I agree. And if you only occasionally need text editor on a linux server, like when you change some config file or update cronjob and nothing more, nano is perfectly adequate, without needing to learn all the vim shortcuts.

> And if you only occasionally need text editor on a linux server, like when you change some config file or update cronjob and nothing more, nano is perfectly adequate

That's precisely when nano is the least adequate: "sudo -e" or "crontab -e" won't pass the "-w" flag to nano, and without that flag, the automatic hard line wrapping can easily corrupt config files which depend on line breaks for their semantics (a crontab being a great example, where each line is a separate entry).

Thanks, I check that flag. Anyway, I never encountered the problem you are mentioning...

That can go in nanorc

> However having Nano as default is the better choice. You as an expert know how to change the default.

Speak for yourself. It's not better for me and I had to do some googling to figure out how to change the default when it was changed to Nano. I'm not an "expert" in any sense, but I'm sure a lot more comfortable with VIM than Nano.

Also, I'm not sure most people setting up VMs newbies, at least in the way you're using the word. I have no problems with Nano being installed as the default on some distros. I just wish it weren't on the one I use!

Thank you for speaking for the rest of us.

What's nuts to me is how often I hear people complain that that can't figure out how to quit out of nano when those exact instructions are always visible at the bottom of the screen.

But you have to know that the "^" sign means "hold ctrl".

When you first open nano, it tells you at the bottom of the screen that you can press "Ctrl+G" for help. The second paragraph of the help text explains the '^' notation, and the help further explains that you could have accessed the help page by pressing F1, which has been a common key for accessing the help feature of whatever program you're using for decades.

These are people who prefer vim, and are perfectly fine with the :q magic.

Shift + zz