These 6 Linux tools make the classics feel ancient—I use them on every machine
These 6 Linux tools make the classics feel ancient—I use them on every machine
https://www.howtogeek.com/modern-cli-tools-that-replace-classic-linux-commands/
Publish Date: 2026-06-21 08:00:00
Source Domain: www.howtogeek.com
The traditional Linux tools like nano, man, cat, cd, ls etc. are almost four decades old now. They come from a time when computers had black-and-white screens and less computing power than your phone.
micro
a better way to edit text inside the terminal
This is probably the one tool I use the most on all my Linux machines.
By default, Linux machines use the classic nano editor for editing text files inside the command-line terminal. But if you’ve never used it before, it’s incredibly counter-intuitive. For one, it does not have cursor support enabled by default. Second, it uses weird retro shortcuts for everything.
For example, you have to press Ctrl+O to save the file, instead of Ctrl+S. None of the other shortcuts make any sense either, if you’re used to modern defaults. It really messes with muscle memory.
That’s why instead of nano, I use micro. It has cursor support, so you can highlight and select text with the mouse. You can copy, cut, and paste text with the standard keyboard shortcuts, so you don’t have to fight the editor for basic tasks. You can undo with Ctrl+Z, find text with Ctrl+F, and save your files with Ctrl+S. Basically all the sane defaults that you’d expect from a modern text editor.
fd
Instantly search the file system
fd or fdfind is a modern replacement for the classic find command. It’s used for finding files on the system. The standard find command uses verbose syntax like this.
find . -name “*your search term here*”
But with fd-find, you get much more sensible syntax.
fdfind search_term
The fdfind output is…
