Microsoft’s New Terminal Text Editor Is Here—Should Mac Users Bother?

It is not often that a new Microsoft product draws the attention of Mac and Linux users, especially not a command line tool. But the EDIT application of the company targets the always popular market of text publishers, which means that it might interest all those working with text files. So, as a Mac user, is it worth checking?

What is Microsoft Edit?

Microsoft announced its “new command online text editor in Windows” in a blog article 2025 which also mentioned its open source license. The application has its origins in a text editor of the 1990s called MS-DOS EDITOR. This latest version is a remake, so it may not share a single line of code with the original. Even thus, he is clearly inspired by the editor MS-DOS, and he will feel familiar to all those who have used it, or to any other MS-DOS text editor.

Although Microsoft describes publishing as an “command line editor”, he technically uses a text user interface (TUI). This means that this is a complete interactive terminal application, so you can use it to write as intuitively as possible without using a complete graphical interface.

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The open source license has drawn the attention of the larger developer community, and contributions to the Github benchmark have been regular and numerous since its launch:

In particular, the software, written in rust, is very portable, so that Mac and Linux users can also execute it. On these platforms, however, it faces strong competition by online editors established like Vim and Nano.

How do you get it on Mac?

Unlike Linux and Windows, Edit does not have a binary version for Mac users. Although there is a version of Macports, there is currently no support for the much more popular Homebrew packages manager.

For most Mac users, the only option right now is to create the software from the source. It may seem intimidating, but it only implies a few steps.

Start by installing rust. This is a very clean process that sets up in the repertoires hidden in your default domestic repertoire. You will then have access to tools like RustC (the Rust compiler) and Rustup (a tool chain installer).

Then clone the editing benchmark and run the following command for a version version:

        cargo build 

    

This will build a final executable at ./target/release/edit. You can move this binary to a location on your way if you think you may want to use the edition regularly. Alternatively, you can run it directly from the source directory to try it.

What is good about this?

If you run the EDIT command without arguments, you will see a sparse screen with a few pieces of useful information in a state bar at the bottom. These include the default name of the new file (for example Unitled-1.TXT), the number of spaces represented by a tab character and the default character coding.

At the top of the screen, you will notice a menu, which is the first big indication that Edit offers something quite unusual for a terminal program: mouse control. Although this menu does not work exactly in the same way as the GUI macOS standard, it is very intuitive and works transparently, without any problems. I noticed that the touch scrolling also works as soon as the box is released, which is a pleasant surprise.

It may not be easy at first, but the status bar is also controllable of the mouse. Click on the end of line label and you will see it switch between [LF] And [CRLF]So that you can create Windows text files if you wish. The other labels allow you to modify the corresponding parameters, including the file name at the bottom right, which may introduce my favorite feature:

Yes, modify supports several open files, not via tabs, but via this menu which allows you to switch to each other. It also highlights which files have been modified without saving, and it may suggest that Microsoft intends to keep the publisher open for long sessions, as are VIM or Emacs users are used to doing.

And what’s not that good?

Although the mouse controlled menu is excellent, it takes a little time to get used to it, mainly because it is such a rare interface for Mac users. Each menu element has a shortcut next door, just like the normal Mac menus, but each menu element also has a underlined letter, depending on the classic Windows style. This means that you can press this letter to select the relevant item, which is great, but you will have to find out how to open the menu using the keyboard to assess the trouble.

Here are my tips:

• Press F10 to open the menu (don’t forget to use the FN modifier key if activated).

• Press Escape to close the menu.

• Navigate between the higher level menus using the left and right arrow keys.

• Navigate between the menu items with the up and down arrow keys.

• Press Enter on a selected item or the key highlighted by an element to activate it.

However, it seems strange to use control as a menu shortcut modifier on Mac, rather than the standard control key. There is also an order (view, word wrap) which lists alt as a modifier, but I could not make this work at all on macOS.

This situation demonstrates another defect: the documentation for publishing is sparse. The command does not come with a Man page and its online command help is limited:

However, it explains an interesting feature: the possibility of jumping on a specific line – and even a column – when you open a file.

Without more complete documentation, users must currently manage on their own. You can find some details by experimentation or by seeking the problems and discussions of the repository on Github. However, as the software is so limited, you can find that everything you can do with it, it is intuitive enough.

This brings me to the last group of drawbacks: the set of features. EDIT does not have many basic features such as rapid keyboard navigation, shortcuts for common actions and replacement of research. Although it is suitable for the most basic tasks, I do not expect it to add a lot of features; Simplicity is the point, after all. So, unless you are looking for a really basic publisher in addition to nano, I don’t think there is a lot of points in the addition of edition to your installed programs.

How the edition is compared to Vim or Nano

Edit is far from offering the type of power that Vim does. It will not allow you to chain of commands or zip between the pages in a file to the touch of a key. As a result, it is much less confusing, so beginners can be tempted.

But beginners already have an excellent option on the command line: Nano. In fact, the persistent display of Nano of keyboard shortcuts facilitates recovery for novices, in my opinion, and apart from the support of the mouse, modifying does not really offer any advantage.

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The mouse support is impressive and pleasant to see, but overall, it is not enough to recommend edition on one of the alternatives. Edit can be in competition with Vim and Nano, but, as far as I am concerned, it is less useful than the first and not quite as easy to use as the second.