Neovim vs GNU Emacs

NeoVim was a complete rewrite of Vim, with new features added and underlying issues resolved thanks to the Vim code base. The keybindings and configuration are the same as Vim, so the switch can be pretty simple.

The core text editor is "headless", meaning it's detached from the user-interface so other programs can hook into it. This enables better integration with IDEs and browsers, where "Vim mode" has typically been a poor substitute because it was a partial rewrite or a partial port at best. One of the advantages of Vim has always been ubiquity and Neovim makes it even more ubiquitous.

Vim plugins have always been useful, but tied to specific languages. Neovim's architecture provides better separation between plugins and the core product, so that plugins are completely flexible and can be written in any language.

This avoids the user having to make any installations.

The core functionality is handled apart from the UI, meaning that Neovim can be embedded into any other GUI system, such as Atom.

Not many editors can open such a large text file so quickly.

New neovim editor instance starts instantly and you can have multiple editors open at the same time, because id does not require a lot of memory to run.

Don't believe it? Try typing vimtutor in your command line right now.

Neovim can work on terminal, on a remote server over ssh.

As a refactor over Vim, Neovim has greatly improved its code base. For example, some functionality is handled by libuv, the same code base that powers Node.js.

Some typical configurations most of VIM users make are default in Neovim.

Vim gets stronger every time command-line tools get stronger. This isn't even it's the final form.

I don't like having dotfiles or dotdirs in my homefolder unless they're needed. Configs should be in the .config dir in their respective folder.

This makes editing multiple files at once, moving code around so easy.

Customizations can be made to a wide range of Emacs' functions through a Lisp dialect. A robust list of existing Lisp extensions include the practical (git integration, syntax highlighting, etc) to the utilitarian (calculators, calendars) to the sublime (chess, Eliza).

Licensed under GNU GPL.

Emacs can be controlled entirely with the keyboard.

You can use Emacs' command line interface or graphical user interface.

Emacs has extensive help support built-in as well as a tutorial accessed with C-h t.

Packs like spacemacs make it easy to get started and bring the learning curve down from an infinitely regressing spiral to something more manageable.

Emacs has modes for nearly every use case, even ones like mail and internet browsing. It has often been said that Emacs is essentially an operating system on its own.

Evil-mode makes Emacs actually usable as an editor.