I have a T61p. I use Emacs on it. TM may be easier to use, but my .emacs file is cross platform and is just a malleable if not more. Perhaps it could make a decent substitute?
TextMate is easier to learn. Once you know emacs or vim, there really aren't any tools that are more productive to use. But the trick is that you have to really know the tools. It's not enough to fire it up and try it for a while. You need to use it full time (for everything: mail, documentation, notes, poetry -- editors aren't just for code) for a good while. Get the keystrokes into your fingers. Emacs users should think seriously about remapping Ctrl to the left of "A" where it was when the bindings were designed. Keep your hands off the mouse as much as possible. Learn the various tools and modes if you like, but above all get used to the idea of living in your editor.
What you'll find is that the modern GUI mechanisms for interacting with code are just terribly awkward. You'll start using keystrokes for other stuff too (like Alt-Tabbing to your command line), and everything will fall into place. Eventually, you'll start writing rants like this one trying to convince all the young'uns about how wrong they are about what they want in their tools.
I guess it's a question of how much you want to invest in your tools. Learning vi and emacs is like a lifetime of compound interest.
I agree that if you just want to code something yesterday, you probably won't reach for these most powerful tools. I'd say that if you're committed to programming over the long-term, though, you'd be hamstringing yourself by not starting on them now.
Long story short, I started Emacs a few months ago and I'm never going back.
Being that I use Emacs (and Vim) daily, I know this. :)
"Eventually, you'll start writing rants like this one trying to convince all the young'uns about how wrong they are about what they want in their tools."
