[wtbob]

I'll second the recommendation of prelude. It does one thing I hate (guru-mode, but it documents how to disable it), and it is flakey about a very few things, but in the main it is golden.

I've been using spacemacs at work, and while I absolutely love its layers, I really miss prelude. Something which combined the stability and sanity of prelude with the layers of spacemacs would be just about heaven on earth.