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GNU Emacs vs JOE (Joe's Own Editor): catalog facts
GNU Emacs	JOE (Joe's Own Editor)
Free Free software under the GPL, part of the GNU Project.	Free Free software distributed under the GNU General Public License.
Windows, macOS, Linux, Android	Windows, Linux, Command line
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	Familiar WordStar key layout with Emacs-like features Tiny binary with only libc as a dependency
A steep learning curve, with keybindings unlike any other editor A usable configuration takes substantial time, hence Doom and Spacemacs	The Windows build lags behind at version 4.6 Keyboard scheme differs from vi and modern GUI editors
Downloadable app	Downloadable app
Open source	Open source
License: GPL-3.0	License: GPL-2.0
No account needed	No account needed
Works offline	Works offline
Official website Full listing and sources Checked September 21, 2026	Official website Full listing and sources Checked October 2, 2026

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