{"slug": "vi", "name": "vi", "category": "editors", "category_name": "Editors and IDEs", "description": "Classic modal screen-oriented text editor, standard on Unix and Unix-like systems.", "recommenders": 5, "commenters": 14, "warners": 4, "score": 2.119, "rising": -0.31, "first": "2025-11-01", "latest": "2026-10-29", "why": "Valued for always being present on Unix and embedded Linux systems with a tiny storage footprint, and for fast editing with command ranges, regex, macros and piping through Unix tools.", "why_is_quote": false, "has_verdict": true, "sentiment": {"recommend": 5, "neutral": 5, "compare": 0, "warn": 4}, "spark": [0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 2, 2, 0, 0, 0, 1], "listed": true, "loved": ["Efficient editing", "Always available"], "caveat": "Modal editing", "short_quote": "No replacement comes close, or has a smaller footprint in storage.", "icon": false, "domain": null, "github_repo": null, "official_url": "", "pricing": "open source", "aliases": ["vi"], "verdict": [{"text": "Valued for always being present on Unix and embedded Linux systems with a tiny storage footprint", "cites": [{"id": 800943184, "item_id": 50058949, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50058949", "by": "joezydeco", "date": "2026-10-12", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "No replacement comes close, or has a smaller footprint in storage.", "excerpt": "vi. Fifty years old now. It's a defacto TUI text editor on any embedded Linux system I work with and I can count on it to always be there. No replacement comes close, or has a smaller footprint in storage.", "context": "works with embedded Linux systems", "use_case": "editing on embedded Linux", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What's the oldest software tool you still rely on every day?"}, {"id": 779209025, "item_id": 48700564, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48700564", "by": "sanjayjc", "date": "2026-06-27", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Even when coding remotely, Emacs and vi are the tools I reach for.", "excerpt": "Emacs originated in the era of time-sharing systems and ed (the precursor of vi) is particularly handy over slow network connections. Even when coding remotely, Emacs and vi are the tools I reach for. The author missed the main reason I favor working locally: privacy, not responsiveness. We write prompts, launch agents and review what they produce. What better tool to review that output than the one you know really w", "context": "", "use_case": "coding over slow connections", "switched_from": "", "story": "From Emacs to Cursor, the end of your IDEs is near"}]}, {"text": ", and for fast editing with command ranges, regex, macros and piping through Unix tools.", "cites": [{"id": 778357632, "item_id": 48647352, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48647352", "by": "whartung", "date": "2026-06-23", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I learned vi back in the day and have never really graduated to vim.", "excerpt": "I learned vi back in the day and have never really graduated to vim. My favorite features are the ranges on the commands (like substitute or delete), piping the buffer into the bottomless utility of the classic UNIX command line, and the . do again command. About the only vim feature I use today is being able to navigate while entering text, but even after all this time, that is not automatic to me. I have used synta", "context": "", "use_case": "text editing", "switched_from": "", "story": "The Traditional Vi"}, {"id": 769972608, "item_id": 48123288, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48123288", "by": "NoSalt", "date": "2026-05-13", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use it to \"massage\" data in all sorts of files (.json, .xml, .csv, .txt, etc.)", "excerpt": "> \"once you learn it, you can be ruthlessly efficient with your editing\" This is no joke. I use it to \"massage\" data in all sorts of files (.json, .xml, .csv, .txt, etc.), with thousands to millions of lines, in no time at all.", "context": "", "use_case": "editing large data files", "switched_from": "", "story": "The vi family"}, {"id": 769904224, "item_id": 48119014, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48119014", "by": "pippoit", "date": "2026-05-13", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "vi/vim is the first thing I install on a PC", "excerpt": "The first work i had to use vi and screen on a terminal, it were in 90s . I was used to dos editors ( edit, turbo C ... ) and windows . It was a pain. copy and paste at first was a nightmare. Copy from one file to another ,with named register and # was an hell ( it was vi not vim so only 2 files a time ,the actual edited and the prior ones ). I hated that place, that work, those tool for a while . I got so used to vi", "context": "30+ years of use", "use_case": "editing files, regex and macros", "switched_from": "", "story": "The vi family"}]}, {"text": " The most common complaint is that modal editing is hard to learn and feels unnatural", "cites": [{"id": 804662352, "item_id": 50291397, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50291397", "by": "graemep", "date": "2026-10-29", "stance": "warn", "quote": "I can manage vi if