I think the right POV is that Emacs is a text-mode Lisp VM, or at least the remains of one. Whereas vi is just a (great) modal editing interface. They are not c

I think the right POV is that Emacs is a text-mode Lisp VM, or at least the remains of one. Whereas vi is just a (great) modal editing interface. They are not comparable. Actually, vim is not a very good implementation of vi's principles. Concerning Emacs, as a heavy user I think it needs 4 things to stay relatively popular. I don't think it will be ever super popular, and that's fine: * Get popular workflows to work with zero configuration. Some packages like AuCTeX, Magit or Notmuch are great at this. But many programming modes require adding too much code to init.el (or .emacs), this code breaks often and it is poorly documented. * There are too many half-finished packages for some tasks, mostly programming modes. Variety is great, but too much fragmentation is hurting the ecosystem. * Look at things that other editors are doing better, mostly VS Code. In the past, this approach motivated implementing a package manager (ELPA), which was a huge step forward. * Get better documentation. It's hard to find up-to-date information for many packages. Besides, the tutorial focuses too much on keybindings and doesn't talk about Emacs core principles. So, to a beginner Emacs looks like a bunch of keystroke tricks that make zero sense.