Line numbers. That is it. That is the whole story.

When you open a file in a fresh Emacs installation, there are no line numbers in the margin. The status bar at the bottom tells you which line the cursor is on — same as Vim defaults, actually — but that is not the same as having numbers visible on every row while you read and navigate code.

The fix is a single command. Then another single command to make it global. Then one line in your config file to make it permanent. The whole thing takes about thirty seconds and you never think about it again.

I am documenting these small quality-of-life changes as I go through my own Emacs setup, partly to have a record for myself and partly because I suspect I am not the only one who finds the defaults slightly spartan. Emacs gives you almost nothing out of the box — not because the developers forgot, but because the whole point is that you build the environment you actually want.

Line numbers are a good place to start.

Full instructions on the forum: How to show row numbers in Emacs