Thanks for the detailed answer! Do you use any of those "extra" features of emacs? For instance, I just came to know it it can double up as an email client too. Isn't it a big plus if you were able to do a lot of things from a single program or application?

Yes, I'm using Windows presently, but considering formatting my machine and switching to Ubuntu soon. I have Git for Windows installed, so it provides some basic *nix environment like grep, ls, etc. but like you said, a proper unix is much much better.

I'm already pretty much into the Emacs tutorial, so I think I want to master that completely before trying something else. Moreover, I also want to get a feel for that elisp macro thing which is supposed to be magically flexible.

I still happen to develop on VS 2010 Express and it fits the bill pretty well.