{"slug": "emacs-bedrock", "name": "Emacs Bedrock", "category": "editors", "category_name": "Editors and IDEs", "description": "", "recommenders": 2, "commenters": 3, "warners": 0, "score": 2.18, "rising": 0.67, "first": "2026-06-26", "latest": "2026-09-08", "why": "I highly recommend Bedrock to first-time or new-ish Emacs users", "why_is_quote": true, "has_verdict": false, "sentiment": {"recommend": 2, "neutral": 1, "compare": 0, "warn": 0}, "spark": [0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 1, 0], "listed": false, "loved": [], "caveat": "", "short_quote": "I highly recommend Bedrock to first-time or new-ish Emacs users", "icon": false, "domain": null, "github_repo": "codeberg.org/ashton314/emacs-bedrock", "official_url": "https://github.com/ashton314/emacs-bedrock", "pricing": "", "aliases": ["Emacs Bedrock", "emacs-bedrock"], "verdict": null, "praise": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 793687952, "item_id": 49605497, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49605497", "by": "inatreecrown2", "date": "2026-09-08", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Very nice presentation and project.", "excerpt": "Very nice presentation and project. From the README of the linked repo: \"When I started learning Emacs, my dad gave me his .emacs file. (That's what we used back in ye olden days instead of .emacs.d/init.el and stuff.) I used it without modification for many years. Eventually I learned how to write my own functions and customizations. This package aims to give other users a similar experience. When someone comes to m", "context": "", "use_case": "Emacs starter config", "switched_from": "", "story": "Emacs Bedrock 2.0"}, {"id": 779118304, "item_id": 48694894, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48694894", "by": "christianbryant", "date": "2026-06-26", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I highly recommend Bedrock to first-time or new-ish Emacs users", "excerpt": "Bedrock is the only Emacs \"customization\" project I've actually tried out since my GNU Emacs journey started in the Nineties. I am very simple in my setup and it was only in 2018 I started trying packages that I never used before to create some modes to manage tasks at work that dealt with commercial testing tools. It forced me to evaluate my init.el in ways I never imagined (which was, to be fair, getting unmanageab", "context": "GNU Emacs user since the Nineties", "use_case": "Emacs starter configuration", "switched_from": "", "story": "Emacs, how it all started (for me)"}]}], "caveats": [], "who": [{"by": "christianbryant", "context": "GNU Emacs user since the Nineties", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48694894", "date": "2026-06-26"}], "tags": [], "use_cases": ["emacs configuration base", "emacs starter config", "emacs starter configuration"], "compared": [{"slug": "emacs", "name": "Emacs", "co": 3, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "minimal-emacs-d", "name": "minimal-emacs.d", "co": 1, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 1}, {"slug": "doom-emacs", "name": "Doom Emacs", "co": 3, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "spacemacs", "name": "Spacemacs", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}], "makers": [{"id": 804449712, "item_id": 50278107, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50278107", "by": "ashton314", "date": "2026-10-28", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "may I humbly suggest you take a look at my starter config", "excerpt": "If you're feeling curious at trying Emacs out for the first time (or just want to see what's new in the past decade or so), may I humbly suggest you take a look at my starter config: https://codeberg.org/ashton314/emacs-bedrock When I first started using Emacs, my dad gave me his config. (Yes, I actually experienced https://xkcd.com/297/ irl.) A few years ago a friend of mine asked for some help getting a simpler Ema", "context": "", "use_case": "Emacs starter config", "switched_from": "", "story": "Emacs Turns 50"}, {"id": 793688320, "item_id": 49605520, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49605520", "by": "ashton314", "date": "2026-09-08", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I hope Bedrock is useful to some people.", "excerpt": "Here\u2019s a link to the repo directly: https://codeberg.org/ashton314/emacs-bedrock I hope Bedrock is useful to some people. :)", "context": "", "use_case": "Emacs starter config", "switched_from": "", "story": "Emacs Bedrock 2.0"}, {"id": 777443344, "item_id": 48590209, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48590209", "by": "ashton314", "date": "2026-06-18", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I encourage you to check out my Emacs Bedrock [1] project.", "excerpt": "If you find yourself wanting to try out Emacs but are (understandably) turned off by some of its archaic defaults, I encourage you to check out my Emacs Bedrock [1] project. It is not a framework like Doom Emacs or Spacemacs. Instead, it's just a bunch of better defaults, plus some example configuration for some of the most popular packages. It's meant to just be a starting point, and not a framework to keep up-to-da", "context": "", "use_case": "better Emacs defaults starter config", "switched_from": "", "story": "Emacs, how it all started (for me)"}], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49602490", "title": "Emacs Bedrock 2.0", "mentions": 3}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48542784", "title": "Emacs, how it all started (for me)", "mentions": 2}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50273171", "title": "Emacs Turns 50", "mentions": 1}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {}, "2025-12": {}, "2026-01": {}, "2026-02": {}, "2026-03": {}, "2026-04": {}, "2026-05": {}, "2026-06": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-07": {}, "2026-08": {}, "2026-09": {"recommend": 1, "neutral": 1}, "2026-10": {}}, "quotes": [{"id": 793721345, "item_id": 49607584, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49607584", "by": "mih", "date": "2026-09-08", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "Was a user of Bedrock for quite a while.", "excerpt": "Was a user of Bedrock for quite a while. Have switched to minimal-emacs.d (https://github.com/jamescherti/minimal-emacs.d) since and find that it suits my tastes a lot better.", "context": "", "use_case": "Emacs configuration base", "switched_from": "", "story": "Emacs Bedrock 2.0"}, {"id": 793687952, "item_id": 49605497, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49605497", "by": "inatreecrown2", "date": "2026-09-08", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Very nice presentation and project.", "excerpt": "Very nice presentation and project. From the README of the linked repo: \"When I started learning Emacs, my dad gave me his .emacs file. (That's what we used back in ye olden days instead of .emacs.d/init.el and stuff.) I used it without modification for many years. Eventually I learned how to write my own functions and customizations. This package aims to give other users a similar experience. When someone comes to m", "context": "", "use_case": "Emacs starter config", "switched_from": "", "story": "Emacs Bedrock 2.0"}, {"id": 779118304, "item_id": 48694894, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48694894", "by": "christianbryant", "date": "2026-06-26", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I highly recommend Bedrock to first-time or new-ish Emacs users", "excerpt": "Bedrock is the only Emacs \"customization\" project I've actually tried out since my GNU Emacs journey started in the Nineties. I am very simple in my setup and it was only in 2018 I started trying packages that I never used before to create some modes to manage tasks at work that dealt with commercial testing tools. It forced me to evaluate my init.el in ways I never imagined (which was, to be fair, getting unmanageab", "context": "GNU Emacs user since the Nineties", "use_case": "Emacs starter configuration", "switched_from": "", "story": "Emacs, how it all started (for me)"}]}