Feature changed by: Leo Eraly (leraly) Feature #308876, revision 9 Title: Include GNU nano in default install, livecd and install medias openSUSE-11.3: Unconfirmed Priority Requester: Desirable Requested by: Ivo Anjo (knuckles) Description: GNU nano is a very small and user-friendly text editor. There are lots of tips and resources and how-tos on the internet for linux that use nano when simple command-line text editing is needed. The lack of nano on opensuse means that most users can get stuck if they need to use a rescue system or live system to edit some files, and most suggestions point to using vi, which although very powerful and a better editor, is not user-friendly at all. (Ever tried to rescue a system over the phone, and had to step someone through editing a file using vi?) The nano rpm for opensuse 11.2 comes in at 350K, so even installed nano has a very small footprint. Ubuntu, Gentoo and many other distros include nano in their rescue, live, and default installs, and even as their default editor when using the shell. I know a possible alternative is joe, but joe is very unknown, and most people never know what it is or that it is there. (Small popularity experiment using google trends here (http://www.google.com/trends?q=nano+linux+-ipod%2C+joe+linux&ctab=0&geo=all&date=all&sort=2) .) Discussion: #1: Jan Engelhardt (jengelh) (2010-01-25 12:36:51) I suppose we do not install emacs, joe, or mcedit for the same reason. #2: Ivo Anjo (knuckles) (2010-01-26 00:09:08) (reply to #1) Until your post, I had never heard of mcedit, and I've been a full-time openSUSE user since 9.1 . And emacs isn't really comparable to nano in terms of footprint on disk and user-friendliness -- I'm not asking for an editor because it's a my favourite editor and I really like it (I tend to use vi for shell editing these days). I'm asking because it is a very simple editor, one that does the job nicely when any kind of user needs to do a quick edit of a text file from a shell, and that is featured on many guides and howto's for linux on the internet (and to be honest should replace the usage of vi for that purpose). Updated link (http://www.google.com/trends?q=nano+linux+-ipod% 2C+joe+linux%2C+mcedit&ctab=0&geo=all&date=all&sort=1) to google trends comparing nano, joe and mcedit. #3: Jan Engelhardt (jengelh) (2010-01-27 00:38:59) (reply to #2) http://www.google.com/trends?q=nano+editor+-ipod%2C+joe+editor% 2C+mcedit&ctab=0&geo=all&date=all&sort=1 #4: Ivo Anjo (knuckles) (2010-01-27 22:29:00) (reply to #3) That link is an interesting counter-point, but it also shows that joe's popularity has indeed been decreasing and is currently below nano's. #5: Jan Engelhardt (jengelh) (2010-01-31 20:17:31) (reply to #4) I do not really take these graphs as authoritative. They look too much like having only two states - or a Google database failure. Or that nano is buggier. Whichever interpretation to choose. At the end of the day, we are no wiser. + #6: Leo Eraly (leraly) (2010-02-09 14:49:06) + If nano is really that important for you you could easily build your + own 'custom' live cd with suse studio and include all your favorite + tools on it. + At least that is how I do it... -- openSUSE Feature: https://features.opensuse.org/308876