharm also fall in the middle of the spectrum here.
3. Lifetime editors like vim and emacs. They have a tough learning curve, but reward you with lightning-quick editing, insane text-editing efficiency, and incredible extensibility/extra features.
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MORE Linux System Administration Resources
##################################
My step-by-step project-based Linux course for beginners: udemy.com/course/hands-on-linux-self-hosted-wordpress-for-linux-beginners/?referralCode=19C0A7DEE2FD53C9C09D
Free Linux Sysadmin Course Playlist: youtube.com/playlist?list=PLtK75qxsQaMLZSo7KL-PmiRarU7hrpnwK
DigitalOcean referral link: https://m.do.co/c/0380a1db56a6
Patreon: patreon.com/tutorialinux
Official Site & e-mail list: tutorialinux.com
Twitter: twitter.com/tutorialinux
Facebook: facebook.com/tutorialinux
Podcast: kernelpanicpodcast.com
Wondering which text editor to use for programming, system administration, or other text-heavy work? This video covers the editors that I find the most useful, in the order I recommend learning them in.
When you're just starting out in your tech career (or hobby), it's easy to be overwhelmed by the huge choice in text-editing software. It's hard to find answers to questions like
-Which text editor is best for beginners?
-Which text editor should I choose for programming?
-What's the difference between text editors like nano, vim, and emacs?
-What's the "best" text editor?
In this video I'll cover my recommended progression:
0. nano (or whatever you have available in your first learning environment e.g. Ubuntu).
1. vi (for more efficient editing, and because you can find vi on almost every Linux and Unix system you'll ever work on).
2. Graphical Source Code Editors like Sublime Text, Atom, and TextMate. IDEs like Eclipse and Pycharm also fall in the middle of the spectrum here.
3. Lifetime editors like vim and emacs. They have a tough learning curve, but reward you with lightning-quick editing, insane text-editing efficiency, and incredible extensibility/extra features.
##################################
MORE Linux System Administration Resources
##################################
My step-by-step project-based Linux course for beginners: udemy.com/course/hands-on-linux-self-hosted-wordpress-for-linux-beginners/?referralCode=19C0A7DEE2FD53C9C09D
Free Linux Sysadmin Course Playlist: youtube.com/playlist?list=PLtK75qxsQaMLZSo7KL-PmiRarU7hrpnwK
DigitalOcean referral link: https://m.do.co/c/0380a1db56a6
Patreon: patreon.com/tutorialinux
Official Site & e-mail list: tutorialinux.com
Twitter: twitter.com/tutorialinux
Facebook: facebook.com/tutorialinux
Podcast: kernelpanicpodcast.com
