The trick is one never closes Emacs down - so it's always there. Just flick to the window with your Emacs, edit the file, save it, and go back to what you were doing. Those "editor AND the kitchen sink" jokes are very true, but you only have to open it once.

Even better, using TRAMP you can be running your Emacs as your normal user, and use the sudo method to edit a system config file - avoiding running the editor as root. Pretty nifty, eh?

I'm proud of myself - two holy wars (Vi/Emacs and su/sudo) in one post!

Why "obviously void the warranty"? This is silly - it's my device!

Like a general purpose computer, if the power supply breaks down during the warranty period, I expect it to be replaced under the warranty. Why are we treating smartphones differently? Worst case, fix it and put the factory software back on it. Then give it back to me working.

I'm always a little concerned what might happen if Ubuntu became too much of its own ecosystem - and started to drift away from its Debian roots. According to the text "only 7% of Ubuntu is directly derived from upstream projects, Canonical's projects, or other non-Debian sources". Just about the worst thing that could happen to Debian is a fork (and the enhanced probability lies squarely in Ubuntu's lap).

In a way, Debian and Ubuntu provide an ideal symbiosis - the sober one to ensure the party animal turns up to work the next day, but also a good time is had by all.

My greatest concern is if Canonical and friends stopped driving/upstreaming improvements, a wholesale migration would be encouraged. And then we only have Ubuntu (and friends of course) - and once the symbiosis is broken it's very hard to put back together.