Ask HN: What Happened to GitHub's Atom?

#1

Post by jonny383 » Thu, Oct 03, 2019, 2:16 AM UTC

When Microsoft acquired GitHub, there was speculation (and fear on my behalf) that GitHub would end up axing Atom in favor of Visual Studio Code.

Taking a look at the commit activity for Atom on github.com [1] shows that since the end of June 2019, development has basically stopped completely. Does anyone have any insight as to what is happening here? Has GitHub abandoned Atom development?

Before you angrily shout that "Visual Studio Code" is better, or "just use VS code", please recall the current situation with Google Chrome mono-culture. Say what you will about Atom, but (especially in the last twelve months) the product had become very fast and in my opinion, provided a much better user experience that VS code.

[1] https://github.com/atom/atom/graphs/commit-activity

Re: Ask HN: What Happened to GitHub's Atom?

#2

Post by breeny592 » Thu, Oct 03, 2019, 2:40 AM UTC

I'd be curious to see the download numbers of Atom since VS Code's meteoric rise a few years ago. As an ex-atom user, I was initially hesitant to move over as I found VSCode "awkward", but many quality of life patches sold me on it and haven't been back

Re: Ask HN: What Happened to GitHub's Atom?

#3

Post by orange8 » Thu, Oct 03, 2019, 2:45 AM UTC

I wouln't say vs code is better (these are all personal tastes things), but it was already way more popular than atom long before ms bought github.

https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=today%205-y&q=...

Re: Ask HN: What Happened to GitHub's Atom?

#4

Post by robotstate » Thu, Oct 03, 2019, 3:03 AM UTC

I went from Sublime Text to Atom, then back to Sublime, as Atom was painfully slow in large projects. After a short break from the tech world, I came back to find that VS Code had taken over, and I couldn't be happier. It "just works" and offers a great experience out of the box.

Re: Ask HN: What Happened to GitHub's Atom?

#5

Post by fourthark » Thu, Oct 03, 2019, 3:09 AM UTC

I'm sorry that everyone is telling you "just use VS code"!

Re: Ask HN: What Happened to GitHub's Atom?

#6

Post by nemothekid » Thu, Oct 03, 2019, 3:11 AM UTC

I personally prefer Sublime as well, and I looked into VSCode, but the VSCode monoculture also means that VSCode has the best plugins. When it comes to graphical editors, Sublime's golang and Rust extensions are so bad.

Re: Ask HN: What Happened to GitHub's Atom?

#7

Post by jonny383 » Thu, Oct 03, 2019, 3:12 AM UTC

robotstate wrote: post #4

I went from Sublime Text to Atom, then back to Sublime, as Atom was painfully slow in large projects. After a short break from the tech world, I came back to find that VS Code had taken over, and I couldn't be happier. It "just works" and offers a great experience out of the box.

Out of curiosity, when did you leave and when did you return?

Re: Ask HN: What Happened to GitHub's Atom?

#8

Post by geowwy » Thu, Oct 03, 2019, 3:14 AM UTC

The biggest contributors stopped contributing around 2016. It seems like they achieved what they wanted and put it in maintenance mode.

https://github.com/atom/atom/graphs/contributors

Re: Ask HN: What Happened to GitHub's Atom?

#9

Post by namanaggarwal » Thu, Oct 03, 2019, 3:14 AM UTC

VS code is a better editor than atom, just like Chrome is better browser than others (imho based on number of browser downloads). I don't know if it would make sense for the company to keep two competing(free) products. It would be great to see download statistics and see if Atom makes sense anymore for MS

Re: Ask HN: What Happened to GitHub's Atom?

#10

Post by Scarbutt » Thu, Oct 03, 2019, 3:16 AM UTC

It couldn't compete technically with vscode, just as firefox can't compete technically with chrome. Users will just follow what's better.