> Why does it matter if you use Emacs or Vim or Notepad? > Why does it matter if you use Ubuntu or Windows or OSX? > If you can produce high-quality work

> Why does it matter if you use Emacs or Vim or Notepad? > Why does it matter if you use Ubuntu or Windows or OSX? > If you can produce high-quality work ... the tool you use doesn't matter. In all of these things, there is a shallow similarity, and a deeper difference that is only visible to a user with expertise. Tools have Quality, and experts care about it. Professionals care deeply about their tools. Writers care about pen qualities, musicians care about software and instruments, hunters care about their weapon. Programmers care deeply about our editors, languages, source control, and computer platform. Photographers care about their equipment. Comparing Vim/Emacs with Notepad is like comparing whether to use a computer versus writing by hand -- nearly no professional writer will choose to use a pen and paper when they have the power of a word processor at hand, and similarly nearly no programmer will choose Notepad over a professional code editing tool. You'll quickly find that many people who care about writing by hand care deeply about not just pens, but the ink they use within them -- the depth of nerdiness in the fountain pen forums is amazing. Consider looking at "fountain pen reviews", for example. People usually don't care about post-it brands or pen brands (or band-aids or toothpaste) because, in most cases, they are __functionally equivalent__, so you can decide on price or convenience. If one is not a discerning user, in theory one might buy a set of kitchen knives, a coffee maker, a car, a suit, or a computer based solely on price. Most of us have been burned enough by low-quality tools to care enough to discern Good from Bad. As programmers, we have the expertise to compare Python vs Ruby, or Emacs vs Vim, or Linux/OSX/Windows. We might not have the same depth of caring in other subjects (cars, cooking knives, pens, phones), and therefore do not engage in the same degree of holy-war that we tend towards when evangelizing our favorite tools.