I must, but its an effort and distracts from the task", "excerpt": "I think there are a lot of people who are not comfortable with vi. Its much the same reason that some Linux distros default to nano. I spend a fair bit of time on Linux command lines, but I use a mix of different TUI and GUI editors (including ones that work over ssh for editing files on servers), and none of those are vi. I can manage vi if I must, but its an effort and distracts from the task because I have to thin", "context": "spends time on Linux command lines", "use_case": "command-line editing", "switched_from": "", "story": "NetBSD adds a new text editor called atto"}, {"id": 777417489, "item_id": 48588593, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48588593", "by": "cmrdporcupine", "date": "2026-06-18", "stance": "warn", "quote": "modal editing repulses me", "excerpt": "For me what I found was that on early 90s telnet-accessible Unix systems the only pre-installed or easily installed editor that actually let me use... luxuries... like arrow keys and backspace was emacs. Vi was always there but modal editing repulses me and it also didn't work with arrow keys and the like. (I've never understood the fixation with avoiding them in favour of repurposing letter keys, something that is j", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Emacs, how it all started (for me)"}, {"id": 804708434, "item_id": 50294277, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50294277", "by": "marssaxman", "date": "2026-10-29", "stance": "warn", "quote": "I couldn't stand vi", "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": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "NetBSD adds a new text editor called atto"}, {"id": 789564736, "item_id": 49347796, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49347796", "by": "bezko", "date": "2026-08-18", "stance": "warn", "quote": "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?"}]}, {"text": ", with some preferring nano or pico instead.", "cites": [{"id": 789564736, "item_id": 49347796, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49347796", "by": "bezko", "date": "2026-08-18", "stance": "warn", "quote": "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": 804708434, "item_id": 50294277, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50294277", "by": "marssaxman", "date": "2026-10-29", "stance": "warn", "quote": "I couldn't stand vi", "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": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "NetBSD adds a new text editor called atto"}]}], "praise": [{"label": "Efficient editing", "summary": "Commenters say command ranges, regex, macros, the . repeat command and piping through Unix tools make editing fast, even on huge files.", "quotes": [{"id": 769972608, "item_id": 48123288, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48123288", "by": "NoSalt", "date": "2026-05-13", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use it to \"massage\" data in all sorts of files (.json, .xml, .csv, .txt, etc.)", "excerpt": "> \"once you learn it, you can be ruthlessly efficient with your editing\" This is no joke. I use it to \"massage\" data in all sorts of files (.json, .xml, .csv, .txt, etc.), with thousands to millions of lines, in no time at all.", "context": "", "use_case": "editing large data files", "switched_from": "", "story": "The vi family"}, {"id": 778357632, "item_id": 48647352, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48647352", "by": "whartung", "date": "2026-06-23", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I learned vi back in the day and have never really graduated to vim.", "excerpt": "I learned vi back in the day and have never really graduated to vim. My favorite features are the ranges on the commands (like substitute or delete), piping the buffer into the bottomless utility of the classic UNIX command line, and the . do again command. About the only vim feature I use today is being able to navigate while entering text, but even after all this time, that is not automatic to me. I have used synta", "context": "", "use_case": "text editing", "switched_from": "", "story": "The Traditional Vi"}, {"id": 769904224, "item_id": 48119014, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48119014", "by": "pippoit", "date": "2026-05-13", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "vi/vim is the first thing I install on a PC", "excerpt": "The first work i had to use vi and screen on a terminal, it were in 90s . I was used to dos editors ( edit, turbo C ... ) and windows . It was a pain. copy and paste at first was a nightmare. Copy from one file to another ,with named register and # was an hell ( it was vi not vim so only 2 files a time ,the actual edited and the prior ones ). I hated that place, that work, those tool for a while . I got so used to vi", "context": "30+ years of use", "use_case": "editing files, regex and macros", "switched_from": "", "story": "The vi family"}]}, {"label": "Always available", "summary": "It is reliably present on embedded Linux and remote systems, so commenters can count on it being there.", "quotes": [{"id": 800943184, "item_id": 50058949, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50058949", "by": "joezydeco", "date": "2026-10-12", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "No replacement comes close, or has a smaller footprint in storage.", "excerpt": "vi. Fifty years old now. It's a defacto TUI text editor on any embedded Linux system I work with and I can count on it to always be there. No replacement comes close, or has a smaller footprint in storage.", "context": "works with embedded Linux systems", "use_case": "editing on embedded Linux", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What's the oldest software tool you still rely on every day?"