Introduction

In this lession, we will introduce the various graphical editors available in the Linux Operating System.

Graphical editors in Linux

The command line editors nano , vi and emacs are appropicate to use when you connect to a server via SSH or when you are using a terminal emulator application.

If you are running Linux as a desktop operating system, you also have access to graphical editors.

• emacs only works at the command line, but it also has a graphical mode. The key strokes that work on command line version also work in the graphical verison.
• gedit is the default text editor for the Gnome desktop environment. It is very similar to Notepad.
• gvim is the graphical version of vi. The key strokes that work on command line version also work in the graphical verison.
• kedit is similar to gedit, it is the default editor for the KDE desktop environment.

If you are looking for a Microsoft Word replacement, consider Abiword or LibreOffice. LibreOffice not only includes a word processor, but it is a complete office suite. It contains spreadsheet, a database and presentation software. If you are looking for a source code editor to help in computer programming, you can look at an editor like Kate, Geany, jEdit or Sublime Text.

Summary

There are various of text editors and word processors for Linux. emacs and vi both have graphical counterparts.

Sometimes you may not have access to a graphical environment, for example when you are connecting to a server over SSH, you have to use command line editor.