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Eclipse is an IDE (integrated development environment). It’s definitely not a text editor. Then again, an IDE is really just a text editor with a lot of extra features for specific kinds of text. Furthermore, an IDE is often home to a developer. Developers have their IDE of choice open all day long, so it’s natural to stay in that IDE when it’s time to write a project README file, or to jot down a quick note, or to just make a grocery list. So sometimes, an IDE is just a text editor, after all.

The Raspberry Pi is the small, low-cost, single-board PC that took the world by storm when it was released in 2012. Since then, educators, students, makers, and tinkerers have used the various Raspberry Pi models for many, many unique and interesting projects. The possibilities are nearly endless.

Over the course of 2020, Opensource.com published many great articles about Raspberry Pi projects; below, I explore the top 10. I hope these articles educate, entertain, and inspire you.

In 2020, as every year, new open source projects launched as alternatives to proprietary solutions. Here is a roundup of the top nine articles about open source alternatives that made the headlines in 2020 on Opensource.com.

While 2020 will certainly be remembered for elections, protests, and most of all, the COVID-19 pandemic, a lot of other things changed in 2020, including a whole lot of cool changes in technology. Through it all, we could count on system administrators to do what they do best. Perhaps more so than ever, as we all moved from physical offices to working from home. We generated more load than ever on our infrastructure as more users relied on virtual private networks and videoconference tools to get their daily work done.

When you want to learn a new programming language, it's good to focus on the things programming languages have in common:

• Variables
• Expressions
• Statements

These concepts are the basis of most programming languages. Once you understand them, you can start figuring the rest out.

Because programming languages usually share similarities, once you know one language, you can learn the basics of another by understanding its differences.

Created for version 7 of AT&T’s original Unix operating system, the sed command has been included with probably every Unix and Linux OS since. The sed application is a stream editor, and unlike a text editor it doesn’t open a visual buffer into which a file’s data is loaded for processing. Instead, it operates on a file, line by line, according to either a command typed into a terminal or a series of commands in a script.

Companies are turning to open source during the pandemic, with 44% of organizations reporting they will increase their use of open source for application development, finds Tidelift's third managed open source survey.

Few of us really want to read articles about security. They're usually uncomfortable (and overwhelming) reminders of the things we aren't doing to keep our data safe and secure. Luckily for us, this year, Opensource.com authors specifically focused on writing about manageable security tasks. Some are afternoon projects, while others are small steps you can take to improve your default security settings.

Here are 13 of our favorites.

Linux probably needs no introduction. The Linux kernel is at the heart of numerous Linux distributions that run on desktops, laptops, and servers. The Android operating system for mobile phones also uses the Linux kernel. In short, Linux is almost everywhere.

If you look online for great open source text editors, you’re bound to come across Notepad++. An enduring and popular editor, Notepad++ is built only for Windows. I use the open source operating system Linux but was nevertheless curious to experience Notepad++. Fortunately for me, I discovered one way to try Notepad++ (yes, it’s WINE) and one way to approximate it.

The Open Organization community published more than 30 articles at Opensource.com this year (to say nothing of the books we released, too). That's 30 new case studies, interviews, tutorials, and book reviews showcasing the ways open principles are impacting organizational culture and design.

Choosing a favorite seems like an impossible task. But our data have revealed the five most-read pieces of 2020.

KWrite is a desktop text editor for KDE’s Plasma desktop. It’s meant to be a universal application that anyone can reasonably use when they need to jot down a quick note, write a school paper, do some programming, and/or anything else you can think to do with a text editor. It uses components of the Kate editor to create a simple interface but leverages those same components to provide a long list of useful features.

In this article series, Opensource.com Correspondents and others have been writing the same "guess the number" game in various programming languages. This exercise shows how the basic concepts you'll find in most programming languages—variables, expressions, and statements—can be applied to learn new languages.

The great thing about computers is that they’re really good at multi-tasking.

The bad thing about computers is that they’re really good at multi-tasking.

Whether you consider yourself, as a human, good or bad at multi-tasking, sometimes you need a little help focusing. One of those times is when you’re trying to compose clear and concise communication. And that’s exactly why Focuswriter was developed.

DevOps teams dig in their heels for strength as they face stress and challenges at work and home. It’s not something covered in the DevOps manifesto. There’s also no software you can integrate into your toolchain to help either. What needs to happen is your DevOps teams need to put empathy before tools.

Some text editors are designed for programming, others for specialized text formats, others for document design. The Norka text editor is designed for reading. It might seem strange to create a text editor designed for reading, but actually, it makes a lot of sense if you think about it. Your text is written once or thrice, depending on your personal tolerance for iteration, but it’s meant to be read for years to come. Norka makes it easy for you to focus on how your writing is going to get read.

Google's Android Auto application casts content from a smartphone to a car's head unit display. Officially, that content includes navigation (e.g., Google Maps and Waze), media players (e.g., VLC, Spotify), and messaging apps. The application is useful, but it would be even better if you could show a film on your head unit's display or use it as an interface to a custom onboard computer that manages multiple cameras, GPS, and so on.

Howl is a general-purpose text editor written in Moonscript and Lua. It’s not focused on a specific programming language, and instead features support for many different languages and formats. In fact, it takes inspiration from "traditional" Unix editors like Emacs and Vim, so it feels familiar to anyone accustomed to that style of editing.

As part of my role as a principal communication strategist at an enterprise software company with an open source development model, I publish a regular update about open source community, market, and industry trends. Here are some of my and their favorite articles from that update.

The Kakoune text editor takes inspiration from Vi. With a minimalistic interface, short keyboard shortcuts, and separate editing and insert modes, it does look and feel a lot like Vi at first. However, the Kakoune editor has its own unique style both in design and function and is better considered its own editor rather than yet another Vim.