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Once, during a FISL (International Free Software Forum) here in Brazil, I ran into an engineer from Sun. He warned me I should switch from vi to emacs because prolonged vi usage causes hair loss.

I thought he was joking, but after we took a short tour around the many laptop-toting geek gatherings and we realized bald and near-bald vi users outnumber bald and near-bald Emacs users about eight to one.

Since then, I have decided I would start using Emacs or, when that's not possible, at least try to use joe or nano for those same editing tasks.

Maybe the guy is going bald and wants to do something about it. Let he switch.

5 comments

Maybe that was because vi users outnumbered emacs users 8:1.

Users are the blank buffer of the god Emacs. Tremble before the Gnu!

    M-x clone-buffer

and if you're against cloning...

    M-x man
    M-x woman

I think you will see a sharp increase in the number of emacs users soon :D

I would venture to guess the reason behind these findings is vi users have a greater median age than emacs users (based purely on the fact that vi has been around longer).

I still have my hair (emacs user, age 25).

I guess that software shares its soul with its creators. Thus heavy Emacs use can influence longer hair (look at RMS!).

But Bill Joy is not bald either (or am I mistaken? -- looked only at Wikipedia photo).

Did you know that increased level of testosterone causes baldness? :-)

[I am an avid emacs user myself (ex-vim user)... so let me add this...]

But vi-induced-stress is more plausible than vi-induced-testosterone.

Testosterone could be an explanation, but Emacs users tended to be more hairy than vi users in all exposed areas. Testosterone would explain baldness in vi users but would not explain all the extra hair Emacs users have.

I am learning Emacs and growing a beard.

at least try to use joe or nano for those same editing tasks

I believed you were serious until this point. And then I realized that you were merely trolling.

Better luck next time.