}, {"id": 779209025, "item_id": 48700564, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48700564", "by": "sanjayjc", "date": "2026-06-27", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Even when coding remotely, Emacs and vi are the tools I reach for.", "excerpt": "Emacs originated in the era of time-sharing systems and ed (the precursor of vi) is particularly handy over slow network connections. Even when coding remotely, Emacs and vi are the tools I reach for. The author missed the main reason I favor working locally: privacy, not responsiveness. We write prompts, launch agents and review what they produce. What better tool to review that output than the one you know really w", "context": "", "use_case": "coding over slow connections", "switched_from": "", "story": "From Emacs to Cursor, the end of your IDEs is near"}, {"id": 777853969, "item_id": 48615873, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48615873", "by": "ggm", "date": "2026-06-20", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I use emacs, vi, ed, sed, awk all the time", "excerpt": "There has to be a version of Betteridges law for tech questions which obviously demand the answer \"yes\" I use emacs, vi, ed, sed, awk all the time as do countless other long term Unix users. I tried to reconnect to teco but found it a dialect of editing I no longer related to.", "context": "long term Unix user", "use_case": "text editing", "switched_from": "", "story": "Is anyone still using Emacs?"}]}, {"label": "Lasting muscle memory", "summary": "Long-time users say the basic commands stay hardwired for decades.", "quotes": [{"id": 769910016, "item_id": 48119376, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48119376", "by": "arethuza", "date": "2026-05-13", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "the basic vi commands are hardwired in my brain - I could happily edit a file in vi", "excerpt": "I learned vi in '86 or so mid way through the CS course I did. Later on I used emacs and various other editors for many years. The weird thing is that the basic vi commands are hardwired in my brain - I could happily edit a file in vi but I'd be stuck if I had to use emacs (even though I actually used emacs for far longer)...", "context": "", "use_case": "text editing", "switched_from": "", "story": "The vi family"}, {"id": 769904224, "item_id": 48119014, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48119014", "by": "pippoit", "date": "2026-05-13", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "vi/vim is the first thing I install on a PC", "excerpt": "The first work i had to use vi and screen on a terminal, it were in 90s . I was used to dos editors ( edit, turbo C ... ) and windows . It was a pain. copy and paste at first was a nightmare. Copy from one file to another ,with named register and # was an hell ( it was vi not vim so only 2 files a time ,the actual edited and the prior ones ). I hated that place, that work, those tool for a while . I got so used to vi", "context": "30+ years of use", "use_case": "editing files, regex and macros", "switched_from": "", "story": "The vi family"}, {"id": 778357632, "item_id": 48647352, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48647352", "by": "whartung", "date": "2026-06-23", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I learned vi back in the day and have never really graduated to vim.", "excerpt": "I learned vi back in the day and have never really graduated to vim. My favorite features are the ranges on the commands (like substitute or delete), piping the buffer into the bottomless utility of the classic UNIX command line, and the . do again command. About the only vim feature I use today is being able to navigate while entering text, but even after all this time, that is not automatic to me. I have used synta", "context": "", "use_case": "text editing", "switched_from": "", "story": "The Traditional Vi"}]}, {"label": "Small footprint", "summary": "One commenter says no replacement has a smaller storage footprint.", "quotes": [{"id": 800943184, "item_id": 50058949, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50058949", "by": "joezydeco", "date": "2026-10-12", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "No replacement comes close, or has a smaller footprint in storage.", "excerpt": "vi. Fifty years old now. It's a defacto TUI text editor on any embedded Linux system I work with and I can count on it to always be there. No replacement comes close, or has a smaller footprint in storage.", "context": "works with embedded Linux systems", "use_case": "editing on embedded Linux", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What's the oldest software tool you still rely on every day?"