GNU Emacs vs Mousepad
GNU Emacs
gnu.orgMousepad
docs.xfce.orgSide by side
| Figure | GNU Emacs | Mousepad |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Windows | Yes | — |
| macOS | Yes | — |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| Android | Yes | — |
| Plans published | 1 | 1 |
| Spec score · Text Editors | 9.0 (#4) | 7.9 (#45) |
| Column editing | Yes | Yes |
| Extension support | Yes | Yes |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Latest release | The GNU Emacs release history lists Emacs 30.2 as released on August 14, 2025. | The page lists Mousepad 0.7.0, released on 2026-03-02. |
| Support | Users can seek help through the help-gnu-emacs mailing list or gnu.emacs.help newsgroup, and report bugs with M-x report-emacs-bug. | The project page links to instructions for reporting bugs and viewing currently open bugs. |
| Supported platforms | GNU/Linux, BSDs, Haiku, Windows, macOS, and Android. | Linux |
Plans
In their own words
Mousepad
Mousepad is a free Linux editor for quickly changing text files, rather than a development environment. It supports column editing, extensions, and content search. Editing options such as word wrap and automatic indentation are available in the preferences dialog and Document menu. Settings can also be accessed through Dconf Editor, gsettings, or dconf. Printing settings are kept separately in ~/.config/Mousepad/mousepadrc. After first use, Mousepad generates a configurable keybindings file. Version 0.5.9 added a shortcuts editor, which requires Libxfce4ui 4.17.5, and a CSS style class named “mousepad” for theming. Required packages are GLib 2.52.0 or later, GTK 3.22.0 or later, and GtkSourceView 3.24.0 or 4.0.0 or later. Optional components include gspell 1.6.0 or later and libxfce4ui 4.17.5 or later. The documentation lists version 0.7.0, released on 2026-03-02, and links to the current source archive and bug-reporting information.