You're right that Elvis is more featureful in some ways, but the main thing is UTF-8:
nvi handles it properly and Elvis doesn't really. For a default /usr/bin/vi on a modern system, that matters more than extra features. That's likely the main reason Slackware switched from Elvis to nvi.
r1w1s1
npub1h4…zd0n9
2026-05-28 13:03:19 UTC
in reply to nevent1q…63yd
Author Public Key
npub1h4xcdfyq02gr0zs058eqya09t88vyz3yqqdt8vwf0vsz2ur244zs3zd0n9Seen on
wss://relay.ditto.pubPublished at
2026-05-28 13:03:19 UTCEvent JSON
{
"id": "c4421d2fa03868bf838b6aee16e8925fbc972595c542cedaf85e61bf31cef25b",
"pubkey": "bd4d86a4807a90378a0fa1f20275e559cec20a24001ab3b1c97b2025706aad45",
"created_at": 1779973399,
"kind": 1,
"tags": [
[
"p",
"3d393b82c3042be8ead657b609d054c8d934be0e269bf74c56f72f63ea48d0df",
"wss://relay.ditto.pub"
],
[
"e",
"e7ebd2639b55033685acf7b51a5ad13b49db1bcae56c269599a56b5bc49fe326",
"wss://relay.ditto.pub",
"reply"
],
[
"proxy",
"https://snac.bsd.cafe/r1w1s1/p/1779973399.153769",
"activitypub"
],
[
"client",
"Mostr",
"31990:6be38f8c63df7dbf84db7ec4a6e6fbbd8d19dca3b980efad18585c46f04b26f9:mostr",
"wss://relay.ditto.pub"
]
],
"content": "You're right that Elvis is more featureful in some ways, but the main thing is UTF-8:\n\nnvi handles it properly and Elvis doesn't really. For a default /usr/bin/vi on a modern system, that matters more than extra features. That's likely the main reason Slackware switched from Elvis to nvi.\n",
"sig": "82aaff56fd8bad2681ee39b5b535e0a897b68fe4ad2e953122a741225c43b35c316bbfb4d8ba15f095f4757647b9222b393d881aacb19380df0d898109f82e6b"
}