}]}], "caveats": [{"label": "Modal editing", "summary": "Several commenters find modal editing unintuitive or repellent and say it distracts from the task.", "quotes": [{"id": 804662352, "item_id": 50291397, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50291397", "by": "graemep", "date": "2026-10-29", "stance": "warn", "quote": "I can manage vi if I must, but its an effort and distracts from the task", "excerpt": "I think there are a lot of people who are not comfortable with vi. Its much the same reason that some Linux distros default to nano. I spend a fair bit of time on Linux command lines, but I use a mix of different TUI and GUI editors (including ones that work over ssh for editing files on servers), and none of those are vi. I can manage vi if I must, but its an effort and distracts from the task because I have to thin", "context": "spends time on Linux command lines", "use_case": "command-line editing", "switched_from": "", "story": "NetBSD adds a new text editor called atto"}, {"id": 777417489, "item_id": 48588593, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48588593", "by": "cmrdporcupine", "date": "2026-06-18", "stance": "warn", "quote": "modal editing repulses me", "excerpt": "For me what I found was that on early 90s telnet-accessible Unix systems the only pre-installed or easily installed editor that actually let me use... luxuries... like arrow keys and backspace was emacs. Vi was always there but modal editing repulses me and it also didn't work with arrow keys and the like. (I've never understood the fixation with avoiding them in favour of repurposing letter keys, something that is j", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Emacs, how it all started (for me)"}, {"id": 789564736, "item_id": 49347796, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49347796", "by": "bezko", "date": "2026-08-18", "stance": "warn", "quote": "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": "Learning curve", "summary": "Newcomers describe early use, such as copying between files, as painful.", "quotes": [{"id": 769904224, "item_id": 48119014, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48119014", "by": "pippoit", "date": "2026-05-13", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "vi/vim is the first thing I install on a PC", "excerpt": "The first work i had to use vi and screen on a terminal, it were in 90s . I was used to dos editors ( edit, turbo C ... ) and windows . It was a pain. copy and paste at first was a nightmare. Copy from one file to another ,with named register and # was an hell ( it was vi not vim so only 2 files a time ,the actual edited and the prior ones ). I hated that place, that work, those tool for a while . I got so used to vi", "context": "30+ years of use", "use_case": "editing files, regex and macros", "switched_from": "", "story": "The vi family"}, {"id": 804708434, "item_id": 50294277, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50294277", "by": "marssaxman", "date": "2026-10-29", "stance": "warn", "quote": "I couldn't stand vi", "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": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "NetBSD adds a new text editor called atto"}, {"id": 789564736, "item_id": 49347796, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49347796", "by": "bezko", "date": "2026-08-18", "stance": "warn", "quote": "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": "Arrow keys", "summary": "One commenter says the vi on early-90s Unix systems didn't work with arrow keys.", "quotes": [{"id": 777417489, "item_id": 48588593, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48588593", "by": "cmrdporcupine", "date": "2026-06-18", "stance": "warn", "quote": "modal editing repulses me", "excerpt": "For me what I found was that on early 90s telnet-accessible Unix systems the only pre-installed or easily installed editor that actually let me use... luxuries... like arrow keys and backspace was emacs. Vi was always there but modal editing repulses me and it also didn't work with arrow keys and the like. (I've never understood the fixation with avoiding them in favour of repurposing letter keys, something that is j", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Emacs, how it all started (for me)"}]}], "who": [{"by": "joezydeco", "context": "works with embedded Linux systems", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50058949", "date": "2026-10-12"}, {"by": "ggm", "context": "long term Unix user", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48615873", "date": "2026-06-20"}, {"by": "pippoit", "context": "30+ years of use", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48119014", "date": "2026-05-13"}, {"by": "firefax", "context": "infosec background, glorified sysadmin", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45781509", "date": "2025-11-01"}], "tags": ["for embedded Linux", "for remote editing", "for long-time Unix users", "for sysadmins", "for bulk data editing"], "use_cases": ["text editing", "command-line editing", "code editing", "editing on embedded linux", "quick edits", "coding over slow connections"], "compared": [{"slug": "emacs", "name": "Emacs", "co": 10, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 1}, {"slug": "nano", "name": "nano", "co": 3, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "visual-studio-code", "name": "Visual Studio Code", "co": 3, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "joe", "name": "JOE", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "sed", "name": "sed", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}], "makers": [], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48033483", "title": "The vi family", "mentions": 3}, {"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=50219186", "title": "ThinkRail from JetBrains", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50058242", "title": "Ask HN: What's the oldest software tool you still rely on every day?", "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=48859439", "title": "How do you use Vim in the era of AI?", "mentions": 1}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {"neutral": 1}, "2025-12": {}, "2026-01": {}, "2026-02": {}, "2026-03": {}, "2026-04": {}, "2026-05": {"recommend": 2, "neutral": 1}, "2026-06": {"warn": 1, "neutral": 1, "recommend": 2}, "2026-07": {"neutral": 1}, "2026-08": {"warn": 1}, "2026-09": {}, "2026-10": {"recommend": 1, "neutral": 1, "warn": 2}}, "quotes": [{"id": 804708434, "item_id": 50294277, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50294277", "by": "marssaxman", "date": "2026-10-29", "stance": "warn", "quote": "I couldn't stand vi", "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": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "NetBSD adds a new text editor called atto"}, {"id": 804662352, "item_id": 50291397, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50291397", "by": "graemep", "date": "2026-10-29", "stance": "warn", "quote": "I can manage vi if I must, but its an effort and distracts from the task", "excerpt": "I think there are a lot of people who are not comfortable with vi. Its much the same reason that some Linux distros default to nano. I spend a fair bit of time on Linux command lines, but I use a mix of different TUI and GUI editors (including ones that work over ssh for editing files on servers), and none of those are vi. I can manage vi if I must, but its an effort and distracts from the task because I have to thin", "context": "spends time on Linux command lines", "use_case": "command-line editing", "switched_from": "", "story": "NetBSD adds a new text editor called atto"}, {"id": 803518690, "item_id": 50219918, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50219918", "by": "faangguyindia", "date": "2026-10-24", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "always used vi", "excerpt": "Never used JetBrains products, but always used vi; after that, VS Code for its extensions. But due to agentic stuff, I moved to zed.", "context": "", "use_case": "code editing", "switched_from": "", "story": "ThinkRail from JetBrains"}, {"id": 800943184, "item_id": 50058949, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50058949", "by": "joezydeco", "date": "2026-10-12", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "No replacement comes close, or has a smaller footprint in storage.", "excerpt": "vi. Fifty years old now. It's a defacto TUI text editor on any embedded Linux system I work with and I can count on it to always be there. No replacement comes close, or has a smaller footprint in storage.", "context": "works with embedded Linux systems", "use_case": "editing on embedded Linux", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What's the oldest software tool you still rely on every day?"}, {"id": 789564736, "item_id": 49347796, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49347796", "by": "bezko", "date": "2026-08-18", "stance": "warn", "quote": "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": 781767106, "item_id": 48860444, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48860444", "by": "jillesvangurp", "date": "2026-07-10", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I actually do reach for vi on the command line sometimes.", "excerpt": "I've barely touched Intellij for the last half year or so. I rarely edit code manually at this point. I also did not renew my subscription and am back on the community edition. I've noticed that my preferences for tools and languages is shifting as well. I'm happy to work with stuff that I previously would have not touched now because it would take me too long to get up to speed with languages, frameworks, etc. That ", "context": "", "use_case": "quick edits", "switched_from": "", "story": "How do you use Vim in the era of AI?"