>>> Someone who can¢t spare more than three minutes to research a tool 
>>> that they may end up using for a life time for the majority of their 
>>> workday is IMHO not a kind of user we should strive to support.
>>
>> I think that's dangerously close to saying "Emacs was hard to make, so 
>> it should be hard to use".
>
> Well, that¢s one way to read it.  Another way, which is what I intend, 
> is that Emacs is a power tool, and some learning curve is inevitable no 
> matter how easy we make certain things.  And overcoming that requires 
> some effort.
>

There are many text editors, most of them are power tools too (not as much 
as Emacs of course, but this is something a new user cannot know or 
evaluate).  Other text editors do not have a learning curve to do simple 
operations like cut, copy and paste, or to choose a color theme.  I don't 
think it's a good thing if the first message you send to a new user is 
"you will suffer" (or "abandon all hope, ye who enter here").  The purpose 
of the current discussion is only to do something to give them a feeling 
of curiosity instead of a feeling of fear.