{"slug": "vim-classic-8-3-released", "title": "Vim Classic 8.3 released", "summary": "Drew DeVault announced the release of Vim Classic 8.3.0, a long-term support fork of the Vim text editor that excludes generative AI tools and is based on Vim 8.2.0148 with backported bug fixes and security patches. The fork aims to provide a stable alternative without Vim9 script, though it may lack compatibility with some plugins and could have overlooked certain security vulnerabilities.", "body_md": "[2026-06-02]\n\nI'm proud to announce the release of the first version of Vim Classic, Vim\nClassic 8.3.0, a stable, long-term support fork of the ubiquitous text\neditor, maintained without the assistance of generative AI tools.\n\nFor more information about the motivations for this fork,\nplease read\n[this blog post](https://drewdevault.com/2026/03/25/2026-03-25-Forking-vim.html).\n\nThis release is based on Vim 8.2.0148, with a number of bug fixes and\npatches conservatively backported from future versions of Vim upstream. We\nelected to clean up this version of Vim, prepare it for a release, and\nimagine an alternate history where Vim 8.3 was released without Vim9\nscript. The result is Vim Classic 8.3. We chose to take this approach in\norder to reduce the long-term maintenance burden of Vim Classic,\nacknowledging that our fork lacks the resources and institutional knowledge\navailable to Vim upstream. However, a consequence is that there are some\nVim plugins which are not compatible with Vim Classic.\n\nWe have made a special effort to assess patches from Vim upstream which\nmitigate some of the many CVEs affecting Vim which were discovered and\nfixed between versions 8.2 and modern-day Vim, but we can't be sure we've\ngot all of the security patches which are applicable to Vim Classic (and\npractically exploitable). This version of Vim Classic is therefore\nrecommended for early adopters who are comfortable adopting a security\nposture which accounts for the fact that we may have overlooked some bugs.\n\nWe have not evaluated *all* of the many thousands of patches to land\nin Vim since version 8.2.0148, so your favorite bug from the last few years\nmight make a reappearance when you install Vim Classic. Your patience and\nespecially your assistance in identifying and backporting the applicable\nbug fixes for your use-cases is appreciated.\n\nVim Classic is charityware, much like Vim, and we are happy to continue\nsupporting Bram's passion of providing for children in need in Uganda.\nSwitching from Vim to Vim Classic would be an opportune moment for you to\n[make a donation](https://www.kuwasha.net/)!\n\nYou can download Vim Classic from SourceHut:\n\n- .tar.gz\n-\n[vim-classic-v8.3.0.tar.gz](https://git.sr.ht/~sircmpwn/vim-classic/archive/v8.3.0.tar.gz)\n- .tar.gz.sig\n-\n[vim-classic-v8.3.0.tar.gz.sig](https://git.sr.ht/~sircmpwn/vim-classic/refs/download/v8.3.0/vim-classic-v8.3.0.tar.gz.sig)\n\nThis release is signed with\n[my PGP public key](https://drewdevault.com/publickey.txt).\nPlease subscribe to\n[vim-classic-announce](https://lists.sr.ht/~sircmpwn/vim-classic-announce)\nto be notified of important (actionable) news and releases in the future.\nLast, but not least, let me extend a big \"thanks!\" to everyone who jumped in\nto enthusiastically test Vim Classic, provide feedback, and contribute many\npatches and backports to get this release done.\n\nHappy editing!\n\n— *Drew DeVault*", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/vim-classic-8-3-released", "canonical_source": "https://vim-classic.org/news/vim-8.3-released.html", "published_at": "2026-06-02 11:53:01+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-06-02 20:29:49.878805+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["generative-ai"], "entities": ["Vim Classic", "Vim", "Drew DeVault"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/vim-classic-8-3-released", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/vim-classic-8-3-released.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/vim-classic-8-3-released.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/vim-classic-8-3-released.jsonld"}}