}, {"id": 779209025, "item_id": 48700564, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48700564", "by": "sanjayjc", "date": "2026-06-27", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Even when coding remotely, Emacs and vi are the tools I reach for.", "excerpt": "Emacs originated in the era of time-sharing systems and ed (the precursor of vi) is particularly handy over slow network connections. Even when coding remotely, Emacs and vi are the tools I reach for. The author missed the main reason I favor working locally: privacy, not responsiveness. We write prompts, launch agents and review what they produce. What better tool to review that output than the one you know really w", "context": "", "use_case": "coding over slow connections", "switched_from": "", "story": "From Emacs to Cursor, the end of your IDEs is near"}, {"id": 778357632, "item_id": 48647352, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48647352", "by": "whartung", "date": "2026-06-23", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I learned vi back in the day and have never really graduated to vim.", "excerpt": "I learned vi back in the day and have never really graduated to vim. My favorite features are the ranges on the commands (like substitute or delete), piping the buffer into the bottomless utility of the classic UNIX command line, and the . do again command. About the only vim feature I use today is being able to navigate while entering text, but even after all this time, that is not automatic to me. I have used synta", "context": "", "use_case": "text editing", "switched_from": "", "story": "The Traditional Vi"}, {"id": 777853969, "item_id": 48615873, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48615873", "by": "ggm", "date": "2026-06-20", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I use emacs, vi, ed, sed, awk all the time", "excerpt": "There has to be a version of Betteridges law for tech questions which obviously demand the answer \"yes\" I use emacs, vi, ed, sed, awk all the time as do countless other long term Unix users. I tried to reconnect to teco but found it a dialect of editing I no longer related to.", "context": "long term Unix user", "use_case": "text editing", "switched_from": "", "story": "Is anyone still using Emacs?"}, {"id": 777417489, "item_id": 48588593, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48588593", "by": "cmrdporcupine", "date": "2026-06-18", "stance": "warn", "quote": "modal editing repulses me", "excerpt": "For me what I found was that on early 90s telnet-accessible Unix systems the only pre-installed or easily installed editor that actually let me use... luxuries... like arrow keys and backspace was emacs. Vi was always there but modal editing repulses me and it also didn't work with arrow keys and the like. (I've never understood the fixation with avoiding them in favour of repurposing letter keys, something that is j", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Emacs, how it all started (for me)"}, {"id": 769972608, "item_id": 48123288, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48123288", "by": "NoSalt", "date": "2026-05-13", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use it to \"massage\" data in all sorts of files (.json, .xml, .csv, .txt, etc.)", "excerpt": "> \"once you learn it, you can be ruthlessly efficient with your editing\" This is no joke. I use it to \"massage\" data in all sorts of files (.json, .xml, .csv, .txt, etc.), with thousands to millions of lines, in no time at all.", "context": "", "use_case": "editing large data files", "switched_from": "", "story": "The vi family"}, {"id": 769910016, "item_id": 48119376, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48119376", "by": "arethuza", "date": "2026-05-13", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "the basic vi commands are hardwired in my brain - I could happily edit a file in vi", "excerpt": "I learned vi in '86 or so mid way through the CS course I did. Later on I used emacs and various other editors for many years. The weird thing is that the basic vi commands are hardwired in my brain - I could happily edit a file in vi but I'd be stuck if I had to use emacs (even though I actually used emacs for far longer)...", "context": "", "use_case": "text editing", "switched_from": "", "story": "The vi family"}, {"id": 769904224, "item_id": 48119014, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48119014", "by": "pippoit", "date": "2026-05-13", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "vi/vim is the first thing I install on a PC", "excerpt": "The first work i had to use vi and screen on a terminal, it were in 90s . I was used to dos editors ( edit, turbo C ... ) and windows . It was a pain. copy and paste at first was a nightmare. Copy from one file to another ,with named register and # was an hell ( it was vi not vim so only 2 files a time ,the actual edited and the prior ones ). I hated that place, that work, those tool for a while . I got so used to vi", "context": "30+ years of use", "use_case": "editing files, regex and macros", "switched_from": "", "story": "The vi family"}, {"id": 732504144, "item_id": 45781509, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45781509", "by": "firefax", "date": "2025-11-01", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "my \"dev enviornment\" is vi", "excerpt": "Thanks for this pointer and explanation, I appreciate it. Also my \"dev enviornment\" is vi -- I come from infosec (so basically a glorified sysadmin) so I'm mostly making little bash and python scripts, so I'm learning a lot of new things about software engineering as I explore this space :-) Edit: Hey which of the models on that page were you referring to? I'm grabbing one now that's apparently double digit GB? Or we", "context": "infosec background, glorified sysadmin", "use_case": "writing bash and python scripts", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: Who uses open LLMs and coding assistants locally? Share setup and laptop"}]}