this post was submitted on 06 Sep 2023
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The majority of those features are written as elisp libraries. They're only loaded if you use them. Unless you're concerned with disk space (why? Disk space is cheap), they aren't the source of your bloat.
The features that are built-in can be changed via the configure script, assuming you don't mind compiling Emacs.
If Emacs feels sluggish, then you're probably loading unnecessary things in your init.el. Or you're on Windows and your virus scanner is fighting with it (that happens to me on my work laptop with Trend Micro).
Edit: org-mode is fairly large and can take a bit to load the first time. Could that be what you're experiencing?
It's not a problem of emacs being slow, I just really dislike the clutter. Thanks for letting me know about the config script!
I should have clarified - the configure script is only for stuff built in to the C source code. It won't get rid of the games and whatnot, but remove support for things like sound, graphics formats, bignums, etc.
I suppose you could try deleting stuff out of /usr/share/emacs, but I wouldn't recommend it.
Huh. I'll try the fork that someone else suggested then.
If you're talking about Microemacs, it's not a fork. It's unrelated to GNU Emacs. The name Emacs has a long twisted history going back to PDP-10 machines so you'll find various text editors with "Emacs" in their name.
The only active fork of GNU Emacs I know of off the top of my head is Remacs, which is a project to replace the C code in Emacs with Rust. It's probably not what you're looking for.
Honestly, I think you're overestimating the impact of the "bloat" in Emacs. Emacs starts up with a very minimal set of features (compared to what is available) and doesn't really push any of that on you. If you turn off the menu bar (which I don't recommend), you'd have to search for it intentionally to find it.
Bear in mind that GNU Emacs is not a text editor. GNU Emacs has a text editor. It's a platform for Lisp applications. The text editor is just what you get by default when you don't ask for anything else.
If you use native compilation, even org-mode flies.
Assuming you're on UNIX and have relatively new hardware, sure. On my Haswell-based Xeon setup at home (built in 2014, runs a Debian variant) you get a second or two delay. On my Xeon-based Dell work laptop (bought in 2018, runs Windows with WSL1), it's about the same. Both use native compilation.
org-mode is a beast.
@spauldo @moonsnotreal what do you say to load everything from dotemacs ? :D
I load most things I use in my init.el. I'm not worried about startup times because I rarely restart Emacs.