The original EMACS (“Editor Macros”) was a set of macros for the TECO editor, created in 1976 by David Moon and Guy Steele. The GNU Emacs was first released in 1985, by Richard Stallman, making it one of the oldest programs still in active development.

The wider Emacs ecosystem includes a large number of packages, including

• text editors,
• file managers,
• mail clients,
• terminal emulators,
• and more.