for a few reasons. Mainly, its available for Win2k and Linux. While you are transitioning over, you can start using it now. Second, its a lot easier to use than terminal Emacs, so the learning curve won't be as steep. As I'm still learning it myself, I can't give you a lot of hints. What I can tell you is that you don't need to know Lisp. You should get along fine without knowing it.