Making Emacs Popular Again
I hear a lot about the declining popularity of Emacs, but I always wonder how much it is overstating the case. As a tech enthusiast but (mostly) non-programmer, my perception has actually been that the &quot;cool factor&quot; of Emacs has been on the rise. Around 2011 or so, I hardly ever saw mention of it online. Now a day hardly go by on places like Reddit&#x27;s &quot;unixporn&quot; board that someone doesn&#x27;t post their slick setup with Emacs&#x2F;Doom Emacs&#x2F;Spacemacs on display.<p>I know that that Reddit board is sort of ridiculous and the jokes about it write themselves, but I nonetheless feel that Emacs has attained a certain counter-cultural &quot;cool&quot;&#x2F;cachet in recent years that it lacked a decade ago. In my opinion, this is a good sign for its future, all things considered. These threads are always full of comments about how vscode has surpassed it, etc., but I don&#x27;t think anything can change that--Emacs will ever truly satisfy those for whom vscode is presently the superior tool, and conversely, vscode is unlikely to satisfy the Emacs user.<p>Like vscode, Emacs is in every sense a practical tool; it is simply that it is practical in service of different needs. It is a practical tool for someone who takes active pleasure in the <i>cultivation</i> of a practical tool, in the process of learning and discovery involved. Because this will never describe a majority of users, I don&#x27;t think Emacs will ever capture a majority of developers or whatever, but it seems poised to continue to attract very dedicated ones who find the cultivation of a personal work environment in a ridiculously powerful 40-year-old program appealing in and of itself.