Some would probably consider pine and mc to be obsolete, but I have yet to find any acceptable substitute for either of them. (I know that pine's licensing precludes it from being included in the core distribution, I use it only as an example good software that may not fit with the cutting edge view of what to use...)
Indeed. I very much miss the ability to use Pico out of the box. I normally use it in preference over VI when I make a bugger up editing xorg.conf or similar ;)
-- Dylan Parry http://www.webpageworkshop.co.uk - FREE Web tutorials and references