Reflections on IDEA vs VS Code

My best analogy for this is to think of Java as like a truck and other languages as like vans (C++) or motor scooters (python, etc). Past a critical threshold Java has absolutely amazing performance (sits in same league as C/C++) but if you imagine driving a large truck around town ... you are constantly starting and stopping, turning into alley ways etc - a truck is not going to do too well. But if you actually have to deliver 50 tons of goods, good luck on the scooter. And a well designed Java app can behave like a scooter but its not the default setting because most people in enterprise settings have truck-like problems.

However the slowness of Java on the desktop is a bit overblown by people's past experience I think .... improvements to garbage collection and hotspot optimisation, and elimination of applets have certainly made a big difference to the type of stalls that used to make people say these things.

I've spoken to some Jetbrains employees and it seems their vision of remote development is nothing like what VSCode does. No matter how much I explain they just don't seem to understand the advantages of being able to host the IDE in a docker container/remote system. "Docker isn't supposed to be used for that, you deploy to a container, not develop inside one" they say.

There are some contradicting layout schemes across the languages and for that I'm glad Jetbrains provides the language specific flavors.

I agree, I also think sibling comment about vs code being a generic text editor is a fair point.

I’ve tried to move to vs code several times as I like using the “default” (same reason I use Ubuntu) but webstorm is just better IMO.

The original text has been deleted. Here is the copy: =============================== Reflections on IDEA vs VS Code

The story of IDEA vs VS Code is a story of low-end disruption, straight from the textbook. There is an emergent competitior that is not yet feature-rich but it is not elephantine yet and its technology has an unique advantage. The key technology here is probably the Language Server Protocol; it offloads programming language related smarts directly to the compiler (typically), thus relieving the IDE from supporting a hundred programming languages with all their warts and twists. As the compiler is the ultimate authority on the matters of language, that seems like a wise move: reusing instead of reimplementing. The other technology is Electron and, by extension, a browser engine based GUI. Given how much money was put into browsers, that is probably the most mature multiplatform GUI framework in existence.

That situation may catch the IDEA family between a rock and a hard place: it has to outdo compilers on one side and browser engines on the other side. Specifically, in their primary line of business. Which may easily become an unwinnable bet.

So far it looked like textbook low-end disruption, except for one thing: the disruptor is an old fat incumbent while the disrupted party is a (relatively) young emergent competitor. That is the funny part. Clearly, the MS leadership has read the book.

What bothers me about JetBrains is the fact that they seem to be playing along. Judging by the talks on their recent conference, IDEA goes more elephantine, more corporate, more complex. That is easy to understand: a corporate user pays a lot. But, that is the classic low-end disrupted trajectory that leads to the very same corner where IBM DB2 sits. They will retain some deep pocketed customers, but all the interesting things will be happening somewhere else.

In this regard I will mention two announcements: the CodeWithMe technology and a lightweight "IDEA viewer" product. CodeWithMe allows one IDEA instance to run another instance remotely to allow for collaborative work. Even the color scheme and the shortcuts are provided by the master instance, if I understood that correctly. That is very Java and very corporate, no doubt. The IDEA viewer is another step in the same direction: let the IDE run somewhere else, maybe on a server, and let people use a lightweight client "on a laptop in a cafe". I seriously doubt it will work well in an average cafe though. Their WiFi tends to be unreliable. Given this degree of dependence of the client machine, spotty WiFi will cause a developer to smash his laptop against the coffee machine. Then, the developer will have to pay for both. I experienced similar issues with JetBrains YouTrack in the past: it was an awesome issue tracker, unless you use a poor connection or the server is too far away. Then, it was unnerving. So I assume, that will be stress-free on a wired connection only. Whether the developer is using a laptop or a workstation is of secondary importance then: it is wired. Still, that feature fits some corporate behavior patterns, so it may entrench IDEA better in that environment.

In addition to the rock and the hard place, IDEA seems to be caught in one more aspect. GitHub is now a MS property, so in the future VS Code is expected to be more and more integrated into GitHub. That pretty much catches all the young and hip audience in a MS owned behavior loop. Which certainly shows some very competent strategic planning. Meanwhile, JetBrains seems to be staying afloat mostly thanks to hard work and sheer luck.