I use emacs daily on an NT box for work, and on RedHat? and Debian boxes at home.
When I was in graduate school, RichardStallman hired me to type because his hands hurt to much. My main recollection is that he expected you to have a good memory for emacs key-stroke sequences; if he taught you an optimal navigation twice, he expected not to have to tell you a third time.
I have written some free software to help organizations with their bulk mailing parties--see http
\www.easymailings.com.