| Name | Description | License |
| Acme | A User Interface for Programmers by Rob Pike. | |
| Alphatk | | |
| Apache OpenOffice Writer | Word processor and text editor of the Apache OpenOffice Suite, based on StarOffice's suite. | |
| Arachnophilia | A source code editor which is successor to another HTML editor, WebThing. | |
| Atom | A modular, general-purpose editor built using HTML, CSS and JavaScript on top of Chromium and Node.js. | |
| BBEdit | A proprietary text editor originally developed for Macintosh System Software 6 | |
| Bluefish | A source code editor with web development features. | |
| Brackets | A modular, web-oriented editor built using HTML, CSS and JavaScript on top of the Chromium Embedded Framework. | |
| CodeWright | An editing system or source code editor which can be configured to work with other integrated development environment systems. | |
| Crimson Editor | A text editor which is typically used as a source code editor and HTML editor. | |
| CygnusEd | | |
| E Text Editor | Default under IBM OS/2 versions 2-4. | |
| Eddie | An editor originally made for BeOS and later ported to Linux and macOS. | |
| EmEditor | extensible commercial text editor which supports Unicode, syntax highlighting and vertical selection editing, editing of large files | |
| Epsilon | A programmer's text editor modelled after Emacs. | |
| FeatherPad | A lightweight editor based on Qt. | |
| Geany | A fast and lightweight editor – IDE, uses GTK+. | |
| gedit | Former default under GNOME until GNOME 42. | |
| GNOME Text Editor | Default under GNOME from GNOME 42 onwards | |
| GoldED | | |
| HxD | An editor for huge files, working with both binary data and texts. | |
| iA Writer | A multi-platform Markdown text editor with writing focused feature set | |
| jEdit | A free cross-platform programmer's editor written in Java, GPL licensed. | |
| JOVE | Jonathan's Own Version of Emacs | |
| Kate | A basic text editor for the KDE desktop. | |
| Kedit | An editor with commands and Rexx macros similar to IBM XEDIT. | |
| Kile | A user friendly TeX/LaTeX editor. | |
| Komodo Edit | | |
| KWrite | A default editor on KDE. | |
| Lapis | An experimental text editor allowing multiple simultaneous edits of text in a multiple selection from a few examples provided by the user. | |
| Leafpad | Default under LXDE. | |
| Leo | A text editor that features outlines with clones as its central tool of organization and navigation. | |
| LibreOffice Writer | Word processor and text editor of the LibreOffice Suite, based on StarOffice's suite. | |
| Light Table | A text editor and IDE with real-time, inline expression evaluation. Intended mainly for dynamic languages such as Clojure, Python and JavaScript, and for web development. | |
| mcedit | A text editor provided with Midnight Commander. | |
| Metapad | Windows Notepad replacement, GPL licensed. | |
| MicroEMACS | JASSPA MicroEMACS | |
| Mousepad | The default under Xfce. | |
| Multi-Edit | | |
| NEdit – "Nirvana Editor" | | |
| Notepad | Default under Microsoft Windows. | |
| Notepad++ | A tabbed text editor. | |
| Pe | A text editor for BeOS. | |
| pluma | The default text editor of the MATE desktop environment for Linux. | |
| PolyEdit | Proprietary word processor and text editor. | |
| Programmer's File Editor | | |
| PSPad | An editor for Microsoft Windows with various programming environments. | |
| RJ TextEd | | |
| Sam | | |
| SciTE | Cross-platform, multi-user, multi-codepage, multi-language syntax highlighting, area selector, RE find/replace, and very customisable, allowing different font configurations for each syntactic group, user-defined menus and abbreviation expansion. | |
| SimpleText | Default under Classic Mac OS from version 7.5. | |
| SlickEdit | | |
| Smultron | A macOS text editor. | |
SubEthaEdit
| | |
| Sublime Text | | |
| TeachText | Default under Classic Mac OS versions prior to 7.5. | |
| TED Notepad | | |
| Tex-Edit Plus | | |
| TextPad | | |
| TeXnicCenter | | |
| TeXShop | TeX/LaTeX editor and previewer. | |
| TextEdit | Default under macOS, NeXTSTEP, and GNUstep. | |
| TextMate | | |
| TextWrangler | Mac-only editor by Bare Bones Software, sunsetted. Final version released 09/20/2016, replaced by free tier of . | |
| The Hessling Editor | | |
The SemWare Editor
. | | |
| UltraEdit | Text and source code editor with syntax highlighting, code folding, FTP, etc., handles multi-gigabyte files. | |
| Ulysses | | |
| VEDIT | | |
| Visual Studio Code | An extensible code editor with support for development operations like debugging, task running and version control. | |
| WinEdt | | |
| X11 Xedit | | |
| XEDIT | Default under VM/CMS. | |
| Yudit | | |
| Xed | | |
| Zed | | |
| Name | Description | License |
| E | is the text editor in PC DOS 6, PC [DOS 7] and PC DOS 2000. | |
| ed | The default line editor on Unix since its birth. Either ed or a compatible editor is available on all systems labeled as Unix. | |
| ED | The default editor on CP/M, MP/M, Concurrent CP/M, CP/M-86, MP/M-86, Concurrent CP/M-86. | |
| EDIT | The default on MS-DOS 5.0 and higher and is included with all 32-bit versions of Windows that do not rely on a separate copy of DOS. Up to including MS-DOS 6.22, it only supported files up to 64 KB. | |
| EDIT | The text editor in Novell DOS 7, OpenDOS 7.01, DR-DOS 7.02 and higher. Supports large files for as long as swap space is available. Version 7 and higher optionally supports a pseudo-graphics user interface named NewUI. | |
| EDIX | The text editor in Concurrent DOS, Concurrent DOS XM, Concurrent PC DOS, Concurrent DOS 386, FlexOS 286, FlexOS 386, 4680 OS, 4690 OS, S5-DOS/MT. | |
| EDITOR | The text editor in DR DOS 3.31 through DR DOS 6.0, and the predecessor of EDIT. | |
| EDLIN | A command-line based line editor introduced with 86-DOS, and the default on MS-DOS prior to version 5 and is also available on MS-DOS 5.0 and Windows NT. | |
| nvi | – A free replacement for the original vi which maintains compatibility while adding some new features. | |
| vi | The default for Unix systems and must be included in all POSIX compliant systems – One of the earliest screen-based editors, it is based on ex. | |
| Name | Description | License |
| ex | Originally developed as an extended version of ed, eventually, it was enhanced to support full-screen editing via a visual mode which is what today we call vi. In other words, vi is a mode of ex. | |
| Stevie | For the Atari ST, ST 'editor for vi e'nthusiasts is the starting point for vim and xvi | |
| Elvis | The first vi clone and the default vi in Minix. | |
| vile | Derived from an early version of Microemacs in an attempt to bring the Emacs multi-window/multi-buffer editing paradigm to vi users. First published 1991 with infinite undo, UTF-8 compatibility, multi-window/multi-buffer operation, a macro expansion language, syntax highlighting, file read and write hooks, and more. | |
| vim | An extended version of the vi editor, with many additional features designed to be helpful in editing program source code. | |
| Kakoune | An editor inspired by vi that makes use of multi cursor workflows and modal editing. | |
| BusyBox | In addition to many other utilities, includes a vi clone except for reduced functionality to minimize size. | |
| nvi | A new implementation and currently the standard vi in BSD distributions. | |