Re:Even more batteries included with Emacs
by jr_isidore on Monday June 15, 2026 @08:18AM
(#48540203)
appears to receive stable funding from the FSF
No, about ten underemployed or semi-retired graybeards on the emacs.devel mailing list burn most of their waking hours futzing with emacs. That's not an exaggeration. They receive no remuneration.
That's sad. Is there a way I can fund them without going through FSF? I tried looking into it before but it seemed like FSF was the only alternative, so I assumed it was well-managed.
https://github.com/tarsius/elisp-maintainers and https://github.com/freetonik/support-emacs-community-devs list quite a few people, so you can support them directly.
Ah, thanks. At least one of them is apparently already receiving recurring donations from me!
Re:Even more batteries included with Emacs
by jr_isidore on Monday June 15, 2026 @10:30AM
(#48541856)
Bro, the FSF is an unchecked post office box somewhere in Kendall Square, and besides, do you really think $10 per month makes a difference? I don't know what these guys feed off of, but it's not food or anything else that money buys.
Re:Even more batteries included with Emacs
by beepbooptheory on Monday June 15, 2026 @12:34PM
(#48543744)
The emacs devel mailing list is way more active than that.. although you do see some regulars there for sure.
Re:Even more batteries included with Emacs
by jr_isidore on Monday June 15, 2026 @02:36PM
(#48545282)
You misunderstand. Every mailing list has their healthy share of drive-by contributions, but emacs.devel contains a handful of dudes for whom *all they do* is emacs. We're talking nights, weekends, holidays. If they were indeed working a job, the inordinate time spent on the mailing list would constitute defrauding their employer.
I'm not sure it does. Emacs has a healthy user base of people like you and I and appears to receive stable funding from the FSF. I don't see that changing any time soon. Emacs can be Emacs and be just fine the way it is.
I will keep suggesting new users should aim to get as close to vanilla as they have patience for, because that will teach them more about the powerful virtual machine running their text editor, and the ways it can be bent to do their bidding.