GNU Emacs has all the usual features: easy package installation (`package-list-packages`), easy theming (`customize-themes`), a GUI interface as well as a terminal-only interface, a builtin file manager (`dired`), split screens, remote editing, autosaves, and much much more.
The keybindings are a little awkward, but no more so than playing a piano, and it's often just as fluid (especially on a Dvorak keyboard).
But I think it's a unique luxury to have one application that also is itself a live coding environment.
The way GNU Emacs can redefine itself, and be redefined by the user, is its most powerful feature.
I didn't start using Emacs intending to care about Lisp, much less to learn any of it.
Even today, my `.emacs` configuration file is little more than a patchwork collection of other people's ingenius hacks.
But the power within GNU Emacs is enticing, and a small hack in a config file can grow into a complex script that saves you hours off your work day.
With only rudimentary knowledge of Lisp combined with functions already built into Emacs, I was able to move autosaves into a hidden directory, providing me with the comfort of not having to look at backup files but at the same time knowing that the backup files exist.
I haven't lost data in Emacs due to a crash or disconnection in years.
There's more to emacs than GNU and Lisp, though.
The tradition of "emacsen" (that's the accepted plural form of more than one emacs) pre-dates and continues beyond the GNU Emacs implementation.
There are many options for editors based around a collection of macros and a specific style of user experience, most of them more lightweight than the GNU editor.
Some of my favourites:
*
https://opensource.com/article/20/3/lightweight-emacs#micro[Micro Emacs]
*
https://opensource.com/article/17/1/jove-lightweight-alternative-vim[Vim]
*
https://opensource.com/article/20/12/joe[Jmacs] (the Emacs mode of the Joe editor)
*
https://opensource.com/article/20/12/e3-linux[e3em] (the Emacs mode of the e3 editor)
*
https://opensource.com/article/20/12/jed[jed]
I use these emacsen and emacs-alikes almost as often as I use GNU Emacs, because they're easy to compile and run from `/home` on servers I don't have sudo privileges on.
They provide similar (or the same) keybindings I'm used to, access to macros and functions, and a familiar overall user experience.
And because Emacs is such a big concept, it very often is also able to provide a familiar user experience for users of other editors.
You can use Vim keybindings in GNU Emacs with `evil-mode`, and you can mimic GNU Nano with Joe's `jpico`.
The world of emacs is a rich one, and as often as I try other editors, I have yet to find anything lacking in GNU Emacs.
Sure, I enjoy Vim for quick edits and for its simple navigation, and I have an legitimately reverent appreciation for Nano's intuitive interface, but Emacs is the place I call home.
