Why I switched to Neovim

May 11, 2019

I've been using Vim with Tmux for about five years. It's a nice development environment because it allows me to do almost everything without using the mouse, which saves time.

I recently tried Neovim. Neovim does everything Vim does. I can use all my favorite Vim plugins and my vimrc file. Because it also has a built-in terminal emulator, it can do everything I used Tmux for, and it's all done with Vim commands. I don't have to switch between Vim and Tmux commands. It's a better experience, so I switched.

This is how to quickly get Neovim up and running on a Mac in case you want to try it out.

1. Install Neovim:
   brew install neovim
2. Copy your vimrc:
   cp ~/.vimrc ~/.config/nvim/init.vim
3. Copy your plugins:
   cp -r ~/.vim/pack/*/start/ ~/.local/share/nvim/site/pack/*/start/
4. Start up Neovim:
   nvim

3/9/2024 Update: Vim now has a terminal emulator, so I am using both Vim and Neovim.