GNU Emacs

An editor that is really a Lisp environment, extensible to the point where people run their email, calendar and shell inside it.

FreeOpen sourceWindowsmacOSLinux
Official websitegnu.orgDownload pagegnu.orgSource codegithub.comDocumentationgnu.org

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About GNU Emacs

Emacs has been in continuous development since the 1980s and remains the most extensible editor in existence. Almost all of it is written in Emacs Lisp, which is also the configuration language, so any behaviour can be changed at runtime without recompiling. That is why people end up reading mail, tracking tasks in Org mode, running a shell and managing git from inside it.

It is genuinely large and genuinely difficult at the start. The keybindings are unlike everything else, and a comfortable setup takes real investment, which is why distributions such as Doom and Spacemacs exist to give you a configured starting point. In return you get an editor that will still work the same way in twenty years.

Strengths

  • Extensible in Emacs Lisp at runtime, so any behaviour can be changed without rebuilding
  • Org mode is a genuinely excellent system for notes, tasks and literate documents
  • Decades of stability; configurations survive across versions and machines
  • Runs in a terminal as well as a window, and works the same over SSH

Limitations

  • A steep learning curve, with keybindings unlike any other editor
  • A usable configuration takes substantial time, hence Doom and Spacemacs
  • Single-threaded Lisp, so a slow package can freeze the whole editor
  • Official Windows and macOS builds are less polished than the Linux experience

Details

Pricing
FreeFree software under the GPL, part of the GNU Project.
License
GPL-3.0
Developer
GNU Project / FSF
Platforms
Windows, macOS, Linux
How it runs
Downloadable app
Account
Not required
Works offline
Yes
Best suited for
Someone willing to invest in an editor they can reshape completely
Categories
Code editors
Last verified
Added
Provenance
Selected from the TechWalrus downloads catalog (Editors); facts checked against the developer's own pages, 2 sources on file.

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