Download Emacs for Windows, Mac, Linux

Windows

Download at http://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/emacs/windows/

This is the official GNU Emacs, build for Windows by Free Software Foundation.

You'll see file names like these:

• emacs-26.3-i686.zip
• emacs-26.3-x86_64.zip

The “i686” means 32-bit. The “x86_64” means 64-bit.

To find if your Microsoft Windows is 32 or 64, press ❖Window key, type “about” in the search box. It'll bring up “About this PC” window. Look for the line “system type”.

After download, right click “extract all” to unzip it.

Open the folder, open the folder named “bin”, click the “runemacs” to start emacs.

To uninstall, just delete the folder.

[see Emacs in Microsoft Windows FAQ]

Mac

Emacs is installed on macOS by default, but a very old version, version 22.1, dated 2007.

In terminal, type:

• which emacs → check if emacs is installed and in your path.
• emacs --version → print version.
• emacs → launch emacs. (to quit, press Ctrl+x Ctrl+c)

Download Latest Emacs for MacOS

Download at http://emacsformacosx.com/

This is plain GNU Emacs, built by David Caldwell.

Homebrew, Macports

Get emacs from one of the package managers.

• Homebrew http://brew.sh/
• MacPorts https://www.macports.org/

Linux

Build Emacs from Source Code

• How to Build Emacs on Linux
• Emacs: How to Build Emacs from git Repository

Download Emacs Binary from apt-get

In terminal, type:

• which emacs → check if emacs is installed and in your path.
• emacs --version → print version.
• emacs → launch emacs. (to quit, press Ctrl+x Ctrl+c)

On Ubuntu, to check available emacs package version for install,

# search for emacs binary
apt-cache search emacs | grep emacs

Typicall you install by

sudo apt-get install emacs26

, where the emacs26 may be other version.