If you're running Linux on EC2 (or anywhere else for that matter), I strongly suggest you pick up an introductory Linux book. Any decent one will tell you about

If you're running Linux on EC2 (or anywhere else for that matter), I strongly suggest you pick up an introductory Linux book. Any decent one will tell you about modeless editors like nano/pico, as well as introduce you to modal ones like Vim and emacs. It's not a huge investment of time and will probably spare you lots of headaches.