It's not an exaggeration to say that org-mode changed my life. I started using it after my first year as a freelancer; I was really struggling to get myself organized and was prepping myself to get out of software entirely.
Switching to org-mode helped me keep on top of everything in a way I'd never really experienced before. Since then I've expanded my usage of org considerably - I use it for taking notes, tracking my diet+exercise, and planning out my projects (more info here: https://www.philnewton.net/blog/emacs-org/).
It's not everybody's cup of tea, but for me it fits my mental models better than anything I've ever used.
Org-mode is the reason I started using Emacs in the first place.
I'd be hard pressed to come up with a more important tool in my productivity/organization toolbelt, it's become a really important part of my notetaking process. It's not perfect by any means (exporting to other formats in particular is kind of messy), but it's an insanely powerful platform that does a ton of stuff, and is just really flexible without being too overwhelming. At the end of the day, everything is just text, so you can get in really deep with scheduling and capture templates, or you can just write out nice TODO lists.
Also check out Orgzly on Android if you're looking for a mobile client. Works pretty well with a Syncthing setup, or you can host your notes on a platform like Dropbox if you think that's easier.
This was predictable. A software package shouldn't be in continous evolution. Org didn't really follow GNU philosophy. That's what commercial software like Microsoft Office does. They keep changing it without adding any value. Org should've been the opposite, future-proof, solid and robust.
I'm not sure what the situation with the tests accompanying Org is, but in order to build future-proof software, tests are mandatory, comprehensive documentation is also very important. There's another element which I haven't really seen with Org, a clear idea of when and where to stop. As previously mentioned, the development phase of software should always have an end, in sight. The cases where software is developed for 2+ decades is very rare. This is mainly related to requirements and to the goal of the software, and I think this is something that wasn't done for Org. It's unclear where Org ends.
It's interesting that Org could never have evolved out of some committee super-formal development environment (with tons of managers, SCRUM masters, architecture boards, etc), but at the same time it is an expertiment out of control. It's very dense and rich in ideas, but also in chaos (I guess we can't really have the former without the latter).
Still I think the parts that distinguish Org from all other dynamic document formats, and from all other markup formats is that.. it's the most advanced, it was there before asciidoc or reStructuredText. Org is a pioneer in many ways.
It appears that the OP, @bzg, is Bastien Guerry, the current maintainer of org-mode — Bravo Zulu, Bastien! (By a happy coincidence, "Bravo Zulu" or just "BZ" is a U.S. Navy expression for "well done," defined in the publication ATP-1. [0].)
I'm a UI developer, never used Org-Mode, not a VIM or Emacs user. But I am very interested in document creation, note taking, organizing workflows. Please forgive the lack of background in this question but...
Can someone explain to me why if org-mode is so popular it is not used in places other than emacs or why is it bound to emacs? Is there some ux quality or set of features that are bound up in the unique key-bindings of Emacs or the scripting integration for example? Could any of this goodness make it's way to more accessible (for your average user) venues such as a basic GUI note taking app?
I think it would be great if the development of Org has moved to Gitlab or GitHub, i.e. simplified the contribution process.
I hope more project maintainers would call for help if it's needed. I am using org mode everyday, but I don't know org needs more contributors. That being said, I am definitely willing to help occasionally.
Thanks for bring the message out, bzg.
I’ve recently started to get back into emacs and org, via doom emacs. Will see how it goes.
How are people handling getting org files on multiple devices, with sync support etc. Dropbox?
I just wanted to come here to say that I started learning emacs in the beginning of the pandemic. I'm going to start my first year of masters and I'm going full on emacs. Literally one of my big wants in life is to help free software.. I still have a lot of learning to do to get to a point where I can actually contribute, but I hope one day I can indeed help
org mode for vim would be great
The Emacs news the past few days has been disheartening.
I was genuinely considering learning org-mode and giving another go at using Emacs as my primary editor. Now I'm worried if it still makes sense to do that.
Clearly a lot of people still find Emacs useful but the ecosystem seems too hard to break into. I'm still curious why Emacs hasn't obtained the same level of excitement as other editors like Vim and VS Code.
Just want to throw out there I switched to emacs about 3 months ago after being a long time vimmer, one of the first things I was told was to check out org-mode as it was one of the greatest features of emacs.
I heartily agree, after about a month I now do all my document authoring, PDF, LaTex, HTML, personal wiki notes, all of it goes in .org files. It was low barrier to productivity, and not much more effort to turn org mode into a powerful idea and through organizer as well as documentation.
Beyond that I can author in org mode and then export to tex, to pdf, to html, to markdown to whatever I want using org mode.
If you are a long time vimmer do yourself a favor make the next tech you learn be org-mode in doom-emacs. It is insanely powerful and I will never go back.