how do i change default text editor to nedit

**honestann** · June 2nd, 2012

The default text editor in ubuntu 12.04 is gedit. I much prefer nedit, and installed nedit on my system. Now, how do I tell ubuntu nedit is the default text editor so nedit gets run instead of gedit when I open a text file?

**LiamOS** · June 2nd, 2012

Code:

# update-alternatives --config editor

This may not work for graphical editors such as gedit or nedit, though. I can't say because I only ever use vim.

Here's a way of changing vi to run vim instead, which may be easily reworked to change gedit use to nedit. It may not work, and may cause some wreckage in your system, so definitely check out how gedit ties into your system and what's actually going on before doing that.

A worthwhile command to run would be

Code:

# apt-get -s remove gedit

as this will show you what other packages(if any) would be removed if you were to remove gedit, since the -s flag makes apt-get only pretend to perform the action.

EDIT: Alternatively, see this thread outlining what seems to be exactly what you want. http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=299086