{"slug": "nano", "name": "nano", "category": "editors", "category_name": "Editors and IDEs", "description": "A small, simple terminal text editor for Unix-like systems, part of the GNU project.", "recommenders": 5, "commenters": 12, "warners": 0, "score": 6.13, "rising": 0.69, "first": "2025-11-04", "latest": "2026-10-29", "why": "Liked for quick terminal edits that need almost no learning, as a simpler alternative to vim, and some commenters have used it as their main editor for a decade or more.", "why_is_quote": false, "has_verdict": true, "sentiment": {"recommend": 6, "neutral": 6, "compare": 1, "warn": 0}, "spark": [4, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 2], "listed": true, "loved": ["Quick edits", "Easy to learn"], "caveat": "No code navigation", "short_quote": "Nano is my go-to whenever doing something quick in the terminal. It's quick, I don't need to learn how to use it", "icon": true, "domain": null, "github_repo": "github.com/chawyehsu/dotfiles", "official_url": "https://www.nano-editor.org/", "pricing": "open source", "aliases": ["nano", "Nano"], "verdict": [{"text": "Liked for quick terminal edits that need almost no learning", "cites": [{"id": 804667312, "item_id": 50291707, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50291707", "by": "shevy-java", "date": "2026-10-29", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use nano a lot on the commandline. For quick editing it is so much more convenient than vim.", "excerpt": "Well nano pico atto ... the name makes it comparable. Why would you expect people to not draw that connection? I think the main take-away is that vi/vim is too complicated for many folks. I use nano a lot on the commandline. For quick editing it is so much more convenient than vim.", "context": "", "use_case": "quick command-line editing", "switched_from": "", "story": "NetBSD adds a new text editor called atto"}, {"id": 732973856, "item_id": 45810866, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45810866", "by": "sanex", "date": "2025-11-04", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Nano is my go-to whenever doing something quick in the terminal. It's quick, I don't need to learn how to use it", "excerpt": "Nano is my go-to whenever doing something quick in the terminal. It's quick, I don't need to learn how to use it, and now it's going to be slightly more convenient. I had no idea it had these options. Thank you!", "context": "", "use_case": "quick terminal edits", "switched_from": "", "story": "Customize Nano Text Editor (2022)"}, {"id": 732985104, "item_id": 45811569, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45811569", "by": "chawyehsu", "date": "2025-11-04", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "nano remains my go-to editor for many quick terminal operations", "excerpt": "It seems few people are aware of how customizable nano actually is. Usually, they use nano with the default preset for quick bootstrapping tasks and then switch to vim without hesitation. While vim/neovim are certainly very powerful, nano remains my go-to editor for many quick terminal operations. I've customized it quite a bit[1], especially the key bindings, though the defaults are already excellent. [1]: https://g", "context": "", "use_case": "quick terminal edits", "switched_from": "", "story": "Customize Nano Text Editor (2022)"}, {"id": 733327152, "item_id": 45832947, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45832947", "by": "shevy-java", "date": "2025-11-06", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "nano is great though, I can recommend it for quick ad-hoc editing", "excerpt": "This may sound strange, but I actually think we need just ... one editor. Now, this is not a \"we need to favour vim over emacs\". I think this is a stupid war, the vim versus emacs war. What I mean is ... basically most editors do almost the same exact thing. They look at some buffer for a file and help the user modify this. There is a finite number of operations possible. Why do people keep on re-implementing basic t", "context": "", "use_case": "quick config edits", "switched_from": "", "story": "How I am deeply integrating Emacs"}]}, {"text": ", as a simpler alternative to vim", "cites": [{"id": 804667312, "item_id": 50291707, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50291707", "by": "shevy-java", "date": "2026-10-29", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use nano a lot on the commandline. For quick editing it is so much more convenient than vim.", "excerpt": "Well nano pico atto ... the name makes it comparable. Why would you expect people to not draw that connection? I think the main take-away is that vi/vim is too complicated for many folks. I use nano a lot on the commandline. For quick editing it is so much more convenient than vim.", "context": "", "use_case": "quick command-line editing", "switched_from": "", "story": "NetBSD adds a new text editor called atto"}, {"id": 789564737, "item_id": 49347796, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49347796", "by": "bezko", "date": "2026-08-18", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "using nano to never have to learn that atrocity", "excerpt": "vi, I pay willing with my extra time using nano to never have to learn that atrocity", "context": "", "use_case": "text editing", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: Which software do you happily pay for every month?"