

You complete these actions by pressing Ctrl plus the indicated key.įor example, you exit and save a file using Ctrl + X. The actions you can perform line the bottom. The title of your text file appears at the top and the text contained within the file appears in the middle. This will show you a recognizable user interface. To get started, you can open or create a file by typing: If you've never used nano before, there's a good chance you can fumble your way through without help. GNU nano has a reputation for being relatively user-friendly. Like GNU nano, Vim began as an effort to improve an earlier project. Vim, originally developed in 1991, is based on the original Vi text editor that was developed in 1976. Developers claimed GNU nano to be 2/3 to 1/8 the size of the Pico binary, which made it very lean and usable on even the weakest systems.

The GNU nano (more commonly referred to as "nano") project was created in 1999 in order to emulate and improve upon the Pico text editor. Which is better? I'm not going to wade into that question, but there are core differences that set these two text editors apart. You can open these with your default text editor such as Gedit or Kate, but the terminal is often faster, especially when you need administrator permissions.įor terminal-based text editing, two of the top choices are GNU nano and Vim. Numerous programs and system settings are tucked away in text files. You may be surprised to learn that many aspects of your Linux desktop are not hidden behind complex code.
