Editing Editor war (section)

==Background==
[[File:2012 SOTM Steve Coast (8091880545).jpg|thumb|Editor choice being brought up during a presentation at a technology convention]]

{{as of|2020}}, both Emacs and vi can lay claim to being among the longest-lived application programs of all time,<ref>{{cite web |first=David |last=Auerbach |url=http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/bitwise/2014/05/oldest_software_rivalry_emacs_and_vi_two_text_editors_used_by_programmers.html |title=The Oldest Rivalry in Computing |website=[[Slate (magazine)|Slate]] |date=9 May 2014 |quote=two rival programs can stake a claim to being among the longest-lived applications of all time. Both programs are about to enter their fifth decades. Both programs are text editors, for inputting and editing code, data files, raw HTML Web pages, and anything else. And they are mortal enemies.}}</ref> as well as being the two most commonly used text editors on [[Linux]] and [[Unix]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.catb.org/esr/writings/taoup/html/ch15s02.html|title=Choosing an Editor|quote=these two editors express sharply contrasting design philosophies, but both are extremely popular and command great loyalty from identifiable core user populations. Surveys of Unix programmers consistently indicate about a 50/50 split between them, with all other editors barely registering.}}</ref>{{Update inline|date=September 2024}} Many operating systems, especially Linux and [[BSD]] derivatives, bundle multiple text editors with the operating system to cater to user demand. For example, a default installation of [[macOS]] contains [[Ed (text editor)|ed]], [[Pico (text editor)|pico]] ([[Nano (text editor)|nano]] before [[macOS Monterey]] 12.3<ref>{{Cite web |last=Tsai |first=Michael J. |title=Michael Tsai - Blog - macOS 12.3 Removed the nano Text Editor |url=https://mjtsai.com/blog/2022/03/25/macos-12-3-removed-the-nano-text-editor/ |access-date=2025-03-19 |language=en}}</ref>), [[TextEdit]], and Vim.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.gnu.org/fun/jokes/ed.msg.html|title=Ed, man! !man ed|publisher=Gnu.org|access-date=1 December 2014}}</ref>