joe text editor
Shares rank 29 of 42 text editors by recommenders
A long-running terminal text editor with WordStar-style keybindings that people use daily for command-line editing, especially when no graphical desktop is available.
9 people recommended joe text editor in Hacker News comments, 1 had mixed feelings and none criticized it, November 2025 to October 2026.
Summary written by Claude from 11 comments. It was written before the November 2026 recount, and 10 of those comments still count.
10 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 9
- mixed feelings
- 1
- warn against or regret it
- 0
The record
Recommended in 6 of 12 months
In 7 different threads.
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: recommended
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 9 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- Nobody criticizes itNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 6 of 12 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
- Recommended in 7 threadsNeeds 5 or more, met.
- The biggest thread supplies 33% of its recommendersNeeds half or less, met.
The same rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. Mixed feelings count toward neither side. How the badge works
What people say about it
Reasons grouped from a sample of 10 of the 13 opinions about it, picked in proportion to how many people recommend it, have mixed feelings and criticize it. Each mark is one comment in the sample. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Preferred editor for everyday use
“in my preferred text editor (joe), i set up a selection”
Comment from 22 Jul 2026 in “Ghost Cut – or why Cut and Paste is broken everywhere” “JOE still remains my preferred editor as a result.”
Comment from 12 Oct 2026 in “Ask HN: What's the oldest software tool you still rely on every day?” “I use joe for mostly everything”
Comment from 27 Jun 2026 in “WordStar: A Writer's Word Processor (1996)” - Comment from 5 Nov 2025 in “The Microsoft SoftCard for the Apple II: Getting two processors to share memory”
Works well on the command line
“install joe editor package, disable graphical desktop and boot to console only”
Comment from 27 Jun 2026 in “WordStar: A Writer's Word Processor (1996)” “JOE is a good text editor to use on the command line.”
Comment from 13 May 2026 in “WordStar” “among the easiest CLI/TUI editors there are”
Comment from 5 Nov 2025 in “The Microsoft SoftCard for the Apple II: Getting two processors to share memory” Familiar WordStar-style keybindings
“The UI and keybindings ended up burned into muscle memory, so I just kept using it”
Comment from 12 Oct 2026 in “Ask HN: What's the oldest software tool you still rely on every day?” “If you're like me and grew up using pseudo-Wordstar keybindings”
Comment from 27 Jun 2026 in “WordStar: A Writer's Word Processor (1996)”
Other text editors people recommend
The four most recommended other text editors, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Mixed | Criticize | Approval | Months | Had for | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GNU Emacs | 463 | 122 | 162 | 74% | 12 | 20 yrs117 people | Approved |
| Zed | 450 | 193 | 376 | 54% | 12 | 6 mo54 people | — |
| Vim | 412 | 80 | 107 | 79% | 12 | 20 yrs53 people | Approved |
| Visual Studio Code | 332 | 112 | 509 | 39% | 12 | 2 yrs13 people | — |
| joe text editorThis page | 9 | 1 | 0 | 100% | 6 | — | — |
Also compared with Neovim, VS Code, Sublime Text and Helix.
What people said
10 of the 13 opinions about it, picked in proportion to the three counts, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“JOE still remains my preferred editor as a result.”
“The UI and keybindings ended up burned into muscle memory, so I just kept using it”
“in my preferred text editor (joe), i set up a selection”
“install joe editor package, disable graphical desktop and boot to console only”
“If you're like me and grew up using pseudo-Wordstar keybindings”
“I use joe for mostly everything”
“JOE is a good text editor to use on the command line.”
“I remember finding joe back in the 90s, having come to Linux from mainly DOS, and bring overjoyed”
“it was a simpler editor for the less geeky undergraduate users to use”
“among the easiest CLI/TUI editors there are”
Counts come from 1,791,911 Hacker News comments labeled by Claude, November 2025 to October 2026, with data through October 31, 2026. Counts updated 2 Nov 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.