Microsoft Edit
Hacker ApprovedShares rank 24 of 56 text editors by recommenders
Fast, simple terminal text editor from Microsoft that people find easy to use, running on Windows and Linux.
Fast, simple terminal text editor from Microsoft that people find easy to use, running on Windows and Linux.
19 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 15
- criticize it
- 4
- approval share
- 79%
Recommended in 8 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 15 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 3.8 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 8 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, 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
Simple and easy to use
“It opens incredibly fast compared to everything else I use, it's easy to use, works fine on Linux.”
Comment from 26 Feb 2026 in “Windows 11 Notepad to support Markdown” “It's very simple and here's hoping they don't bloat this one out, too.”
Comment from 13 Apr 2026 in “Microsoft isn't removing Copilot from Windows 11, it's just renaming it” “If you want simple plain text editor you have to use msedit”
Comment from 11 Feb 2026 in “Windows Notepad App Remote Code Execution Vulnerability” Works on Windows and Linux
“It opens incredibly fast compared to everything else I use, it's easy to use, works fine on Linux.”
Comment from 26 Feb 2026 in “Windows 11 Notepad to support Markdown” “Edit is ported to win11 and edit(.exe) should work in your shell of choice.”
Comment from 11 Feb 2026 in “Windows Notepad App Remote Code Execution Vulnerability” “it's pretty great... also runs outside windows”
Comment from 11 Feb 2026 in “Windows Notepad App Remote Code Execution Vulnerability” Preferred over vi or nano
“the best text editor for *nix may be Microsoft Edit”
Comment from 30 Oct 2026 in “NetBSD adds a new text editor called atto” “It's honestly far nicer for my use than vi or nano”
Comment from 11 Feb 2026 in “Windows Notepad App Remote Code Execution Vulnerability”
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 | — |
| Microsoft EditThis page | 15 | 4 | 79% | 8 | — | Approved |
What people said
20 of the 23 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“the best text editor for *nix may be Microsoft Edit”
“You might enjoy the new Microsoft Edit”
“I recognize lhecker from the also great wt & edit projects.”
“I enjoy the previously HN featured Microsoft Edit project immensely”
“It's very simple and here's hoping they don't bloat this one out, too.”
“The maintainer has used a hyped language to write a simple editor that already exists.”
“It opens incredibly fast compared to everything else I use, it's easy to use, works fine on Linux.”
“It isn't minimal since it depends on a terminal”
“it fits the bill (+/- GUI, but I didn't consider TUI at all)”
“after 10 minutes, is that it's frustrating and not at all a replacement for Notepad”
“Linux had a real lack of good text editors.”
“it's pretty great... also runs outside windows”
“It's honestly far nicer for my use than vi or nano”
“I actually use the new rust based edit terminal app more than Notepad.”
“did they add a http server in it? Mail reader?”
“Edit is ported to win11 and edit(.exe) should work in your shell of choice.”
“If you want simple plain text editor you have to use msedit”
“a new relative to EDIT.COM is now back, in almost its former glory”
“Not a full IDE, but worth checking out”
“Also worth a look, if you want more TUI”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.