# nvi

6 Hacker News commenters recommended nvi and 1 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 4 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** A free, lean vi clone that people use daily for text editing and email. Critics point to its awkward undo and redo keys.

## Why people recommend it

- Primary editor for text and email (1 comments): "My primary editor for text editing and e-mail." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48122009))
- Productive once learned (1 comments): "ended up pretty productive with it" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46957074))
- Default editor across everyday work (1 comments): "Everything with nvi as the editor" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46517001))

## What people warn about

- Awkward undo and redo keys (1 comments): "it is just the slightly awkward 'u' to undo/redo then '.' to repeat the undo/redo" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47052165))
- Dropped cscope support as un-vi-like (1 comments): "nvi back in the day also dropped support for cscope because it wasn't vi enough." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48119429))

## 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, "nvi", https://hackerapproved.com/p/nvi/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).