Alternative to Notepad++

I've just moved from Windows to Ubuntu. I tried to use Notepad++ through Wine and although it does work it doesn't seem ideal and I'm struggling to add the xml plugin. I've tried a couple of editors in Ubuntu but before spending a load of time evaluating each one I was wondering if any of you skilled skinners use Linux rather than Windows and if so what editor you use.

I wanted the xml plugin to search for text strings in a folder.

Thanks