Alternatives to GNOME Text Editor

A simple text editor for the GNOME desktop focused on a pleasing default experience. The listings below can replace it for an important use case. Each note says what changes if you switch.

Replacements

Listings that take over the same core job as GNOME Text Editor.

  • gedit

    A general-purpose text editor for Linux that is easy to learn and integrates with GNOME.

    FreeOpen sourceLinux

    gedit is the older open-source GNOME editor with optional programming features, still easy to learn and aimed mainly at Linux and GNOME.

  • Kate

    KDE's text editor: syntax highlighting for over 400 languages, split views, multi-cursor editing and an embedded terminal.

    FreeOpen sourceWindowsLinux

    Kate is KDE's editor with over 400 syntax definitions, split views and an embedded terminal, but it pulls in KDE Frameworks and looks out of place on GNOME.

  • Mousepad

    A simple, fast text editor for the Xfce desktop, meant for quickly editing text files.

    FreeOpen sourceLinux

    Mousepad is a light, open-source GTK editor for Xfce with a simple preferences dialog and optional plugins for quick text and config edits.

  • Xed

    A small, lightweight GTK3 text editor from Linux Mint that works across desktop environments.

    FreeOpen sourceLinux

    Xed is Linux Mint's GTK3 editor with a traditional menu and toolbar interface and plugin support across desktop environments.

  • Pluma

    The small, lightweight UTF-8 text editor of the MATE desktop environment, forked from Gedit.

    FreeOpen sourceLinux

    Pluma is MATE's lightweight Gedit fork with a classic interface and plugins, packaged by most distributions offering MATE.

  • FeatherPad

    A lightweight Qt plain-text editor for Linux that works independently of any desktop environment.

    FreeOpen sourceLinux

    FeatherPad is a Qt plain-text editor independent of any desktop environment, with detachable tabs and virtual desktop awareness.

  • Geany

    A small, fast IDE built on GTK that starts instantly and does not depend on a heavy desktop environment.

    FreeOpen sourceWindowsmacOSLinux

    Geany is a small GTK-based IDE that adds symbol lists, code folding and a build command for programming work beyond a Notepad-style editor.

  • CudaText

    A fast, cross-platform open-source code editor written in Object Pascal and extensible with Python.

    FreeOpen sourceWindowsmacOSLinux

    CudaText is a free, open-source editor for Windows, macOS and Linux with more than 300 lexers and Python add-ons, configured through JSON files.

Similar software

Related functionality, not a direct replacement.