@profoundlynerdy Welcome to this great (and potentially large) rabbit hole.

As a daily vim+Emacs user for decades, you probably won't agree with me (right from you system 1 reaction) when I tell you that Emacs + Org-mode are totally different tools you most probably will never have with vim (or anywhere else).

I'm using #vim + #Emacs - both - with their native bindings. I'd really recommend you to try Emacs - optionally with vim bindings (there are more than one option). #Spacemacs seems to be popular as a modern configuration starterpack.

For #Orgmode, I've written many articles. That's my starting point:
https://karl-voit.at/orgmode/

Trust me: in the long run, it's worth any switching effort. You'll get a trusted, flexible #PIM companion for many decades. And you can use vim for normal editing tasks in parallel, like I do.

@danderzei Hi, I finished reading the book yesterday and here is my short review.

First, thanks again, your book arrived at the perfect moment for me, as I was starting think about migrating from #Obsidian to #Emacs. This book was a real help to get me started. As you said in chapter 9, #EWS is a great way to save some time and have tools needed to be able to work immediately after learning the basics of Emacs.

Not everyone has the time and energy to learn as well as to start tinkering with a new software, since these can be necessary when starting from a vanilla configuration. I love to play with tools but I'm not sure if I would have been able to make the transition to Emacs without the foundation you created with EWS. For example, you implemented many quality of life improvement to make sure every part of the writing process are made as easy as possible, something that can be hard to produce for a new user who is not sure of the workflow to implement. For example, when I entertained the idea of moving to Emacs, I was not sure if #Denote or #Org-Roam was the best option for me, but I can see now that choosing between either was just a small step, and that the configuration you offer with EWS is very well crafted and functional.

I appreciate the fact that you stayed as close as possible to the default Emacs experience. This way, a new user can start writing with the different tools you offered right for the start while having the space to eventually add new packages and play with the configuration. I remember playing with #Spacemacs years ago and it was overwhelming to make modifications to this distribution, even though the documentation was good.

Your book makes learning Emacs pleasant, since it is not written in a dry way as your usual manual. Playing with the software at the same time is the best way to read your book and I now feel confident using it for my own projects. External resources like Prot's channel and @daviwil Systemcrafters.net were really complimentary to reading your book, but I don't see this as a negative point. Maybe pointing to more online resources could be a good idea for the newcomers.

I must say, I know how to search info online and I like to deep into things, so I don't know if I'm the best candidate to review this book as I think you wanted to offer a distribution for someone entirely new to Emacs, but still, I thank you a lot for this rich book. I've already started changing some configurations and I don't feel the need at all to switch to something with #Doomemacs (even though I will definitely try to implement Evil mode in EWS).

A final word to say I also appreciated the integration of well known tools in EWS. In addition to being a good platform for writing, it integrates other ideas like #GTD and it's possible to come with some knowledge of #Zettelkasten, #PKM or Second brain systems and methodology and have them work out of the box. It could be a good idea to point it out in the introduction so people familiar with those will be even more motivated to learn about EWS and read until then end.

Thanks again for this project! I hope I will be able to contribute in some ways in the future to some of those projects that were leveraged to make EWS possible, or maybe to EWS by itself. I look forward diving deeper into it!

@whynothugo I have same impression I am more #spacemacs user

To put it in context, #NeoVim
was created as an alternative to make Vim better by improving its usability and making it more extensible.

At most, what you'll find in terms of Emacs distributions are options like umacs (the version that Linus Torvalds uses, which is more streamlined) or something like #spacemacs (the opposite of Emacs/umacs, which comes with everything included), that is, a super Emacs package. ++

This ideal online book could be easily using a battery-included distro such as #Doom or #Spacemacs for the first half, switching to customizing from scratch only later.

I've been fantasizing on it since a while, and the title "Stairway to #Emacs" is batting around my head ever since.