Ask HN: Is it worth learning Vim in 2026?

> For anyone who's been using Vim for while AND uses AI to code

Purposefully ignoring the second part.

First, what really matters is the vi part of vim, i.e the idea of commands, text objects, motions,... The rest are very useful features that are nice to have especially in a programming context (quickfix list, makeprg, window and buffer management, macros,...).

The first part makes editing text so much easier. Even in the day of prompting, they're still useful to have in any text editor. It takes typing text from a chore to a fun activity.

It's a handy skill to have if you interact with Linux machines.

You'll need to edit files sometimes, and Vim (or Vi) is usually present. I don't think I've seen an install without it.

The basics (opening files, writing, and closing) can be learnt in an hour. It's enough to make simple changes to .conf files.

It will be worth learning vim in 2076.

The complexities of Vim are rather exaggerated IMHO - it's mostly an exercise in keyboard shortcut memorization. It was used principally in all my CS classes back in university, and everyone seemed to acclimate to it pretty quickly.

On the off-chance that you somehow encounter a real world situation where you have to log into a POSIX machine that has no other editors (nano, etc.), you can just learn it then.

I mean you're not defusing a bomb - it's not like you couldn't pull up the shortcut list on your phone and get acquainted with the majority of what you need in a few minutes.

  > boost my ego & assert my dominance

I have never met a developer who unironically flexed that they used vim (or one of its modern variants like neovim).

i have made my decision

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hEU7R-nu9wM