Note: I wrote this article myself. Since English is not my first language, I ran it through ChatGPT to scan for grammar corrections and paraphrasing. I reviewed the output and made my own adjustments before publishing.
The Meme, The Myth and The Neovim BTW guy
If you've been a developer long enough, you've probably heard the meme: "I use Neovim BTW." It’s become a badge of honor—signifying you’ve ascended to neckbeard status and can build any program or application you want.
Or... at least that’s what it looks like.
I mean, you're reading this blog post—and I assure you, it's not quite like that. Even though, yes, I do use Neovim BTW.
So... What Does It Actually Take to Say "I Use Neovim BTW"?
First things first: the terminal is your friend.
You probably got interested when you saw some guy with a mustache flying through code using a blazing-fast language. No mouse. Pure keyboard. One monitor. His editor? It’s not Electron-based like the one you’re using right now—it’s in the terminal! Meanwhile, you're only popping open the terminal to run npm run dev.
Anyway, if you want to feel as fast as our mustached hero, the first step is ditching your Electron-based editor. Wait—actually, don’t uninstall it yet. First, install Neovim. You'll want to use a package manager. Back when I was on Windows, I used scoop. These days, I’m on Arch BTW, so I installed it using pacman.
Once installed, type nvim in your terminal, hit Enter, and congratulations—you’ve made it. Take a screenshot, send it to your friends (if you have any), and proudly say, "I use Neovim BTW." Then close it.
Wait... how do you close it?
Don’t worry—Google’s got your back. It’s one of the most searched phrases on the internet.
Joking Aside… The Initial Experience Was Hell!
I knew a bit of Vim from writing git commit messages, but come on—using hjkl as your main navigation keys? It was hell, to say the least.
