So I’ve been trying to find a text editor that’s blazing fast with as little features as possible that doesn’t look like it was designed in the '90s.
I would like something that when I click on my files it opens almost instantly and only displays text in a notepad without any buttons tools, or just the bare minimum (like create a new file or something like that). I want this to read .txt files and that’s it, if I’m working on a writing I’d use LibreOffice and if I’m writing some code I’d use Atom.
Learn vim. Its the most versatile, fastest, and pluggable text editor.
Or emacs with a décent thème.
Imo https://github.com/hlissner/doom-emacs is well polished.
Vim is absolutely the right answer. No visual interface at all and easy to customize aesthetically by putting a few lines into .vimrc.
Learning curve: There is one, but it really isn’t that bad. Read a guide first because minimalist is not the same as instinctive. If you learn a bit about modes and specific commands before you get started, Vim is way easier to use than the hype would lead you to believe.
Of course, OP wants something without a lot of features. Vim has tons of features, although none of Vim’s advanced features are noticeable unless you read through :help or learn some extra commands. If you just learn basic navigation, mode-shifting, and HOW TO SAVE/EXIT, then you probably won’t find a more minimalist text editing experience. Except for ed.