When I worked in C, I used vim.
When I wrote shell scripts, I used vim.
When I worked in Python, I used vim.
When I came back to using Perl after many years away from it, I used vim.
When I kept notes at conferences, I used vim.
When I wrote my first book, I used vim.
When I built my first (second, third, and dozenth) website, I used vim.
I can think of very few pieces of software that have stuck with me consistently through all those years. Linux, Apache, BIND, bash, the gnu core tools (grep, sed, etc.)...that's pretty much it. Nearly everything else has changed, sometimes several times.
Google Web Cache:
https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:8LEimV...
Quoting in case the overaggressive title changer happens to stop by: Vim is certainly worth more than 100 euro (vim.org)
Buying it for a 100 euros? Yes, in a heartbeat. It's the single most important tool I use.
I don't agree with the "hype" part. Where's the hype? I use vim because it gets the job done.
So while it's unlikely Vim would ever sell, then or now, for 100 euros, VIM is worth that much both then and now. Discovering the VIM text editing features today for the first time is just as impressive as discovering them 20 years ago.
The unity in keybindings between my home coding environment and my work coding environment means there's very little cognitive dissonance--my muscle memory does all the work. People who don't spend their time equally split on vastly platforms probably don't understand just how huge of a godsend a cross-platform editor is (Emacs/Sublime have this too--not meaning to suggest there aren't other editors that have this).
The only thing I'd say is that viEmu for Visual Studio is lacking in several areas, but the access to VS's Intellisense makes up for it. And that's of course not an issue with vim as much as viEmu.
If you were curious.
The monetary value of a copy of free / open source software is effectively zero, provided that at least some people are distributing it without restrictions and free of charge such that it is readily available.
