7 Best Modern Open Source Text Editors For Coding in Linux

Looking for the best text editors in Linux for coding? Here’s a list of the best code editors for Linux. The best part is that all of them are free and open-source software.

If you ask experienced Linux users, their answers would probably include Vim, Emacs, Nano, etc. No doubt these exceptional editors are great, but I’m not talking about terminal-based text editors here.

In this article, I’m going to take a look at the best open-source code editors for Linux that provides a rich user experience along with all the necessary features.

Best modern Open-Source text editors for Linux

Just because I primarily use Ubuntu, you may also consider it as some of my favorite open-source code editors for Ubuntu. But, this list is also applicable for every other Linux distribution out there.

Note: The list is in no particular order of ranking.

1. Atom

Atom is yet another modern and sleek looking open-source editor for programmers. Atom is developed by GitHub and promoted as a “hackable text editor for the 21st century”.

Atom became popular even before its first stable release. Based on it excellent list of features, I can certainly call it one of the best text editors for Ubuntu, or any other operating system for that matter. 

Don’t just take my word for it. Have a look at some key features of the Atom code editor:

• Easily extensible
• Built-in package manager with a huge number of plugins available
• Smart autocompletion
• Split windows
• Cross-platform
• Embedded Git control
• Command palette support

Atom offers .deb and .rpm packages on their official website. You can also follow our tutorial to easily install Atom on Ubuntu and Fedora-based Linux distributions.

In either case, you can also head to their GitHub page for source.

2. Visual Studio Code

Visual Studio Code is a popular code editor from Microsoft. Now don’t push the panic button just yet. Visual Studio Code is completely open-source.

In fact, Visual Studio Code was among the first few ‘peace offerings’ from Microsoft to the Linux and open source world.

Visual Studio Code is an excellent code editor, for all kinds of tasks. It’s lightweight as well. Some key features are:

• Intellisense provides useful hints and auto-completion features
• Built-in Git support
• Built-in extension manager with plenty of extensions available to download
• Integrated terminal
• Custom snippet support
• Debugging tools
• Support for a huge number of programming languages
• Cross-platform

Installing Visual Studio Code on Ubuntu and other distributions such as Fedora-based ones is very easy thanks to Snap and Flatpak packages available.

Alternatively, you can also download .deb/.rpm packages for Ubuntu, Fedora, and other Linux distributions from its official website.

3. VSCodium

If you want to get rid of the telemetry, branding, and the licenses of Visual Code Studio, VSCodium is for you.

VSCodium is essentially the same minus Microsoft telemetry and branding.

You can find .deb/.rpm packages along with files for Windows or ARM-based systems on their GitHub page. If you prefer to use Flatpak, you can also find it listed on Flathub. For reference, you can take a look at our Flatpak guide for help.

4. Brackets

Brackets is an open-source code editor from Adobe. It focuses exclusively on the needs of web designers with built-in support for HTML, CSS and JavaScript.

It’s lightweight and yet powerful. It provides you with inline editing and a live preview feature as well. There are plenty of plugins available to further enhance your experience with Brackets.

Some key features of Brackets code editor are:

• Inline editing
• Live preview
• Preprocessor Support
• Built-in extension manager
• Cross-platform

You may find it listed in your software center. But, if it’s not there, you can get the latest .deb file directly from its official website.

In my case, the .deb file didn’t work because of some unmet dependencies. However, I was able to install it through Pop!_Shop (Flatpak package) on Pop OS 20.04. You can refer to our Flatpak guide to install Brackets on your Linux distribution using Flatpak.

Unfortunately, you don’t get a separate .rpm package. So, in case you’re looking to install Bracket on other Linux distributions, you can check out their GitHub releases section for the source.

5. CudaText

CudaText is a neat open-source text editor which is a cross-platform option that also includes Linux.

It may not be the best there is, but it is suitable for HTML/CSS coding, It gives you the ability to tweak the theme of the editor with a couple of options available.

If you want a simpler and faster solution with a modern look/feel to it, you should try CudaText. Here are some key features that it offers:

• Syntax highlighting
• Code tree
• Code folding
• Binary/hex viewer
• Cross-platform support

You can get the latest release files to install from FossHub. Also, you may check our separate article on CudaText to explore more about it and how to install it.

In either case, head to their official website for more information.

6. Gedit

If you want a simple yet elegant experience, Gedit is a great option.

Of course, it may not give you a rich UI — but it is a clean and modern-looking text editors compared to some others.

Some of the key features it offers are:

• Full support for internationalized text
• Syntax highlighting
• Word auto-completion
• Spell-checking
• Text wrapping
• Cross-platform

It comes pre-installed by default on Linux distributions with GNOME desktop environment. But, if you do not have it installed, you can install it from your respective package manager or the Software Center.

You can even find it available for Windows 10 and macOS. For more details, you should check out their official GNOME wiki page.

7. Lite

A fairly new text editor for coding on Linux (and for Windows as well). When compared to others, this editor aims to provide a fast experience without compromising the user experience.

Unfortunately, as of now, there’s no easy way to install it, you have to build it from source on Linux.

You can check out their GitHub page for more information on the source.

Promising code editors that are not actively developed anymore

Light Table (development stopped)

Flaunted as “the next generation code editor”, Light Table is another modern looking, underrated yet feature-rich open source code editor, which is more of an IDE than a mere text editor.

There are numerous extensions available to enhance its capabilities. You’ll love the inline evaluation feature. You have to use it to believe how useful Light Table actually is.

Unfortunately, it’s no longer actively developed and hasn’t seen a release for a few years. But, you can try it out if you want.

Some of the main features of Light Table are:

• Built-in extension manager
• Inline evaluation obviates the need for printing to screen as you can evaluate the code in the editor live
• ‘Watches’ feature lets you see your code running live
• Cross-platform

If you’re using an Ubuntu-based Linux distribution, then installing Light Table will be easier for you. However, officially, Light Table doesn’t provide any .deb/.rpm packages. You have to build it yourself.

Light Table

Lime Text (development stopped)

Lime Text aimed to be an open-source replacement for users who love Sublime Text. It’s been a while for this project to exist — but it’s not yet ready with packages that you can easily install.

So, if you’re someone likes to build from source, you may find it an interesting choice to test on Linux/macOS and help them improve.

Lime Text

What’s your pick?

Here, we’ve limited our choices with open-source options that are potentially modern text editors for coding. Of course, you have plenty of other options such as Notepad++ alternative Notepadqq or SciTE and many more.

So, among these, which is your favorite text editor for Linux? Feel free to let me know!