Lightweight IDE for Linux

gedit

• Syntax highlighting
• Fast, lightweight
• Tabs
• GUI

If you are taking your time switching to linux, I'd switch to emacs or vim at some point as well. There will always be a resource or a document describing exactly the problem you are having with either of them, and generally a solution is just a few more clicks down the road.

Emacs may be easier at the beginning because of modeless editing... but don't let modal editing scare you away from Vim.

The key with either Vim or Emacs is knowing it could probably take you the better part of the day just to figure out what you want them to do, let alone how to get them to do that.

Once they work for you though, you'll see why mostly everyone is in one of two camps.

General hints:

• Setting up a Makefile for your project is almost always worth it.
• Using cscope and or ctags will make your life easier.

Vim hints:

• :make
• :cn, :cp
• OmniCompletion
• using BufRead autoloads to set what :make should do depending on file type

Emacs hints:

• ecb is fun
• M-x dired
• M-. M-, M-* M-x complete-tag for etags
• M-x compile
• (add-hook 'mylanguage-mode-hook '(lambda () (setq my-customizations t)))

And check out other people's customizations for examples of what other people do.