Despite the abundance of graphical rich text editors, familiarity with Vim will help every Linux user — from an experienced system administrator to a newbie Raspberry Pi user.

In our world, people get into conflicts about all sorts of matters, from religion and belief through to money and oil. And, in the Linux world, tensions can build up and overspill into flame wars on many subjects too. The most popular of these is text editors.

As you delve into Linux, you will find it is TOTALLY flexible and customizable. You can make it anything you want. Well, almost. This total flexibility is the greatest thing about Linux, and it's the worst thing about Linux. When you get to the point that you understand Linux, that flexibility is great. For the Linux newbie however, the myriad of choices and options are overwhelming.

It's that time again when the summer months hit most of the world and some of us find ourselves lucky enough to find some spare time on their hands. Every year around this time, the Ultimate Linux Newbie Guide makes a call to all of our readers to contribute to the site in some way or another. You may be thinking, "How can I help?

If you're looking around for a great web editor for Linux, just what is the state of editors for Linux and does it get any better than Vi or Emacs? Let's take a look at what options are on offer today.

"One of the things that is very confusing to new Linux enthusiasts is the "distro," or distribution. And one of the most confusing things about distributions, for the beginner, is that there is no official definition of what a distribution is, exactly: distributions existed in many forms long before anyone cared."

"The Linux filesystem is a complex and the first thing that most new users shifting from Windows will find confusing is navigating the Linux filesystem. The second thing is that not too many people are familiar with how the filesystem works or know how to troubleshoot if any problems arise."

What works for me may not work for you. That’s the great thing about Linux. We have choice. There are well over 300 distributions and many different possible desktops to multiply the choice several fold. As with many people, my Linux starting point is Ubuntu.

Linux newbie and excellent writer Emery Fletcher weighs in on the subject of documentation for Linux users, and why it is a good thing.