Top 12 Notepad++ Alternatives for Linux in 2023

ByContributor

Notepadd++ is a completely free source code editor created as a replacement for Notepad on Windows – is written based on Scintilla in C++ and implements Win32 API and STL to ensure program sizes are small with high execution speed – features that have since made it become a family name among developers. Sadly, there isn’t a version available for Linux users.

Here’s a list of the best Notepadd++ alternatives that you can run on your Linux distribution and be satisfied.

1. Vim Editor

Vim is a powerful, completely configurable text editor for creating or editing any type of text such as source code, configuration files, scripts, and more. It is styled as “vi” which ships with Apple’s OS X and most Linux/Unix systems.

Vim is a bit different from other text editors because it works in a terminal or command prompt and offers you various modes: normal mode for moving around, insert mode for typing, and command mode for giving commands.

Many people love Vim for its customization and plugins, multi-level undo tree, extensive plugin system, support for too many file formats and programming languages to list, and integration support with many tools.

Vim Editor
Vim Editor

To know more about Vim editor, check out our following related articles.

You might also like:

2. Nano Editor

Nano is an open-source command line-based text editor for Unix-like Operating Systems. It was modeled after part of Pine‘s email client and Pico text editor with a lot more functionality.

Its features include syntax highlighting, commenting/uncommenting lines with a single keystroke (M-3), bindable functions, easily snipping trailing white space from justified paragraphs, etc.

Nano Editor Shortcut Keys
Nano Editor Shortcut Keys

In most Linux distributions, nano is already installed, if not you can easily install it with the following command that’s appropriate for your specific distribution.

$ sudo apt install nano [On Debian, Ubuntu and Mint]
$ sudo yum install nano [On RHEL/CentOS/Fedora and Rocky/AlmaLinux]
$ sudo emerge -a sys-apps/nano [On Gentoo Linux]
$ sudo apk add nano [On Alpine Linux]
$ sudo pacman -S nano [On Arch Linux]
$ sudo zypper install nano [On OpenSUSE]

3. GNU Emacs

GNU Emacs is a customizable, extensible, open source, self-documenting real-time display text editor in the EMACS family of text editors popular for their extensibility.

Its features include syntax highlighting support for many file formats and languages, customization using Emacs Lisp code or a GUI, full Unicode support, complete built-in documentation and tutorials, etc.

GNU Emacs Text Editor
GNU Emacs Text Editor

To install GNU Emacs on Linux, you can use the following command that’s appropriate for your specific Linux distribution.

$ sudo apt install emacs [On Debian, Ubuntu and Mint]
$ sudo yum install emacs [On RHEL/CentOS/Fedora and Rocky/AlmaLinux]
$ sudo emerge -a sys-apps/emacs [On Gentoo Linux]
$ sudo apk add emacs [On Alpine Linux]
$ sudo pacman -S emacs [On Arch Linux]
$ sudo zypper install emacs [On OpenSUSE]

4. Gedit

Gedit is an open-source text editor app designed for general-purpose text editing with a clean and simple GUI for ease of use. It is GNOME’s very own text editor and ships as the default text editor of the GNOME desktop environment.

gedit’s features include backing up files, text wrapping, line numbering, remote file editing, configurable fonts and colors, regex support, etc.

Gedit Text Editor
Gedit Text Editor

To install Gedit on Linux, you can use the following command that’s appropriate for your specific Linux distribution.

$ sudo apt install gedit [On Debian, Ubuntu and Mint]
$ sudo yum install gedit [On RHEL/CentOS/Fedora and Rocky/AlmaLinux]
$ sudo emerge -a sys-apps/gedit [On Gentoo Linux]
$ sudo apk add gedit [On Alpine Linux]
$ sudo pacman -S gedit [On Arch Linux]
$ sudo zypper install gedit [On OpenSUSE]

5. Geany

Geany is an open-source GTK+ text editor created to provide users with a lightweight and speedy IDE that barely depends on other packages.

Its features include a built-in toggable console, multi-programming language, file format support, code folding, call tips, code navigation, symbol name auto-completion, etc.

Geany Text Editor
Geany Text Editor

To install Geany on Linux, you can use the following command that’s appropriate for your specific Linux distribution.

$ sudo apt install geany [On Debian, Ubuntu and Mint]
$ sudo yum install geany [On RHEL/CentOS/Fedora and Rocky/AlmaLinux]
$ sudo emerge -a sys-apps/geany [On Gentoo Linux]
$ sudo apk add geany [On Alpine Linux]
$ sudo pacman -S geany [On Arch Linux]
$ sudo zypper install geany [On OpenSUSE]

6. GNOME Text Editor

GNOME Text Editor is the main writing tool for the GNOME desktop system that offers a great editing user experience with built-in themes and syntax highlighting for a variety of programming languages, including Python, JavaScript, C, and C++. It also has features such as search and replace, line numbers, and auto-completion.

