this post was submitted on 11 Jul 2024
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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
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vim has better default keybindings/commands that allow for less movement of your hands. Nowadays, in reasonably current versions of nano, that's mostly it. The main difference is nano is somewhat usable but extremely inefficient unless you learn it, while vim forces you to learn it to get anything done at all, which also pushes people to spend a bit of time learning it in general.
If you're sure of the numbers you're using, vim's ability to repeat commands is also helpful. In practice I find that it's really hard to make use of them beyond low numbers, where nano can still achieve things in similar amounts of keypresses. Eg something to delete 3 words like
<escape>3dwi
can be done similar with a sequence likeAlt-A ^→ ^→ ^→ ^K
in nano. Make it 20 words and nano is going to be a lot slower, but that's quite an uncommon action.But the practice is that nano users don't spend time learning any of that and just hold delete until the words are gone, which takes forever. Everyone that can do basics in vim quickly learns that you can
dw
words away and make it3dw
to delete 3 of them. The default, easiest to use & access tool for any given situation gets blamed not just for its flaws, but also for the users that don't want to spend time learning any tool.After reading up on vim, I ended up at emacs now and I like the emacs style because it works with ctrl and meta keys which feels familar to me. I may learn emacs now.
Your example makes completely sense, yet I've never felt that the standard way was slow in the first place. I could see my workflow improving, but I guess I just want to have extra special commands. Thank you!
I agree that vim forces you to learn before you can use it, but it is possible to learn the bare minimum of vim.
I get by with a very basic understanding of insert mode and the other mode where :q! quits