ex (link to vim), rview (link to vim), rvim (link to vim), vi (link to vim), view (link to vim), vim, vimdiff (link to vim), vimtutor (link to vim) and xxd ex starts vim in Ex mode. rview is a restricted version of view. No shell commands can be started and Vim can't be suspended. rvim is the restricted version of vim. No shell commands can be started and Vim can't be suspended. vi starst vim in vi-compatible mode. view starts vim in read-only mode. vim starts vim in the normal, default way. vimdiff edits two or three versions of a file with Vim and show differences. vimtutor starts the Vim tutor. xxd makes a hexdump or does the reverse.