I wouldn't say they're esoteric, but there is a learning curve because they're incongruent with the UI we've been taught by our graphical desktop environments.

I wouldn't say they're esoteric, but there is a learning curve because they're incongruent with the UI we've been taught by our graphical desktop environments. I do concede the somewhat dogmatic tone, but that's honestly just par for the course with any GNU software, though emacs is for sure one of the worst offenders. I still love it though, but wouldn't recommend it to anyone that isn't already expressing interest in giving it a try.