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Appreciation Post for KATE (thelemmy.club)
submitted 3 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago) by yodeljunkmanenvy@piefed.social to c/kde@lemmy.kde.social
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I have been using KDE via Kubuntu for about 2 years now, other distros with Gnome before that. Based upon the name (KDE Advanced Text Editor, K.A.T.E.) I always thought of Kate as an alternative to Notepad++ or something like that. Like a highend note-taking app.

I recently started using Kate for managing my Docker-Compose yaml files on my homelab, using the Git functionality to sync to my repos and doing some web development. It's basically an alternative to VSCode or Codium.

Thanks to the devs who work on Kate . If you don't hear it enough we appreciate you!

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[-] synnackk@timesink.p3nguin.org 1 points 3 minutes ago

https://youtu.be/R7BUG8LOd8A

[-] justlemmyin@lemmy.world 1 points 24 minutes ago

Ctrl + Shift + B is what converted me to a kate worshipper!

[-] Assassassin@lemmy.dbzer0.com 21 points 2 hours ago

God I love Kate. Being able to just randomly open any file and get syntax highlighting and tabs makes dealing with system files so much easier

[-] Dave@lemmy.nz 3 points 1 hour ago

One thing I miss from Notepad++ that I've never found in a Linux text editor is the ability to just open it and type stuff and it stays there even if you close it and open it again.

[-] sneaky@r.nf 2 points 30 minutes ago

Windows does this now /s

[-] SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world 2 points 39 minutes ago

Sublime Text supports this, but it's not FOSS.

[-] yodeljunkmanenvy@piefed.social 5 points 1 hour ago

Have you tried using the Sessions feature in Kate? It allows you to pick up where you left off, even between multiple projects.

[-] Dave@lemmy.nz 1 points 58 minutes ago

I haven't! But the main advantage of the Notepad++ way is the files aren't actually saved anywhere, it saves them temporarily until you choose where to properly save them. You can just keep opening new tabs and putting stuff in them and it remembers even if closed, but you don't have to actually save them.

[-] diazona@techhub.social 1 points 1 hour ago

@Dave @yodeljunkmanenvy Hmm interesting... I personally tend to think of that as a feature of a notetaking app rather than a text editor. But I see how it could come in handy in a text editor too, sometimes.

[-] Dave@lemmy.nz 1 points 56 minutes ago

Maybe I should be looking for a note taking app, but I want it for storing everything from to do list items to quick edits of code snippets so I kind of want the text editor features.

[-] hayvan@piefed.world 4 points 1 hour ago

I met Kate back in 2003 or so, immediately fell in love, and still use it (no longer my primary code editor, but primary for everything else.)

[-] watson387@sopuli.xyz 12 points 2 hours ago

Yeah, Kate is excellent. I use it on my Linux stuff at home but I use it on Windows at work also.

[-] OwOarchist@pawb.social 2 points 1 hour ago

but I use it on Windows at work also.

Huh... And here I was, never even considering that somebody may have ported Kate to Windows. I should try it, for the rare instance I'm editing something on Windows!

[-] jahtnamas@slrpnk.net 2 points 1 hour ago

tons of KDE software is on the windows store, from KDE themselves, even (i can't link the platform filter directly, just change the "all platforms" dropdown to "windows")

[-] MentalEdge@sopuli.xyz 6 points 2 hours ago

I just took to using it since it was the default pre-installed editor when I went KDE.

I've been ble to do everything I needed in it, all the way up to writing fairly complex python.

No complaints. In fact I quite like it.

[-] natecox@programming.dev 9 points 2 hours ago

Kate was my first “real” code editor coming from windows notepad back in the 90’s. It was my first taste of syntax highlighting.

Fond memories.

[-] Hominine@lemmy.world 6 points 2 hours ago

Kate is awesome I use it every day; if not as a scratch pad, as an editor.

[-] rimu@piefed.social 5 points 2 hours ago

It's my fave too. It handles opening files over the network very well and I like the scrolling system on the right.

Featherpad is my alternative when I want something I can paste into on the screen right now as Kate loads a little slowly.

[-] OwOarchist@pawb.social 6 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 1 hour ago)

when I want something I can paste into on the screen right now as Kate loads a little slowly

Fun fact I just learned recently: If you have text in your clipboard, you can paste that directly into the file manager (or the desktop background). It will prompt you for a filename, and then create a file with the pasted text in it.

If all you want to do is paste some text, you can actually do that without using any text editor at all.

this post was submitted on 21 Feb 2026
99 points (99.0% liked)

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