Linux Gui Applications to write and edit text
For simple stuff I recommend Gedit that comes with GNOME-based Linux distros. If you’re running a K-Desktop Environment (KDE) then Kate is really good. Gedit works well for writing quick text snippets or copying text from websites to use later on.
For text writing in general, I like Pyroom which came pre-installed with Crunchbang Linux 9.04 and I happen to be writing this very blog post using Pyroom. Pyroom reminds me of a typewriter interface—everything else on the screen (except for your text and a light border) is invisible. Nothing to distract your eyes. You only see the words that you type (non-formatted) on your (virtual) page. Each time you hit “return”, your work just scrolls upward. And it can “auto-save” your work at intervals that you set in preferences.
If you’re going to write scripts in various programming languages, then you’ll need a decent IDE-style code editor. This comes in handy if you’re building a website, because you can create a “project” file that will group together the text-based files related to your website.
For this type of work, I use Geany, but have recently installed Aptana Studio to try it out.
The benefit of an IDE-style editor is that it can color the syntax so your commands don’t look like a big vat of text. This makes reading, writing, documenting (or “in-code comments”) and troubleshooting your work much much easier.