}, {"id": 804708433, "item_id": 50294277, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50294277", "by": "marssaxman", "date": "2026-10-29", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I used pico or nano as my everyday unix coding editor for something like fifteen years", "excerpt": "I used pico or nano as my everyday unix coding editor for something like fifteen years, starting in the late '90s. It was just fine. I couldn't stand vi and didn't see the point of emacs; I type faster than I think, so I never found that text-editing was enough of a bottleneck to make sophisticated automation worth the effort. I only stopped using pico/nano after writing my own editor, which blatantly stole pico's in", "context": "", "use_case": "everyday coding editor", "switched_from": "", "story": "NetBSD adds a new text editor called atto"}]}, {"text": ", and some commenters have used it as their main editor for a decade or more.", "cites": [{"id": 804708433, "item_id": 50294277, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50294277", "by": "marssaxman", "date": "2026-10-29", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I used pico or nano as my everyday unix coding editor for something like fifteen years", "excerpt": "I used pico or nano as my everyday unix coding editor for something like fifteen years, starting in the late '90s. It was just fine. I couldn't stand vi and didn't see the point of emacs; I type faster than I think, so I never found that text-editing was enough of a bottleneck to make sophisticated automation worth the effort. I only stopped using pico/nano after writing my own editor, which blatantly stole pico's in", "context": "", "use_case": "everyday coding editor", "switched_from": "", "story": "NetBSD adds a new text editor called atto"}, {"id": 733097072, "item_id": 45818567, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45818567", "by": "kapitanjakc", "date": "2025-11-04", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "10 years, I've been using nano as my editor.", "excerpt": "10 years, I've been using nano as my editor. 10 years I've spent mastering the shortcuts. I have been using nano in hard mode. These configs will make my life so much easier.", "context": "", "use_case": "text editing", "switched_from": "", "story": "Customize Nano Text Editor (2022)"}]}, {"text": " Caveats include missing code-navigation features like go-to-definition", "cites": [{"id": 802299201, "item_id": 50143700, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50143700", "by": "benrutter", "date": "2026-10-18", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I don't have anything against Nano", "excerpt": "Really? What did you not like about Helix that you get from Nano? (No judgement, I'm just curious!) I don't have anything against Nano, but for something I use every day, I'd really miss go-to-definition, and being able to jump between sections of text quickly.", "context": "", "use_case": "text editing", "switched_from": "", "story": "Mitos editor is a fork of Helix"}]}, {"text": " and, on Mac, \"nano\" sometimes being only a symlink to pico, so .nanorc settings don't work.", "cites": [{"id": 732978240, "item_id": 45811140, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45811140", "by": "iLoveOncall", "date": "2025-11-04", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "It's also possible that you simply do NOT have nano installed at all, and just have the simlink from nano to pico by default.", "excerpt": "If you're on Mac and can't get .nanorc to work, check out https://stackoverflow.com/a/73373788/3876196 It's also possible that you simply do NOT have nano installed at all, and just have the simlink from nano to pico by default. That was my case. In this situation, install nano and it should work.", "context": "Mac user", "use_case": "text editing on Mac", "switched_from": "", "story": "Customize Nano Text Editor (2022)"}]}], "praise": [{"label": "Quick edits", "summary": "A go-to editor for fast, ad-hoc edits on the command line.", "quotes": [{"id": 732973856, "item_id": 45810866, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45810866", "by": "sanex", "date": "2025-11-04", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Nano