Member Avatar for trinitybrown

I wish to ask How many editors are there in Linux and which editor is set by default, also wish to know is it mandatory for a web developer to learn LINUX, Kindly help

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There is no single, fixed count of "how many editors" exist for Linux — the ecosystem includes many lightweight terminal tools, full-featured graphical programs, and IDE-style environments, plus plugins and remote-editing bridges. Which editor is present by default depends on the distribution and the image you installed; the system default is just a pointer you can change. To make that practical, here are concise, actionable items that build on points made by , and .

To check/set the editor environment and the system default:

# see what $EDITOR is right now
echo "$EDITOR"

# set for this session
export EDITOR="/usr/bin/your-editor"

# persist for bash
printf '%s\n' 'export EDITOR="/usr/bin/your-editor"' >> ~/.bashrc

# Debian/Ubuntu: choose the system alternative
sudo update-alternatives --config editor

For Git commit messages use the Git config so commits invoke the editor you want:

git config --global core.editor "your-editor --wait"

(If the tool spawns and returns immediately, include a waiting flag so Git pauses until editing is done; see the Git docs at https://git-scm.com/docs/git-config. System alternatives are documented at https://wiki.debian.org/Alternatives.)

Choose an editor by workflow, not reputation: prefer tools that give fast file access over SSH, reliable multi-file search/replace, good HTML/CSS/JS language support (LSP-compatible features), preview or live-reload integration, and a plugin ecosystem you can grow into (see the Language Server Protocol for editor-language integrations: https://microsoft.github.io/language-server-protocol/).

Is Linux mandatory for web developers? No — you can do a lot without it — but knowing a handful of system skills pays off: basic shell navigation, SSH, reading server logs, setting file permissions, restarting services, and simple package installs or container usage. Practice those on a VM or container and map your editor choice to the tasks you do most (local coding vs. remote server fixes).

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Member Avatar for brianlevine

I personally use linux, because that's what's hosting my site, but it's certainly not mandatory. It may make some things easier, but probably not :)

I think the main thing to remember is that file names are case sensitive on linux, but not windows, and that can cause errors if you're not expecting it.

As for editors, I assume you mean HTML editors? There's nothing set by default, it will depend on which distribution you use (ubuntu, redhat, etc.). And you'll likely have to download something yourself.

I personally have used Nvu and Quanta. They're not as good or easy to use as Dreamweaver or Frontpage (my personal opinion).

Member Avatar for Stefano Mtangoo

Download wine, and install+run any windows software!

Member Avatar for BillBrown

I'd also recommend Nvu if you're familiar with FrontPage but are using a Linux OS. It's free of cost and can upload files using the built-in FTP manager. If you don't need a graphical editor, I'd very much recommend vim. :-D

Member Avatar for yuvaraj.tr

vi editor
emacs editor
one more is there

Member Avatar for JeoSaurus

vim all the way! If it's configured with syntax hilighting and search hilighting, and you can get used to the commands, it's the best ever for command line html/php/any scripting language you can think of.

There are some great quick reference materials out there. This isn't the easiest one to read, but it's one of the most complete:

http://tnerual.eriogerg.free.fr/vimqrc.pdf

The default text editors at the linux command line are usually vi and/or nano (or do they call it pico these days...?) Emacs is also an excellent choice, but it's so huge and clunky in my experience... Nano/pico is probably the easiest to use, but doesn't do syntax hilighting very well.

Hope this helps!

-G

Member Avatar for hotelaudit

Hello trinitybrown!

The best if you use the MidNight Commander. It has a great editor which is perfect to editing of everything. You can also use the MidNight Commander on your X Window through an X Terminal.

Member Avatar for Stefano Mtangoo

Gedit, Kate, Scite are good
Gvim too. consider Emacs too

Member Avatar for John A

Actually, text editors are completely unnecessary. Who needs an editor when you're equipped with 'cat' and some perfectly good redirection operators?

localhost:~ $ cat > textfile
the most user-friendly way to enter text!
^D
localhost:~ $

Oh, and as an added bonus, 'cat' uses 9 KB less disk space than 'ed'!

-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 39K Oct  5 00:11 /bin/ed
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 30K Jun  7 17:02 /bin/cat

And in the rare instance that you need to change something in a text file, there's always sed :-)

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