As an emacs user, it would be sorely missed.

Not only for emacs. It's remarkable how much the typewriter (or computer) keyboard exercise the pinky, compared with most other day-to-day activities.

The saxophone too... the left pinky table on a tenor sax is (almost) as much work as the shift key on a mechanical Olivetti typewriter.

It wouldn't be a picnic for vi users either: lots of commands start with a colon character, control character, or <escape> to change modes.

Ditto. I've never wanted to get rid of my pinkie, I always wanted it to be stronger. I'm sure the author would also agree seeing how he broke his.

You can get a springy finger strengthener for $10 or so, by the way. I found that after using Emacs for long periods of time I'd get a lot of tension built-up in my pinkie. (No RSI problems in my wrists, but my pinkie was really bothering it me.) Stretching it with one has helped a lot, as has using a typing timer (such as xwrits or workrave).

Guitar Hero on Hard or Expert exercises the pinkie finger pretty well. No joke.

Exactly my thoughts as I read the headline.

Over the summer an IT guy I knew lost 2 fingers in a sailing accident, it certainly makes the job more difficult.

I'd love to have a few more fingers, not less. Think of how much faster we'd type.

Or some fingers at the end of the finger's a la Olaf Stapledon's "Last and First Men."