As new user, Emacs vanilla or Doom Emacs?

I discovered Emacs via Doom Emacs. Then I switched to Vanilla in order to try the shortcuts. And I have to admit that vanilla shortcuts seems more easy to me. But I wonder if should stick to vanilla or switch back to Doom Emacs. Things to consider: - quite new to Emacs - reading the manual - want to use it for Ruby, Ruby on Rails, React, CSS, Sass, shortly said Web development - want to take notes (I tried Inkdrop but I would do the same directly with Emacs) like markdown files or Org files if it's compatible Do you have any advice? Edit: Thank you all you guys, i appreciated your replies. I decided to come back to Doom Emacs and give it a deeper try.

If you prefer vanilla shortcuts, why not [disable Evil](https://github.com/hlissner/doom-emacs/blob/master/modules/editor/evil/README.org#removing-evil-mode)?

You can use Doom with vanilla keybindings. Plenty of people do. So if you're going to switch away from it, that shouldn't be the reason. There've been several threads recently on the topic of moving from Doom to vanilla and things to consider. You'll want to review those.

I love vanilla emacs! all I need is the dracula theme and a few packages and it is ok

I warmly recommend vanilla Emacs. While it requires *some* work to be ready for *web development* et cetera, it will probably survive Doom Emacs **and**, probably more important, it is *unopinionated*. Other people's configurations, like Doom Emacs, are usually formed after *their* personal preferences. No third-party configuration will ever perfectly fit *your* usage of Emacs.

I am usually biased towards keeping things simple, minimalist, DIY, etc., I tried and failed several times to start with vanilla Emacs, and recently tried Doom and I think Doom is great. Many good integrated design choices out-of-the-box. But I am a Vimmer who also coincidentally used `SPC` as my leader key in Vim, so Doom felt like it was made for me. That having been said I think hlissner (the Doom author, also on this thread) put a lot of thought into Doom, and is also very active.

I think Doom Emacs is good because the maintainer takes care of making sure all packages are well integrated, upgrade the packages and fixes the bugs. You can be productive and get working in a short amount of time.

Doom emacs, with the stipulation that if you’re not coming from Vim, disabling Evil mode in the init.el

Both. Hear me out: When I first started with emacs, I followed the tutorial (the one within emacs) as well as the tutorial in Practical Common Lisp. This got me started to understand the basic concepts of emacs (it is NOT vim, even with evil mode). Spacemacs and Doom Emacs got me exposed to a WIDE variety of packages and how they can be setup and how powerful emacs can be, and I used those for a while. Then I made my own configuration from scratch, inspired by what I worked, until that broke down and I went back to Doom. Here I am now with chemacs2, switching between Doom and Prelude emacs depending on my needs. I'm sure I'll settle down on something, eventually, but the exposure both to distributions and to from-scratch configs are very useful in understanding the environment and how to use it.

check if vanilla Emacs, get familiar with how things work. then switch to doom and see if it's something you like. did that just yesteryear.

Doom! If you don’t like it you can shift away from it. You save so much time with doom.

Same

Exactly, Vanilla = timeless, Doom = fad

Hey, I was in the same situation. Doom is the best EMacs out there and I’m using it without evil mode. Doesn’t make sense if you’re a beginner to go with vanilla because you’re just going to rewrite things already prepared for you in Doom. So, don’t waste your time. Use doom, and learn elisp to customise what you need

I have a "vanilla" install of Emacs. And work primarily in Ruby. https://github.com/jeremyf/dotemacs/blob/main/emacs.d/configuration.org I started Emacs 2 years ago, and tried Doom and Spacemacs, but settled on a basic install and built up from there.

In the long run you'll learn more and get a more customized emacs if you start with vanilla but vanilla comes with so much less than doom emacs. It will be easier to get started with doom emacs but as a new user looking at the configurations will be much harder to understand the configurations. Started with doom and then created my own configuration from vanilla a year-ish later

About the same, but Nord.

I love what they're doing with Doom. I just don't need most of it, so I stick with Vanilla.

You could try Emacs Prelude: https://prelude.emacsredux.com/en/latest/ It's basically just Vanilla Emacs with some of the rougher edges sanded down. You might find it strikes a good compromise between Doom and Vanilla Emacs.

This but with modus themes which are now shipped with emacs, hooray

You could also try https://github.com/purcell/emacs.d

When i started using emacs at first, i had been on vim for a while. However, i started with vanilla, and it felt nice. Tried doom for a bit but didn't click. Learn a few navigation keys and jump in. For a key, you can check what it does with `C-h k` and slowly you will be building that muscle memory. Of course everyone's preferences are different 🤷‍♀️ Edit: org mode was the gateway drug, really recommend.

If I was a new user of Emacs, I would start with Doom Emacs and use the non-evil keybindings. Then, if that still caused me issues or troubles, I would start slowly working on a transition to Vanilla Emacs. I say slowly because building up a config that makes you as productive as Doom does can take a while.

Doom as default! I use it for Ruby on Rails development and it works fantastically as is. Try it out, it's not pressure to install and use. I'd use it with evil. You'll want to get up and running and immediately start with development. After a year of using it, I haven't had to make any significant changes.

wow.. well, as they say "haters gonna hate" son!

Thank you, i didn't know about it. Glad to see the Doom Emacs author here ! As i edited my post, I decide to come back to Doom Emacs: enjoying it so far so thank you!

100% agree!! But I decided to try Doom Emacs once again. Once i feel comfortable with this flavor, I will try my own configuration with Vanilla Emacs.

Loving it so far! Still with the default theme though.

Thanks, i need to check this too!

Thanks a lot. I really didn't know that was possible.

You are right. Since I decided to give Doom Emacs a new try, i just can say that I am currently enjoying it!

Thanks for the hint!

You're right! Tons of tools already available...!

I decide to go with Doom Emacs. The fact is I still ignore lot's of things but enjoying it now. I am gonna read some documentation (included in Emacs!!) about Elisp.

This is exactly my plan! Thanks for sharing ;)

This is what i am doing now and enjoying Doom Emacs so far!

Absolutely! The more i use Doom Emacs, the more i understand why people use it.

Oh thanks you a lot, ruby friend!! I will look into your configuration file.

Yeah, you made a point. After a long trip with Doom Emacs, i will try my own Vanilla Emacs's configuration.

Didn't know about Emacs Prelude but sounds interesting!

Thanks, I didn't know about it too. There are lots of Emacs flavors out there!

Ah! here comes Org mode. I heard so much about it but still didn't use it... This is my next goal: discovering org mode.

You are right. I will stick some time with Doom Emacs first.

Thanks for this positive feedback! I will do the same, then ;)

Vanilla emacs is not unopinionated; it reflects the opinions of emacs developers (e.g. "what should be the default keybindings?").

Fresh noob here, I have no prior experience with any of the two, do you think emacs keybinds are better than vim/evil ? thanks