CotEditor — The Complete Guide: A Free, Native Text Editor for the Mac
CotEditor is a light open-source text editor built for macOS: syntax highlighting for 60+ languages, regex, split view and a character inspector. Free.
Guides and Articles
PyCharm — The Complete Guide: A Python IDE, and What Stays Free Without Pro
JetBrains PyCharm is a full Python IDE with a debugger, tests, virtual environments and Jupyter. The core is free, even for commercial work; extras need Pro.
Overleaf — The Complete Guide: LaTeX in the Browser, and Exactly What the Free Plan Includes
Overleaf is a browser LaTeX editor with cloud compiling and ready templates. The free plan is limited: 10-second compiles, one collaborator, 24h history.
TeXstudio — The Complete Guide: A Free LaTeX Editor for Theses, Papers and Technical Reports
TeXstudio is a free open-source LaTeX editor: command completion, a built-in PDF viewer that jumps to source, table and formula wizards, reference checks.
GNU Emacs — The Complete Guide: Editor, Org Mode and LaTeX in One Free Tool
GNU Emacs is a free editor you can extend almost without limit: code in many languages, Org mode for notes and tasks, AUCTeX for LaTeX and Magit for Git.
Vim — The Complete Guide: The Editor on Almost Every Server, for Fast Keyboard Work
Vim is the classic modal text editor found on almost every Linux server: fast keyboard editing, macros, regex and file diff. Free for any use.
Neovim — The Complete Guide: A Modern Vim with Lua and LSP, Even on Remote Servers
Neovim is a modern Vim fork with built-in Lua, an LSP client and Tree-sitter — a free open-source keyboard editor for scripts and input files on servers.
Zed — The Complete Guide: A Very Fast Open-Source Code Editor
Zed is an open-source editor written in Rust: instant start, built-in LSP, terminal, Git and live collaboration. The editor is free; extra hosted AI is paid.
Notepad3 — The Complete Guide: A Light, Fast Replacement for Windows Notepad
Notepad3 is a small open-source Windows text editor: syntax highlighting, regex find and replace, encoding and line-ending conversion, and a portable build too.
Visual Studio Code — The Complete Guide: A Free Editor for Scripts, Python and LaTeX
Microsoft’s Visual Studio Code is a free code editor, commercial use too, with a terminal, Git, a debugger and extensions for Python, Jupyter, LaTeX and SSH
Zoho Assist — The Complete Guide: Remote Support from the Browser, and What the Free Plan Includes
Zoho Assist lets a technician start support sessions from the browser and reach unattended PCs. Free plan: one technician, one session, five unattended PCs.
Parsec — The Complete Guide: Smooth Remote Desktop for Graphics Work, and What Is Free
Parsec streams smooth 60 fps video with very low latency, ideal for working remotely on a heavy 3D model. The free Personal plan is for non-commercial use only.