This rant makes a lot more sense for people familiar with text-editors in general (especially in the terminal window).

I’m a very graphical computer user. I dislike the black glow of the terminal screen and instead like the warm colors of a UI application. However graphical text-editors can only go so far (especially when dealing with protected files) and so I eventually had to start using terminal.

The first text-editor that people suggested was vi. What could possible go wrong? Everything. It wasn’t user friendly. As a first time user, I had no clue what I was doing. I couldn’t edit the file at first (until I accidentally pressed “i” — insert mode — which is the command key to start editing). After I managed to change a few lines, I needed to save and exit vi. I knew the exit command (it’s “:q”), however, since I was in insert (edit) mode, nothing that I typed had any desirable effect except add lines to my file. It was frustrating. Eventually I had to force quit the application. My first experiences with vi was just terrible, and left me with a deep dislike of the program.

I came to the conclusion. I needed a better terminal command editor.

Then I found nano. It’s built into linux and so I didn’t need to install anything. It had commands labeled at the bottom of the window so you know what to do when you are done.

At the end of the day, I realized I’m not old-school enough. Graphical applications are easier to understand and use. Many of use don’t even use terminal/command prompt, and that’s a good thing. Graphical Applications make it so much easier to accomplish everyday tasks.

We are no longer in the world of black and white text on a screen. We’ve made progress. Why use something old and complicated when there is something more user friendly? Use Nano. Even though it’s old, it’s not as old. It’s better. It’s a lot better. Trust me.