Remotely, sure (though I usually use joe for that), but for local edits, I start emacs --daemon as part of my regular login procedure (along with creating multiple terminal windows) and thereafter use emacsclient (aliased to 'e') for almost all file editing.

Only annoying thing is the way it retains buffers for modified files when you exit, even if you choose not to save them.

emacs -q (or faster, -Q) could be used in a pinch, but I find default emacs almost unusable.

You can edit remote files directly in Emacs or simply use sshfs.