is my go-to whenever doing something quick in the terminal. It's quick, I don't need to learn how to use it", "excerpt": "Nano is my go-to whenever doing something quick in the terminal. It's quick, I don't need to learn how to use it, and now it's going to be slightly more convenient. I had no idea it had these options. Thank you!", "context": "", "use_case": "quick terminal edits", "switched_from": "", "story": "Customize Nano Text Editor (2022)"}, {"id": 804667312, "item_id": 50291707, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50291707", "by": "shevy-java", "date": "2026-10-29", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use nano a lot on the commandline. For quick editing it is so much more convenient than vim.", "excerpt": "Well nano pico atto ... the name makes it comparable. Why would you expect people to not draw that connection? I think the main take-away is that vi/vim is too complicated for many folks. I use nano a lot on the commandline. For quick editing it is so much more convenient than vim.", "context": "", "use_case": "quick command-line editing", "switched_from": "", "story": "NetBSD adds a new text editor called atto"}, {"id": 732985104, "item_id": 45811569, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45811569", "by": "chawyehsu", "date": "2025-11-04", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "nano remains my go-to editor for many quick terminal operations", "excerpt": "It seems few people are aware of how customizable nano actually is. Usually, they use nano with the default preset for quick bootstrapping tasks and then switch to vim without hesitation. While vim/neovim are certainly very powerful, nano remains my go-to editor for many quick terminal operations. I've customized it quite a bit[1], especially the key bindings, though the defaults are already excellent. [1]: https://g", "context": "", "use_case": "quick terminal edits", "switched_from": "", "story": "Customize Nano Text Editor (2022)"}]}, {"label": "Easy to learn", "summary": "Usable without learning it, unlike vi/vim, which some find too complicated.", "quotes": [{"id": 732973856, "item_id": 45810866, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45810866", "by": "sanex", "date": "2025-11-04", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Nano is my go-to whenever doing something quick in the terminal. It's quick, I don't need to learn how to use it", "excerpt": "Nano is my go-to whenever doing something quick in the terminal. It's quick, I don't need to learn how to use it, and now it's going to be slightly more convenient. I had no idea it had these options. Thank you!", "context": "", "use_case": "quick terminal edits", "switched_from": "", "story": "Customize Nano Text Editor (2022)"}, {"id": 804667312, "item_id": 50291707, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50291707", "by": "shevy-java", "date": "2026-10-29", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use nano a lot on the commandline. For quick editing it is so much more convenient than vim.", "excerpt": "Well nano pico atto ... the name makes it comparable. Why would you expect people to not draw that connection? I think the main take-away is that vi/vim is too complicated for many folks. I use nano a lot on the commandline. For quick editing it is so much more convenient than vim.", "context": "", "use_case": "quick command-line editing", "switched_from": "", "story": "NetBSD adds a new text editor called atto"}, {"id": 789564737, "item_id": 49347796, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49347796", "by": "bezko", "date": "2026-08-18", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "using nano to never have to learn that atrocity", "excerpt": "vi, I pay willing with my extra time using nano to never have to learn that atrocity", "context": "", "use_case": "text editing", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: Which software do you happily pay for every month?"}]}, {"label": "Long-term use", "summary": "Some commenters have used it as their everyday editor for 10 to 15 years.", "quotes": [{"id": 804708433, "item_id": 50294277, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50294277", "by": "marssaxman", "date": "2026-10-29", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I used pico or nano as my everyday unix coding editor for something like fifteen years", "excerpt": "I used pico or nano as my everyday unix coding editor for something like fifteen years, starting in the late '90s. It was just fine. I couldn't stand vi and didn't see the point of emacs; I type faster than I think, so I never found that text-editing was enough of a bottleneck to make sophisticated automation worth the effort. I only stopped using pico/nano after writing my own editor, which blatantly stole pico's in", "context": "", "use_case": "everyday coding editor", "switched_from": "", "story": "NetBSD adds a new text editor called atto"}, {"id": 733097072, "item_id": 45818567, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45818567", "by": "kapitanjakc", "date": "2025-11-04", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "10 years, I've been using nano as my editor.", "excerpt": "10 years, I've been using nano as my editor. 