December 2, 2025

Weekend warriors vs RMS wanderers

EmacsConf 2025

Online, all-free, weekend-friendly—with shoutouts, RMS side-eye, and watch-party hype

TLDR: EmacsConf 2025 is online and fully free, with a weekend schedule that fans say makes joining easy. The crowd cheers the organizers, swaps “just mpv it” tips, and debates Richard Stallman’s influence — blending cozy watch-party vibes with classic community drama.

EmacsConf 2025 is back online, powered entirely by free software, and the comments turned it into a living-room watch party. One top joke: “Who’s going to convince their company? Answer: Sat–Sun,” cheered esafak, celebrating the weekend schedule. Fans are loudly grateful — nosefrog throws a big shoutout to Amin and Sacha for keeping the tradition alive, and the vibe is very community-first.

A spicier thread kicks off when positron26 sighs that the “schedule grows small,” hints at switching to another editor (Lem) via Common Lisp, then drops a zinger about RMS — Richard Stallman, the GNU founder whose strong opinions still cast a long shadow over Emacs culture. That line sparks knowing side-eye and meta-drama: is Emacs coasting, or staying true?

Balance lands fast: first-timers like amitav1 say the talks are “gold,” and floathub’s one-liner — mpv https://live0.emacsconf.org/gen.webm — becomes a meme-worthy flex: just press play and vibe. Organizers invite everyone to the emacsconf-discuss and emacsconf-org lists, plus chat.emacsconf.org on IRC for retro group chat energy.

Verdict from the crowd: weekend-friendly, all-free, watch-party buzz — with classic Emacs drama for seasoning. Whether you tune in via a terminal command or a browser, the comments say the community is the show as much as the talks.

Key Points

  • EmacsConf 2025 is an online conference focused on GNU Emacs and Emacs Lisp.
  • Organizers invite the community to get involved in planning and promotion.
  • The conference infrastructure and streaming setup use only free software.
  • General discussions take place on the emacsconf-discuss mailing list; organizing on emacsconf-org.
  • Real-time chat is available via the #emacsconf IRC channel on Libera.Chat and via chat.emacsconf.org.

Hottest takes

"Who's going to convince their company? Answer: Sat–Sun" — esafak
"The 'watch' method is so awesome: mpv https://live0.emacsconf.org/gen.webm" — floathub
"Being right does not stop RMS" — positron26
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