Making Emacs popular again

When I read your part about the "the proud greybeards" I was reminded of the so called Planck's principle: A new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it.

IT shows similar patterns: COBOL, Fortran and Emacs don't get replaced once something better appears, but when an older generation retires and the infrastructure and tools they built up get (very slowly) replaced with the stuff the next generation grew up with. Usually, the time to learn and the mental change needed to move from what we got comfortable with to something different is just too high unless a new project or position forces us to into such a change. This resistance to change is also one of the main reasons for the never ending language wars and debates about init systems.