# Microsoft Edit

15 Hacker News commenters recommended Microsoft Edit and 4 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 8 of 13 months. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** Fast, simple terminal text editor from Microsoft that people find easy to use, running on Windows and Linux.

## Why people recommend it

- Simple and easy to use (3 comments): "It opens incredibly fast compared to everything else I use, it's easy to use, works fine on Linux." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47162308)) "It's very simple and here's hoping they don't bloat this one out, too." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47757333)) "If you want simple plain text editor you have to use msedit" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46973140))
- Works on Windows and Linux (3 comments): "It opens incredibly fast compared to everything else I use, it's easy to use, works fine on Linux." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47162308)) "Edit is ported to win11 and edit(.exe) should work in your shell of choice." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46973772)) "it's pretty great... also runs outside windows" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46977149))
- Preferred over vi or nano (2 comments): "the best text editor for *nix may be Microsoft Edit" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50299262)) "It's honestly far nicer for my use than vi or nano" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46976817))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Zed](https://hackerapproved.com/p/zed.md): 700 recommend
- [GNU Emacs](https://hackerapproved.com/p/emacs.md): 648 recommend
- [Vim](https://hackerapproved.com/p/vim.md): 513 recommend
- [Visual Studio Code](https://hackerapproved.com/p/visual-studio-code.md): 485 recommend
- [Neovim](https://hackerapproved.com/p/neovim.md): 295 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Microsoft Edit", https://hackerapproved.com/p/microsoft-edit/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).