Pluma

What is Pluma?

Pluma has been the default text editor for the GNOME desktop environment for many years. It started as a fork of the older Gedit project to adopt a more modern, lightweight architecture. It is not a full-featured IDE, but rather a quick tool for editing configuration files, scripts, or plain text documents. The codebase is stable and mature, receiving regular updates alongside the GNOME release cycle.

It is intended for users who need a fast, distraction-free interface for basic text manipulation. If you are used to Windows Notepad, Pluma fills that exact niche: it opens instantly, handles large files reasonably well, and stays out of the way. It is less suited for heavy coding tasks where you might prefer VS Code or Geany, but it is perfect for quick edits and system administration tasks.

Compared to Windows Notepad, Pluma feels more polished and modern. It includes syntax highlighting for many languages, which Notepad lacks (unless you use the newer Windows 10/11 version with extensions). The interface is cleaner, with a tabbed view that feels more like a web browser than a simple window. It integrates tightly with the GNOME ecosystem, making it feel native rather than bolted on.

Best for: Quickly editing text files, configuration scripts, or notes without the overhead of a heavy IDE.

Key features of Pluma

• Syntax highlighting for over 50 programming languages
• Tabbed interface for multiple files
• Line numbers and indentation guides
• Basic find and replace functionality
• Integration with GNOME desktop environment
• Support for UTF-8 and other character encodings

Tips for Windows users

If you are coming from Windows Notepad, note that Pluma uses Ctrl+S to save, Ctrl+O to open, and Ctrl+F to find, which match Windows conventions. It supports .txt, .md, and most plain text formats natively. Unlike Notepad, Pluma handles UTF-8 encoding by default, which is standard on Linux. You may notice that Pluma keeps a history of recent files in the File menu, which is handy for quick access. There is no direct equivalent to Notepad's 'Word Wrap' toggle in the same location; look in the View menu for 'Word Wrap' if you need it.