If you've installed vim with another name (say, vim.exe) then change EDITOR=$VIM/vim to EDITOR=$VIM/vim.exe Source .profile, and the next time you start an editor from any program you'll bring up Vim. On Ubuntu (or other Debian-based systems), update-alternatives can be used to change the default editor: sudo update-alternatives --config editor # Type the number which corresponds to Vim here (after installing it) then press Enter.