Linkarzu Podcast | Neovim, macOS, Emacs, Linux, Terminals and more. Trying Emacs for the First Time as a Neovim User (with Joshua Blais)
May 4, 2025
Join Emacs enthusiast Joshua Blais as he guides a Neovim user through their first encounter with Emacs. Joshua shares insights on Emacs philosophy versus Neovim’s focus, and highlights his experience using Org Mode to write a book. He introduces Doom Emacs as a user-friendly configuration and discusses powerful features like task management, coding with LSP, and customizing key bindings. Their conversation navigates through installation tips, navigation hacks, and practical advice for seamlessly blending both editors in a coding workflow.
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Install Current Emacs Correctly
- Install Emacs 30 via Homebrew using the emacs-plus tap to get the stable release.
- Prefer the GUI for full features, or run emacs -nw in terminal for server-like use.
Editors vs Computing Environments
- Emacs and Neovim follow different philosophies: Neovim is an editor, Emacs is an extensible computing environment.
- Emacs embeds a full Lisp runtime so users can program and extend the editor into an OS-like tool.
Start With Doom Emacs
- Try Doom Emacs as a starter distribution when coming from Vim to get sensible defaults and faster startup.
- Use Doom if you want Vim-like editing with Emacs features and less initial setup work.