nvi
Shares rank 42 of 56 text editors by recommenders
A free, lean vi clone that people use daily for text editing and email. Critics point to its awkward undo and redo keys.
A free, lean vi clone that people use daily for text editing and email. Critics point to its awkward undo and redo keys.
7 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 6
- criticize it
- 1
- approval share
- 86%
Recommended in 4 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: 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
- 6 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- 6 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 4 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
Primary editor for text and email
“My primary editor for text editing and e-mail.”
Comment from 13 May 2026 in “The vi family” Productive once learned
“ended up pretty productive with it”
Comment from 10 Feb 2026 in “The original vi is a product of its time (and its time has passed)” Default editor across everyday work
“Everything with nvi as the editor”
Comment from 6 Jan 2026 in “Raspberry Pi and mini PC home lab prices hit parity as DRAM costs skyrocket”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Awkward undo and redo keys
“it is just the slightly awkward 'u' to undo/redo then '.' to repeat the undo/redo”
Comment from 17 Feb 2026 in “Undo in Vi and Its Successors” Dropped cscope support as un-vi-like
“nvi back in the day also dropped support for cscope because it wasn't vi enough.”
Comment from 13 May 2026 in “The vi family”
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 | — |
| nviThis page | 6 | 1 | 86% | 4 | — | — |
What people said
5 of the 8 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“My primary editor for text editing and e-mail.”
“nvi back in the day also dropped support for cscope because it wasn't vi enough.”
“it is just the slightly awkward 'u' to undo/redo then '.' to repeat the undo/redo”
“ended up pretty productive with it”
“Everything with nvi as the editor”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.