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Free HTML Editors for Linux and UNIX

By , About.com Guide

Free HTML editors are often considered the best kind. They offer flexibility and power without an outlay of cash. But be aware, if you're looking for more features and flexibility, there are many reasonably priced HTML editors available. Find the best HTML editor for you.

1. Komodo Edit

Komodo EditScreen shot by J Kyrnin
Komodo Edit is hands down the best free XML editor available. It also includes a lot of great features for HTML and CSS development. Plus, if that isn't enough, you can get extensions for it to add on languages or other helpful features (like special characters). It's not the best HTML editor, but it's great for what you pay, especially if you build in XML.

2. Aptana Studio Community

Aptana Studio CommunityScreen shot by J Kyrnin
Aptana Studio community edition is an interesting take on Web page development. Instead of focusing on the HTML, Aptana focuses on the JavaScript and other elements that allow you to create Rich Internet Applications. One of the things I really like is the outline view that makes it really easy to visualize the DOM. This makes for easier CSS and JavaScript development. If you are a developer creating Web 2.0 applications, Aptana Studio is a good choice.

3. Screem

ScreemScreen shot by J Kyrnin
Screem is a versatile text Web page editor and XML editor. It recognizes the Doctype you're using and validates and completes tags based on that.

4. KompoZer

KompoZerScreen shot by J Kyrnin
KompoZer is a good WYSIWYG editor. It is based on the popular Nvu editor - only it is called an "unofficial bug-fix release." KompoZer was conceived by some people who really liked Nvu, but were fed up with the slow release schedules and poor support. So they took it over and released a less buggy version of the software. Ironically, there hasn't been a new release of KompoZer in over a year.

5. Nvu

NvuScreen shot by J Kyrnin
Nvu is a good WYSIWYG editor. I prefer text editors to WYSIWYG editors, but if you don't, then Nvu is a great choice, especially considering that it's free. I love that it has a site manager to allow you to review the sites that you're building. It's surprising that this software is free. Feature highlights: XML support, advanced CSS support, full site management, built-in validator, and international support as well as WYSIWYG and color coded XHTML editing.

6. SeaMonkey

SeaMonkeyScreen shot by J Kyrnin
SeaMonkey is the Mozilla project all-in-one Internet application suite. It includes a Web browser, email and newsgroup client, IRC chat client, and composer - the Web page editor. One of the nice things about using SeaMonkey is that you have the browser built-in already so testing is a breeze. Plus it's a free WYSIWYG editor with an embedded FTP to publish your Web pages.

7. Amaya

AmayaScreen shot by J Kyrnin
Amaya is the W3C Web editor. It also acts as a Web browser. It validates the HTML as you build your page, and since you can see the tree structure of your Web documents, it can be very useful for learning to understand the DOM and how your documents look in the document tree. It has a lot of features that most Web designers won't ever use, but if you're worried about standards and you want to be 100% sure that your pages work with the W3C standards, this is a great editor to use.

8. EditX Lite

EditX LiteScreen shot by J Kyrnin
EditX Lite is a free version of EditX for non-commercial use. If you need to manipulate XML or XHTML, this is a fine product. You can use it to write valid XHTML documents, but it's major strength is in the XML and XSLT functionality.

9. Bluefish

BluefishScreen shot by J Kyrnin
Bluefish is a full featured Web editor for Linux. A lot of the features like HTML checking and spell checking require external programs, but they are common programs on most Linux systems. It is primarily a code editor, not specifically a Web editor. This means that it has a lot of flexibility for Web developers writing in more than just HTML, but if you're a designer by nature you might not like it as much.

10. Arachnophilia

ArachnophiliaScreen shot by J Kyrnin
Arachnophilia is not free - it's "careware", but just because you don't have to pay cash for it doesn't mean it's not a good product. In fact, it's a great text HTML editor with a lot of functionality. The color coding makes it easy to use. It may or may not work on Mac and Unix. Feature highlights: Color coded XHTML editing.
There are so many options for free Linux and UNIX Web editors that it's impossible to find and list them all. Is your favorite editor not on this list? (Don't forget, there's a second page...) Why is your favorite free editor your favorite? What makes it better than all the rest?
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