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mg vs JOE (Joe's Own Editor): catalog facts
mg	JOE (Joe's Own Editor)
Free Free software with files under public domain, ISC and BSD licenses.	Free Free software distributed under the GNU General Public License.
macOS, Linux, Command line	Windows, Linux, Command line
Small terminal editor with Emacs-compatible editing Portable across Unix-like systems	Familiar WordStar key layout with Emacs-like features Tiny binary with only libc as a dependency
Does not support UTF-8	The Windows build lags behind at version 4.6 Keyboard scheme differs from vi and modern GUI editors
Downloadable app	Downloadable app
Open source	Open source
License: ISC, BSD-2-Clause, BSD-3-Clause, BSD-4-Clause, Public Domain	License: GPL-2.0
Not stated if an account is needed	No account needed
Not stated if it works offline	Works offline
Official website Full listing and sources Checked October 8, 2026	Official website Full listing and sources Checked October 2, 2026

Catalog facts only. Anything “not stated” is unconfirmed. Check full listings for details.