Vim (also known as Vi Improved) is an open source graphical and command-line utility that aims to deliver a full-featured text editor designed for experienced programmers and developers of any kind who are looking for a versatile tool to write code. Keep in mind though, that Vim is not a word processor.
A Vi clone
Vim provides the power of the de-facto UNIX editor Vi, with a more complete feature set. It is useful whether you’re already using Vi or you write code with any other text editor of your choice. It is highly configurable, specially crafted to deliver efficient text editing on a mainstream operating system (see the section below for supported OSes).
Features at a glance
Key features includes vertically split windows, Vimdiff, folding, flexible indenting, Unicode support, comprehensive documentation, a powerful plugin architecture, as well as support for numerous scripting languages.
Getting started with Vim
Vim is not your regular text editor, especially if you were one of those people who used to work with pretty applications like Gedit, Leafpad, Sublime Text or UberWriter, nor Nano. It is a very sophisticated application that requires you to read its documentation, but if you’ve used Vi before, you’ll be just fine to upgrade to Vim.
A programmer’s editor
Vi Improved (Vim) is often called a “programmer’s editor,” and therefore it is extremely useful for and highly acclaimed by developers who want an entire IDE (Integrated Development Environment) into a single, easy-to-use software. However, Vim is perfect for all kinds of text editing, from editing configuration files to composing emails.
Supported operating systems and availability
Vim is not a GNU/Linux only application, as it officially supports many other operating systems, including BSD, Solaris, Amiga, OS/2, Mac OS X and Microsoft Windows. It is available for download as a universal sources archive and runs well on both 32-bit and 64-bit hardware platforms.