Starting from GNOME version 42 in March 2022, GNOME Text Editor became the main writing tool for GNOME, taking the place of gedit. The reason for this change was that the GNOME developers wanted all their programs to follow the rules for how things should look and work in GNOME.

GNOME Text Editor
GNOME Text Editor

To install GNOME Text Editor on Linux, you can use the following command that’s appropriate for your specific Linux distribution.

$ sudo apt install gnome-text-editor [On Debian, Ubuntu and Mint]
$ sudo yum install gnome-text-editor [On RHEL/CentOS/Fedora and Rocky/AlmaLinux]
$ sudo emerge -a sys-apps/gnome-text-editor [On Gentoo Linux]
$ sudo apk add gnome-text-editor [On Alpine Linux]
$ sudo pacman -S gnome-text-editor [On Arch Linux]
$ sudo zypper install gnome-text-editor [On OpenSUSE]

7. Sublime Text

Sublime Text is a free, powerful, proprietary, community-maintained, cross-platform, and extensible source code editor featuring a Python API.

Sublime Text was first released in 2008 by Jon Skinner and Will Bond and it has since won the hearts of dedicated users who swear it is the modern version of vi and GNU Emacs.

It features a clean, minimalist User Interface, Goto Anything, split editing, instant project switch, support for virtually any programming language, support for tons of plugins, etc.

Sublime Text Editor
Sublime Text Editor

Learn more about How to Install Sublime Text on Linux

8. Kate

Kate (KDE Advanced Text Editor) is an open-source GUI text editor developed by the KDE community and bundled with KDE software since 2001.

Kate is used as an editing component in Quanta Plus, the LaTeX front-end, and KDevelop among other technologies. Its features include code folding, syntax highlighting that is extensible via XML files, automatic character encoding detection, etc.

Kate Text Editor
Kate Text Editor

To install Kate on Linux, you can use the following command that’s appropriate for your specific Linux distribution.

$ sudo apt install kate [On Debian, Ubuntu and Mint]
$ sudo yum install kate [On RHEL/CentOS/Fedora and Rocky/AlmaLinux]
$ sudo emerge -a sys-apps/kate [On Gentoo Linux]
$ sudo apk add kate [On Alpine Linux]
$ sudo pacman -S kate [On Arch Linux]
$ sudo zypper install kate [On OpenSUSE]

9. Notepadqq

Notepadqq is a completely free source code editor created as a Linux alternative for Notepad++ which is available for only Windows. Just like Notepadd++, it aims to ensure that program sizes are small with high execution speed.

Its features include a simple, eye-candy UI with support for multiview editing, plugin extension, several programming languages, syntax highlighting, etc.

Notepadqq is a Notepad++-like editor for Linux
Notepadqq is a Notepad++-like editor for Linux

To install Notepadqq on Linux, you can use the following command that’s appropriate for your specific Linux distribution.

$ sudo apt install notepadqq [On Debian, Ubuntu and Mint]
$ sudo yum install notepadqq [On RHEL/CentOS/Fedora and Rocky/AlmaLinux]
$ sudo emerge -a sys-apps/notepadqq [On Gentoo Linux]
$ sudo apk add notepadqq [On Alpine Linux]
$ sudo pacman -S notepadqq [On Arch Linux]
$ sudo zypper install notepadqq [On OpenSUSE]

10. Visual Studio Code

Visual Studio Code is a powerful, extensible, completely customizable, cross-platform text editor created by Microsoft Corporation. It offers users on all platforms a unified environment for building and testing programs in any language for any platform.

VS Code features include IntelliSense, built-in Git commands, a debugger built into the editor complete with debug breaks, call stacks, and an interactive console, support for almost any programming language, etc.

Visual Studio Code Editor
Visual Studio Code Editor

To install Visual Studio Code on Linux, you can use the following command that’s appropriate for your specific Linux distribution.

$ sudo apt install code [On Debian, Ubuntu and Mint]
$ sudo yum install code [On RHEL/CentOS/Fedora and Rocky/AlmaLinux]
$ sudo emerge -a sys-apps/code [On Gentoo Linux]
$ sudo apk add code [On Alpine Linux]
$ sudo pacman -S code [On Arch Linux]
$ sudo zypper install code [On OpenSUSE]

11. SciTE

SciTE is a SCIntilla-based text editor that was first created to demonstrate Scintilla but has since grown to be useful for developing and running programs that typically have simple configurations.

It features a simple, tabbed, GUI with syntax highlighting, support for bidirectional text, helper scripts, configurable keyboard shortcuts, etc.

SciTE’s free version is available for Linux-compatible systems with GTK+ and Windows while a commercial version is up for download from the Mac App Store.

SciTE Text Editor
SciTE Text Editor

To install SciTE on Linux, you can use the following command that’s appropriate for your specific Linux distribution.

