[camperman]

The echulte one is the one I use because it has a _fantastic_ literate add-on that inlines org-mode into your startup scripts. Actually, it's the other way around now I think about it - you write org-mode files and inline your elisp customisations :) My personal init.org looks like this:

  Writing
  Programming
  Game dev
  Settings

and so on. All my settings for all my packages are in here - I just tab to change the visibility. At startup the package generates the correct elisp files from the org file. But the defaults are all sensible too if you're just getting started.

[newsisan]

Thanks for that, I used org-mode previously so went with this one. Can you briefly explain the literate org-mode addon and your init.org? Thanks

[camperman]

Sure. Your init files are actually .org files so you can arrange your customisations in logical order by sections. The actual code is encapsulated between #+begin_src and #+end_src tags and the init file will generated the proper .el files for you. here's an extract:

  Personal customisations

  * Settings
  ** Paths

  #+begin_src emacs-lisp

  ;; PATH settings

  (setenv "PATH"
    (concat
     "/bin" ":"
   ;; and so on
    )

#+end_src emacs-lisp Colors Abbreviations Misc

So your .emacs becomes an org file with all the goodness, organisation and layout friendliness that implies. No need to split all your settings and elisp stuff across different files to keep it tidy - just stick them under another bullet!