10 years I've spent mastering the shortcuts. I have been using nano in hard mode. These configs will make my life so much easier.", "context": "", "use_case": "text editing", "switched_from": "", "story": "Customize Nano Text Editor (2022)"}]}, {"label": "Customizable", "summary": "Its nanorc config allows more customization, including key bindings, than many people realize.", "quotes": [{"id": 732985104, "item_id": 45811569, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45811569", "by": "chawyehsu", "date": "2025-11-04", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "nano remains my go-to editor for many quick terminal operations", "excerpt": "It seems few people are aware of how customizable nano actually is. Usually, they use nano with the default preset for quick bootstrapping tasks and then switch to vim without hesitation. While vim/neovim are certainly very powerful, nano remains my go-to editor for many quick terminal operations. I've customized it quite a bit[1], especially the key bindings, though the defaults are already excellent. [1]: https://g", "context": "", "use_case": "quick terminal edits", "switched_from": "", "story": "Customize Nano Text Editor (2022)"}, {"id": 733097072, "item_id": 45818567, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45818567", "by": "kapitanjakc", "date": "2025-11-04", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "10 years, I've been using nano as my editor.", "excerpt": "10 years, I've been using nano as my editor. 10 years I've spent mastering the shortcuts. I have been using nano in hard mode. These configs will make my life so much easier.", "context": "", "use_case": "text editing", "switched_from": "", "story": "Customize Nano Text Editor (2022)"}, {"id": 733174144, "item_id": 45823384, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45823384", "by": "haik90", "date": "2025-11-05", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "nano is my go-to text editor, because it\u2019s the default text editor for all our systems", "excerpt": "nano is my go-to text editor, because it\u2019s the default text editor for all our systems, but somehow I never customize it, until this post.", "context": "", "use_case": "text editing on servers", "switched_from": "", "story": "Customize Nano Text Editor (2022)"}]}, {"label": "Default availability", "summary": "It is the default editor on some commenters' systems, which makes it a natural choice.", "quotes": [{"id": 733174144, "item_id": 45823384, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45823384", "by": "haik90", "date": "2025-11-05", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "nano is my go-to text editor, because it\u2019s the default text editor for all our systems", "excerpt": "nano is my go-to text editor, because it\u2019s the default text editor for all our systems, but somehow I never customize it, until this post.", "context": "", "use_case": "text editing on servers", "switched_from": "", "story": "Customize Nano Text Editor (2022)"}]}], "caveats": [{"label": "No code navigation", "summary": "Lacks go-to-definition and fast jumping between sections of text for daily coding.", "quotes": [{"id": 802299201, "item_id": 50143700, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50143700", "by": "benrutter", "date": "2026-10-18", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I don't have anything against Nano", "excerpt": "Really? What did you not like about Helix that you get from Nano? (No judgement, I'm just curious!) I don't have anything against Nano, but for something I use every day, I'd really miss go-to-definition, and being able to jump between sections of text quickly.", "context": "", "use_case": "text editing", "switched_from": "", "story": "Mitos editor is a fork of Helix"}]}, {"label": "Mac setup", "summary": "On Mac, nano may only be a symlink to pico, so you need to install real nano for .nanorc to work.", "quotes": [{"id": 732978240, "item_id": 45811140, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45811140", "by": "iLoveOncall", "date": "2025-11-04", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "It's also possible that you simply do NOT have nano installed at all, and just have the simlink from nano to pico by default.", "excerpt": "If you're on Mac and can't get .nanorc to work, check out https://stackoverflow.com/a/73373788/3876196 It's also possible that you simply do NOT have nano