KWrite
Shares rank 47 of 56 text editors by recommenders
People recommend KWrite as a simple, quick text editor and a basic Notepad replacement on Linux. One critic found its syntax highlighting unusable.
People recommend KWrite as a simple, quick text editor and a basic Notepad replacement on Linux. One critic found its syntax highlighting unusable.
7 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 5
- criticize it
- 2
- approval share
- 71%
Recommended in 3 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 5 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- 2.5 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 3 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, not met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Good for quickly writing thoughts
“I really enjoyed opening it for quickly writing out thoughts”
Comment from 1 Jun 2026 in “KDE at 30” Basic editing on Linux
“On Linux, I'll use KWrite to do my basic editing.”
Comment from 11 Mar 2026 in “Ask HN: Why doesn't Linux have a native text editor as feature rich as Notepad++” Notepad alternative on Linux
“For just notepad you have kwrite.”
Comment from 10 Mar 2026 in “Plasma Bigscreen – 10-foot interface for KDE plasma” Still available, easy to install
“KWrite still exists. Just install it.”
Comment from 1 Jun 2026 in “KDE at 30”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Syntax highlighting made it unusable
“It was completely unusable, I had to turn off syntax highlighting.”
Comment from 31 Aug 2026 in “Highlighting My Code Based on How Much I Care” Called egregious alongside Konsole
“Konsole and KWrite are particularly egregious.”
Comment from 24 Sep 2026 in “Ideas on modernizing the open-source desktop”
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 | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Zed | 700 | 430 | 62% | 13 | 6 mo57 owners | — |
| GNU Emacs | 648 | 207 | 76% | 13 | 20 yrs158 owners | Approved |
| Vim | 513 | 127 | 80% | 13 | 20 yrs55 owners | Approved |
| Visual Studio Code | 485 | 547 | 47% | 12 | 2 yrs13 owners | — |
| KWriteThis page | 5 | 2 | 71% | 3 | — | — |
What people said
6 of the 7 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“Konsole and KWrite are particularly egregious.”
“It was completely unusable, I had to turn off syntax highlighting.”
“KWrite still exists. Just install it.”
“I really enjoyed opening it for quickly writing out thoughts”
“On Linux, I'll use KWrite to do my basic editing.”
“For just notepad you have kwrite.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.