$ sudo apt install scite [On Debian, Ubuntu and Mint]
$ sudo yum install scite [On RHEL/CentOS/Fedora and Rocky/AlmaLinux]
$ sudo emerge -a sys-apps/scite [On Gentoo Linux]
$ sudo apk add scite [On Alpine Linux]
$ sudo pacman -S scite [On Arch Linux]
$ sudo zypper install scite [On OpenSUSE]

12. CodeLobster

CodeLobster is a completely free multifunctional and portable IDE designed for PHP, HTML, CSS, and JavaScript projects with support for over 15 frameworks. It offers users almost all of the features in many paid applications such as pair highlighting, tooltips, PHP and JS debugging advanced autocomplete, incremental find, etc.

The professional version contains features like SASS and LESS, split window compare, code validation, an SQL manager, etc., and a ton of additional plugins that are enterprise user-worthy.

Codelobster IDE
Codelobster IDE
Summary

So there you have it guys. The 11 best text editor alternatives to Notepadd++ are available for Linux. Do you know any efficient ones that you would like to see added to the list? Feel free to drop comments in the section below.

Similar Posts

Arping Command on Linux Explained

Arping Command on Linux Explained

As a network administrator, you are probably already very familiar with the ARP protocol. ARP is commonly used by layer two devices in order to discover as well as communicating with each other easily. When you are dealing with a small office network, you might be tempted to ping hosts in order to verify that…

6 Deprecated Linux Commands and Alternative Tools for Linux

6 Deprecated Linux Commands and Alternative Tools for Linux

The post 6 Deprecated Linux Commands and Alternative Tools You Should Use first appeared on Tecmint: Linux Howtos, Tutorials & Guides .

Linux provides tons of command-line utilities to perform various tasks. However, with the passage of time, some of these tools have become outdated and replaced

The post 6 Deprecated Linux Commands and Alternative Tools You Should Use first appeared on Tecmint: Linux Howtos, Tutorials & Guides.

Create WordPress Theme: Step By Step for Custom Development

Create WordPress Theme: Step By Step for Custom Development

Since its original launch in 2003, WordPress has evolved from a simple blogging tool into a powerful and popular website builder and a comprehensive CMS (content management system) used by about 38% of the websites on the web! Given its popularity, if your site needs to stand out from the crowd, you’ll need to create…

Mastering Text Manipulation With the Sed Command

Mastering Text Manipulation With the Sed Command
by George Whittaker

The Linux command line interface provides a wealth of tools for text processing, and one of the most powerful among them is the sed command. Sed, an abbreviation for Stream EDitor, is a versatile tool that allows for complex manipulation of text files and streams​​.

What is Sed?

Sed is a non-interactive text editor that operates on piped input or text files. By providing it with instructions, you can make it modify and process text in files or streams. The most common use cases of sed include operations like selecting text, substituting text, modifying an original file, adding lines to text, or deleting lines from the text. It can be used from the command line in Bash and other command-line shells​.

Sed Command Syntax

The syntax of the sed command comprises three main parts:

  1. Options: These control the output of the command.
  2. Script: This contains a list of commands to run.
  3. Input file: This is the file you’re using the sed command on.

In the absence of a filename, the script operates on the standard input data. You can also run the sed command without any options. The basic syntax looks like this:

sed OPTIONS [SCRIPT] [INPUTFILENAME]​​

Sed Vs. Awk

Sed isn’t the only text processing tool in the Linux ecosystem. Another powerful utility is awk. While both of them work with text, they have some key differences:

  • Sed excels at parsing and transforming text in a compact and simple language, making it simple and limited but easy to use.
  • Awk, on the other hand, is a tool for text processing and writing potent programs in the form of statements. It’s complex, versatile, and more powerful than sed, but also more complicated to use​​.

Exploring Sed with Examples

Let’s dive deeper into the workings of sed with some practical examples. For all these examples, assume that we have a file called ik.txt. Note that sed does not alter the original file by default. All changes will appear in the output, but the original file will remain unmodified.

Substituting Text

One of the most common operations in sed is text substitution. This is done using the s command. For example, to replace the first instance of a pattern abc with another pattern def, use:

sed s/abc/def/ ik.txt

Here, only the first instance of abc in each line is substituted with def. If you want to replace the third instance of a pattern, you can use:

sed s/abc/z/3 ik.txt

Global Substitutions

In a global substitution, all instances of a pattern are replaced. This is achieved by appending g to the substitute command. To replace all instances of abc with XYZ, use:

Go to Full Article

How To Manage Root Account on Ubuntu 20.04

How To Manage Root Account on Ubuntu 20.04

On Linux, the root account is probably one of the most powerful accounts that there is. Considered the most privileged account on a Unix system, root can perform any tasks needed for system administration. Navigating a specific folder, killing any process or deleting a directory, root is so powerful that it has to be managed…