installed at all, and just have the simlink from nano to pico by default. That was my case. In this situation, install nano and it should work.", "context": "Mac user", "use_case": "text editing on Mac", "switched_from": "", "story": "Customize Nano Text Editor (2022)"}]}, {"label": "Outgrown", "summary": "Some users moved on to editors such as micro, ox, Flow, or vim.", "quotes": [{"id": 740787393, "item_id": 46299212, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46299212", "by": "nylonstrung", "date": "2025-12-16", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I used nano, micro, and ox in that order", "excerpt": "This has quickly become my favorite TUI text editor, even though it seemed like \"yet another editor\" when I first came across it As someone who doesn't like modal options I used nano, micro, and ox in that order but Flow is a much nicer product than those 3 If you like helix it can also just us the modal editing and keybinds from it as well", "context": "", "use_case": "text editing", "switched_from": "", "story": "Flow \u2013 A Programmer's Text Editor"}, {"id": 732985104, "item_id": 45811569, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45811569", "by": "chawyehsu", "date": "2025-11-04", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "nano remains my go-to editor for many quick terminal operations", "excerpt": "It seems few people are aware of how customizable nano actually is. Usually, they use nano with the default preset for quick bootstrapping tasks and then switch to vim without hesitation. While vim/neovim are certainly very powerful, nano remains my go-to editor for many quick terminal operations. I've customized it quite a bit[1], especially the key bindings, though the defaults are already excellent. [1]: https://g", "context": "", "use_case": "quick terminal edits", "switched_from": "", "story": "Customize Nano Text Editor (2022)"}, {"id": 804708433, "item_id": 50294277, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50294277", "by": "marssaxman", "date": "2026-10-29", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I used pico or nano as my everyday unix coding editor for something like fifteen years", "excerpt": "I used pico or nano as my everyday unix coding editor for something like fifteen years, starting in the late '90s. It was just fine. I couldn't stand vi and didn't see the point of emacs; I type faster than I think, so I never found that text-editing was enough of a bottleneck to make sophisticated automation worth the effort. I only stopped using pico/nano after writing my own editor, which blatantly stole pico's in", "context": "", "use_case": "everyday coding editor", "switched_from": "", "story": "NetBSD adds a new text editor called atto"}]}], "who": [{"by": "DeathArrow", "context": "prefers GUI and mouse", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48117958", "date": "2026-05-12"}, {"by": "iLoveOncall", "context": "Mac user", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45811140", "date": "2025-11-04"}], "tags": ["for quick terminal edits", "for vi/vim avoiders", "for non-modal editing", "for when no GUI is available"], "use_cases": ["text editing", "quick terminal edits", "everyday coding editor", "quick command-line editing", "terminal editing without gui", "editing config over ssh"], "compared": [{"slug": "vim", "name": "Vim", "co": 4, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "vi", "name": "vi", "co": 3, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "joe", "name": "JOE", "co": 3, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "micro", "name": "micro", "co": 3, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "emacs", "name": "Emacs", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "helix", "name": "Helix", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}], "makers": [{"id": 753743760, "item_id": 47108985, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47108985", "by": "dietz", "date": "2026-02-21", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I always wanted a truly open-source alternative to webcontainers.io, so we built one.", "excerpt": "nano runs real Node.js and statically linked Linux binaries directly in the browser via a tiny RISC-V Linux interpreter compiled to WASM \u2014 no containers, no servers. I always wanted a truly open-source alternative to webcontainers.io, so we built one. It even runs the Claude Code CLI fully on the edge in your browser \u2014 perfect for portable dev environments, sandboxed CLIs, CTF setups, and some seriously crazy client-", "context": "", "use_case": "running Node.js in the browser", "switched_from": "", "story": "Node.js in the Browser"}], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45702316", "title": "Customize Nano Text Editor (2022)", "mentions": 