I know VIM is old, but never thought it was like almost my age!

Kidding aside, VIM has been my lifesaver when it comes to editing stuff from a remote server, especially those ugly bugs that can be squashed by either removing a line, or just changing spellings. For those who don’t know what VIM does, VIM is a commandline-based text editor with a cool TUI (text-based user interface), sporting tons of features and supporting almost all programming languages. If you started in DOS like me, you might remember using Wordstar or the “edit” command in your DOS prompt. VIM is similar to these, in which all of these programs run in that blackened screen called the command prompt.

I remember my mentor teaching me VIM, and all I can think about is why would someone make colons as menu shortcuts? Those were my first days learning Linux and I can barely mount a floppy disk from the terminal.

Still, VIM played a huge role in my entire career, and I always tell my students and colleagues that if they don’t learn VIM, they won’t survive pro Linux.

For more history about VIM, go to the Ars Technica birthday tribute article to appreciate it more.