GNU Emacs
Extensible, self-documenting text editor built around an Emacs Lisp runtime, from the GNU Project.
Loved for decades of stability123 and deep Elisp extensibility,456 plus built-in tools like Magit, Org mode and dired and good Vim emulation via evil-mode.7891011 Complaints are rare and scattered:1213 one user misses a mobile app, and another wants a more capable display engine.1415
Why people recommend it
Longevity · 3
Many have used it daily for decades, and it outlasted other editors.
“I fully switched from vi to emacs in 1992 and been using it heavily every day since then. So good.”
“Other editors have come and gone, Emacs stayed.”
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Built-in tools · 3
Magit, Org mode, dired and consult are singled out as standout tools.
“Did not realize that everything I was building in my vim configs to make it better was already default in emacs”
“Emacs has served me well for more than a decade.”
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“I love emacs and have been using it daily for about 5 years now.”
Extensibility · 3
Elisp and decades of iteration make it easy to reshape the editor to fit your workflow.
“the sheer amount of person-years that have gone into making emacs and elisp a conjoined system makes it a pleasure to use and iterate on”
“In Emacs I use different faces for comments, tables in literate sections, and code blocks.”
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“after almost 20 years of using it to write all sorts of functionality from big to small things”
AI workflows · 3
Users say AI agents make customizing Emacs and working in it even better.
“Other editors have come and gone, Emacs stayed.”
“the moment agents became a viable way to develop code I switched back into emacs”
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“It works great so far. I can just ask it to update its layout whenever i think something better is possible. I wont be going back”
Vim emulation · 3
Vim users find evil-mode emulates Vim better than other editors.
“Emacs, as it turns out, vims much better than any other concrete vim implementation.”
“Because emacs is better, and I can always use evil-mode if I want the vim bindings”
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“I switched to Emacs and Doom + eVil, and am relieved to be back in a nice stable system again”
Recent improvements · 3
Native compilation, tree-sitter, canvas support and newcomer presets modernize it.
“Native compilation is now default, so elisp is much faster than it was out of the box.”
“This is going to make some custom UI's way easier to make”
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“Decades later it feels perhaps more relevant than it did the then.”
Caveats and dissent
No mobile app · 1
One user says only the lack of a mobile app might make them leave.
“It works great so far. I can just ask it to update its layout whenever i think something better is possible. I wont be going back”
Display engine · 1
One user hopes for a faster cross-platform display engine for richer UIs.
“This is going to make some custom UI's way easier to make”
Not for everything · 1
A long-time user doubts that doing everything inside Emacs is the best way to work.
Outside AI harness · 1
One user runs an AI harness outside Emacs to use a Claude subscription.
“Decades later it feels perhaps more relevant than it did the then.”
Often compared with
5 moved from Vim to GNU Emacs
5 moved from GNU Emacs to Vim
2 moved from Visual Studio Code to GNU Emacs
2 moved from GNU Emacs to Visual Studio Code
3 moved from Neovim to GNU Emacs
8 moved from GNU Emacs to Neovim
1 moved from Doom Emacs to GNU Emacs
1 moved from GNU Emacs to Claude Codevi22 comments mention both
1 moved from vi to GNU Emacs
1 moved from GNU Emacs to vi
Who recommends it in their own words
From the makers not counted in the ranking
“i'm still happy about how it allowed me to build a really expressive musical tracker”
“many years of Emacs contributions”
“learned from debugging/optimizing Emacs”
“I have been working on implementing iCalendar/RFC5545 in Emacs Lisp.”
Threads where it came up
- Emacs Turns 50 29 mentions
- Emacs 31 Is Around the Corner: The Changes I'm Daily Driving 23 mentions
- IDEmacs: A Visual Studio Code clone for Emacs 23 mentions
- Ask HN: Where to begin with "modern" Emacs? 23 mentions
- Surprisingly, Emacs on Android is pretty good 19 mentions
- How I am deeply integrating Emacs 19 mentions
Also written as GNU Emacs, eMacs. Data: gnu-emacs.json. Quotes are verbatim; the verdict and theme labels are written by a model from these comments, and every clause links to its sources.
All comments 40
“It works great so far. I can just ask it to update its layout whenever i think something better is possible. I wont be going back”
“after almost 20 years of using it to write all sorts of functionality from big to small things”
“otherwise, I might have never convinced myself to ever give Emacs a try.”
“I am primarily an Emacs user”
“I'm an eMacs guy”
“I fully switched from vi to emacs in 1992 and been using it heavily every day since then. So good.”
“Emacs, as it turns out, vims much better than any other concrete vim implementation.”
“you can't just ignore forty years of package development”
“shortly after switch to GNU Emacs when it was first released in 1985”
“Decades later it feels perhaps more relevant than it did the then.”
“Blaming Emacs for that is blaming the UI for the engine.”
“You’re the best thing that happened in the computing world.”
“Because emacs is better, and I can always use evil-mode if I want the vim bindings”
“I'm reading this thread in Emacs.”
“the sheer amount of person-years that have gone into making emacs and elisp a conjoined system makes it a pleasure to use and iterate on”
“If you're feeling curious at trying Emacs out for the first time”
“Been using Emacs for 37 years.”
“Of course¹, but I warn you - it may feel massive”
“I grokked display-buffer-alist and never had any problems since.”
“which makes it even more valuable to do more things in emacs”
“And I used Emacs (on Linux) this morning.”
“I use emacs everyday.”
“Emacs has served me well for more than a decade.”
“I love emacs and have been using it daily for about 5 years now.”
“Did not realize that everything I was building in my vim configs to make it better was already default in emacs”
“now Emacs is an efficient, parsimonious choice by comparison”
“This is going to make some custom UI's way easier to make”
“Native compilation is now default, so elisp is much faster than it was out of the box.”
“Other editors have come and gone, Emacs stayed.”
“I switched to Emacs and Doom + eVil, and am relieved to be back in a nice stable system again”
“the moment agents became a viable way to develop code I switched back into emacs”
Oh yeah. I actually use Forge[0] on my Linux desktop machine at home which allows me to customize the keyboard shortcuts for tiling and managing OS windows. Unfortunately I still have to use macOS and Windows at work, so universal OS window management isn’t a solved problem. I’m happy enough that I can run Emacs everywhere and have consistent keybindings inside Emacs though. [0]: https://extensions.gnome.org/extensio
“Inside Emacs I use winum mode”
“When I need to manipulate files in any quantity, I use Emacs and its dired-mode.”
“as malleable as Emacs”
“I have a key emitting “forall” which Emacs then displays as ∀.”
“In Emacs I use different faces for comments, tables in literate sections, and code blocks.”
“That's why I use telega.el in Emacs.”
“used Emacs for almost two decades now”
“On linux I read my mail in emacs, and use notmuch for searching/indexing. It's amazing.”