5}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50287599", "title": "NetBSD adds a new text editor called atto", "mentions": 2}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50143132", "title": "Mitos editor is a fork of Helix", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49347301", "title": "Ask HN: Which software do you happily pay for every month?", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48033483", "title": "The vi family", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47108984", "title": "Node.js in the Browser", "mentions": 1}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {"recommend": 4, "neutral": 2}, "2025-12": {"neutral": 1}, "2026-01": {}, "2026-02": {"compare": 1}, "2026-03": {}, "2026-04": {}, "2026-05": {"neutral": 1}, "2026-06": {}, "2026-07": {}, "2026-08": {"neutral": 1}, "2026-09": {}, "2026-10": {"neutral": 1, "recommend": 2}}, "quotes": [{"id": 804708433, "item_id": 50294277, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50294277", "by": "marssaxman", "date": "2026-10-29", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I used pico or nano as my everyday unix coding editor for something like fifteen years", "excerpt": "I used pico or nano as my everyday unix coding editor for something like fifteen years, starting in the late '90s. It was just fine. I couldn't stand vi and didn't see the point of emacs; I type faster than I think, so I never found that text-editing was enough of a bottleneck to make sophisticated automation worth the effort. I only stopped using pico/nano after writing my own editor, which blatantly stole pico's in", "context": "", "use_case": "everyday coding editor", "switched_from": "", "story": "NetBSD adds a new text editor called atto"}, {"id": 804667312, "item_id": 50291707, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50291707", "by": "shevy-java", "date": "2026-10-29", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use nano a lot on the commandline. For quick editing it is so much more convenient than vim.", "excerpt": "Well nano pico atto ... the name makes it comparable. Why would you expect people to not draw that connection? I think the main take-away is that vi/vim is too complicated for many folks. I use nano a lot on the commandline. For quick editing it is so much more convenient than vim.", "context": "", "use_case": "quick command-line editing", "switched_from": "", "story": "NetBSD adds a new text editor called atto"}, {"id": 802299201, "item_id": 50143700, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50143700", "by": "benrutter", "date": "2026-10-18", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I don't have anything against Nano", "excerpt": "Really? What did you not like about Helix that you get from Nano? (No judgement, I'm just curious!) I don't have anything against Nano, but for something I use every day, I'd really miss go-to-definition, and being able to jump between sections of text quickly.", "context": "", "use_case": "text editing", "switched_from": "", "story": "Mitos editor is a fork of Helix"}, {"id": 789564737, "item_id": 49347796, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49347796", "by": "bezko", "date": "2026-08-18", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "using nano to never have to learn that atrocity", "excerpt": "vi, I pay willing with my extra time using nano to never have to learn that atrocity", "context": "", "use_case": "text editing", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: Which software do you happily pay for every month?"}, {"id": 769887329, "item_id": 48117958, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48117958", "by": "DeathArrow", "date": "2026-05-12", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "When I don't have a GUI available, I use micro, nano, joe.", "excerpt": "I have nothing against Vi or Emacs, but since I strongly prefer GUI and mouse over terminal I use GUI editors. When I don't have a GUI available, I use micro, nano, joe.", "context": "prefers GUI and mouse", "use_case": "terminal editing without GUI", "switched_from": "", "story": "The vi family"}, {"id": 750975520, "item_id": 46935970, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46935970", "by": "tim-tday", "date": "2026-02-08", "stance": "compare", "quote": "should I switch to nano?", "excerpt": "OK cool, should I switch to nano? I need to be able to ssh into an arbitrary machine of whatever distro started by someone else, on another continent and edit a config file before restarting a service that is currently shedding millions of connections a minute. What else should I use?", "context": "needs to edit configs on arbitrary remote machines", "use_case": "editing config over ssh", "switched_from": "", "story": "The original vi is a product of its time (and its time has passed)"}, {"id": 740787393, "item_id": 