Update: Added a link to Jedi Concentrate, thanks to Lifehacker.

I remember reading an article, years ago, by Chris Bidmead, where he mentioned that people were often surprised to hear that he didn't use Microsoft Word or WordPerfect. The quote was something like "I'm a writer. What on earth would I want a word processor for?"

It sounded odd at the time, and it sounds just as odd now, because that's what writers are supposed to use. When you stop and think about it, though, it can make a fair bit of sense.

What's wrong with word processors for writing?

LyX is a 'document processor'. Not quite a text editor, and not quite a word processor, it puts a more friendly face on LaTeX.

Looks like it really works how Microsoft Word should work when used properly, setting everything strictly by style, never altering formatting manually. I really liked Word when it encouraged working like that. Now, it pushes you away from that style, and makes it too easy to use things like the Format Painter tool to copy formatting around. As soon as the document becomes a few pages long, you're faced with a huge job when you want to change something simple. Using styles, if you wanted to change all of your 'quote' sections, or all of your titles, you'd just change what that style meant, and everything would happen automatically.