It's common to compare text editors and say that one is better or worsethan another. But after a certain point this is wrong. Editors are oftennot better or worse but different than each other, each better atspecific things. Such differences mean that there is no absolute scaleof better and worse, and indeed that the question of which is a bettereditor in general is meaningless.

Let me illustrate this using the differences between the three editorsthat I use most frequently:

• vi is the best sysadmin editor

A while back, I wrote in passing that I wouldbe especially nervous if I ran across a rootkit that specificallytargeted Red Hat Enterprise systems (for example, to the extent ofcorrupting the RPM database checksums ). TodayI feel like elaborating on that.

(Right off the bat I'll say that it's not because we use RHEL here.Our use of RHEL is small and so far none of it is in machines thatare particularly exposed to users or the world.)

What would make me