46299212, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46299212", "by": "nylonstrung", "date": "2025-12-16", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I used nano, micro, and ox in that order", "excerpt": "This has quickly become my favorite TUI text editor, even though it seemed like \"yet another editor\" when I first came across it As someone who doesn't like modal options I used nano, micro, and ox in that order but Flow is a much nicer product than those 3 If you like helix it can also just us the modal editing and keybinds from it as well", "context": "", "use_case": "text editing", "switched_from": "", "story": "Flow \u2013 A Programmer's Text Editor"}, {"id": 733327152, "item_id": 45832947, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45832947", "by": "shevy-java", "date": "2025-11-06", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "nano is great though, I can recommend it for quick ad-hoc editing", "excerpt": "This may sound strange, but I actually think we need just ... one editor. Now, this is not a \"we need to favour vim over emacs\". I think this is a stupid war, the vim versus emacs war. What I mean is ... basically most editors do almost the same exact thing. They look at some buffer for a file and help the user modify this. There is a finite number of operations possible. Why do people keep on re-implementing basic t", "context": "", "use_case": "quick config edits", "switched_from": "", "story": "How I am deeply integrating Emacs"}, {"id": 733174144, "item_id": 45823384, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45823384", "by": "haik90", "date": "2025-11-05", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "nano is my go-to text editor, because it\u2019s the default text editor for all our systems", "excerpt": "nano is my go-to text editor, because it\u2019s the default text editor for all our systems, but somehow I never customize it, until this post.", "context": "", "use_case": "text editing on servers", "switched_from": "", "story": "Customize Nano Text Editor (2022)"}, {"id": 733097072, "item_id": 45818567, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45818567", "by": "kapitanjakc", "date": "2025-11-04", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "10 years, I've been using nano as my editor.", "excerpt": "10 years, I've been using nano as my editor. 10 years I've spent mastering the shortcuts. I have been using nano in hard mode. These configs will make my life so much easier.", "context": "", "use_case": "text editing", "switched_from": "", "story": "Customize Nano Text Editor (2022)"}, {"id": 732985104, "item_id": 45811569, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45811569", "by": "chawyehsu", "date": "2025-11-04", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "nano remains my go-to editor for many quick terminal operations", "excerpt": "It seems few people are aware of how customizable nano actually is. Usually, they use nano with the default preset for quick bootstrapping tasks and then switch to vim without hesitation. While vim/neovim are certainly very powerful, nano remains my go-to editor for many quick terminal operations. I've customized it quite a bit[1], especially the key bindings, though the defaults are already excellent. [1]: https://g", "context": "", "use_case": "quick terminal edits", "switched_from": "", "story": "Customize Nano Text Editor (2022)"}, {"id": 732978240, "item_id": 45811140, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45811140", "by": "iLoveOncall", "date": "2025-11-04", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "It's also possible that you simply do NOT have nano installed at all, and just have the simlink from nano to pico by default.", "excerpt": "If you're on Mac and can't get .nanorc to work, check out https://stackoverflow.com/a/73373788/3876196 It's also possible that you simply do NOT have nano installed at all, and just have the simlink from nano to pico by default. That was my case. In this situation, install nano and it should work.", "context": "Mac user", "use_case": "text editing on Mac", "switched_from": "", "story": "Customize Nano Text Editor (2022)"}, {"id": 732973856, "item_id": 45810866, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45810866", "by": "sanex", "date": "2025-11-04", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Nano is my go-to whenever doing something quick in the terminal. It's quick, I don't need to learn how to use it", "excerpt": "Nano is my go-to whenever doing something quick in the terminal. It's quick, I don't need to learn how to use it, and now it's going to be slightly more convenient. I had no idea it had these options. Thank you!", "context": "", "use_case": "quick terminal edits", "switched_from": "", "story": "Customize Nano Text Editor (2022)"}]}