While I can't vote for vim (I've never used it), I'm going to have to pass on this poll since Geany isn't included. It's my go-to text editor and when it's time to update my startup web page (a ton of links I use regularly), or even for editing .bash-history it's Geany that gets opened.

vim... since I discovered it... I like it every day even more

Love the way it marks up code as I write it when the file type is identified. Very flexible. On the other hand, when I'm in a terminal session and need to get at a file quickly, vim just naturally gets typed at the command line.

Well, after some consideration I am still on the fence on this one.

vi/nvi deserves the love since it's everywhere and portable skill sets are a god send for sysadmins. Ironically, although I've tried vim a few times, I do not care for it, it's popularity in large part I think due to simply being default on many modern Linux distributions.

Emacs deserves some love for just being Emacs....

I've started to actually use gedit a bit this year, however, so it's tempting to vote gedit. I think I might even be pretty productive with it if I bothered investing 1/100th the time in learning keyboard shortcuts than I did for nvi/emacs. So I guess I'll just have to break tradition and for the first time ever vote for gui based editor - gedit.

Emacs, even after about twenty years using vi.

VIM got first! not expected.

I'm just glad to stick it to Emacs, Viva La vi! vi is a better religion... I mean editor than emacs.... and emacs is a worse operating system than Linux. [ducks and covers]

I'm *really* sorry guys I just couldn't help myself :-)

One thing about editors like vi or emacs is that they take real dedication to use. A person has to fight through the first few months to really start liking these types of editors. They are advanced and capable, but not easy to learn. I'm glad so many people are dedicated enough to learn some of these tools. I can't code outside of vi, really. I'm that addicted to it.

I forgot about joe. I just fired it up to see it again. How many people remember Wordstar 3? That was my first word processor program and I wrote many-a-paper with it. Invoke joe as jstar for better keybindings like Wordstar 3.x.

By the way, does it really make sense to differentiate between vi, vim and elvis? Just throw them all under the "vi" family next year. They follow the same general scheme even though power users notice the difference. Force a vim person to use elvis and you might hear the occasional grumble.... force him to use emacs and you'll ignite WWIII.