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I’m switching from VS Code to VS Codium

ruky.me

31–40 of 343 posts

Re: I’m switching from VS Code to VS Codium

#31
post #7

If you're really that concerned about using propriety software why not help build the emacs or vim ecosystem instead?

I don't understand that reasoning. Wouldn't an editor ecosystem based on Codium be as open-source as Emacs' and Vim's? Are you referring to some difference in their specific licenses?

My argument, based on this thread alone, would be that Codium will always be... held back by its roots in open core project, with some amazing features (like remote editing) or plugins being unavailable. Codium developers do not "own" their core platform (they can't really fork it without breaking plugins), and they don't have much (if any) say in the future direction of it. Given that it's not unreasonable to think that VS Code is not really that open, and a more desirable outcome would be for developers to support more open alternatives.

Re: I’m switching from VS Code to VS Codium

#33
post #20

What I find truly bizarre is how many software engineers, who are aware of how much they earn and how long it really takes to make software, are so resistant to paying anything for tools that make their job easier and faster. It blows my mind. Take the Jetbrains IDEs. I don't mean to offend any VSC fans out there but the Jetbrains IDEs are simply better and more mature in every single way. For individual use, most of…

I think most of us value our freedom more.

Most people don't think of it in terms of freedom, but freedom it is. With proprietary software:

- You don't know when it will disappear or be discontinued. Even your paid-for existing version stops working when the activation servers go down.

- You might be forced into an "upgrade" which breaks something you rely on

- That's not to mention issues like being able to fix bugs yourself, extend it, or understand it. I don't do this often directly, but something like being able to understand a file format my data is in or similar is common

I don't mind paying for things, but things need to be a lot better on other axes before this one becomes the most important.

My experience is that:

- Things I did decades ago are sometimes useful. Nearly 100% of the time, if this was in a proprietary system, it's gone or unusable. My LaTeX files still work.

- Companies switch between growth mode and cash cow mode. When this happens, the cost to me is almost always higher than the initial benefit over free.

- Which is better on other axes goes back-and-forth. An investment I make into a tool now doesn't mean it will be the leading tool in five years.

- Those sorts of long-term considerations are almost always more important than short-term technical stuff.

Re: I’m switching from VS Code to VS Codium

#35
post #20

What I find truly bizarre is how many software engineers, who are aware of how much they earn and how long it really takes to make software, are so resistant to paying anything for tools that make their job easier and faster. It blows my mind. Take the Jetbrains IDEs. I don't mean to offend any VSC fans out there but the Jetbrains IDEs are simply better and more mature in every single way. For individual use, most of…

Not fair! Open-source, shareware, public-domain, freeware - been touted for decades now. But folks buy into all that and suddenly they're 'resistant to other people earning a living'.

Or I interpreted that wrong, and it's supposed to be a criticism of open-source? Then I agree. Open-source is a pox on responsible and reliable software, cannibalizing good software by offering free, bad software.

Re: I’m switching from VS Code to VS Codium

#36
post #13

> I was increasingly getting upset about their extension marketplace, where there is an increased number of extensions starting to sell pro versions of the extensions we used for free. I'm not familiar with any particularly egregious examples, but I don't find "developer wants to sell software" all that outrageous.

It’s a real problem. GitLens[0] comes to mind, which used to be a decent free extension, but now gives me flashbacks to the shareware nag screens of old. I’m also not against selling software on principle. Downgrading a free piece of software into a demo with an auto-update feels shady, however. [0] https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=eamodio....

can you elaborate?

"I made something people seem to like, hopefully it can help feed my family" sounds more like a wonderful success story rather than shady (depending on target audience of course but that's the part I'd like to understand better rather than make assumptions)

Re: I’m switching from VS Code to VS Codium

#38
post #20

What I find truly bizarre is how many software engineers, who are aware of how much they earn and how long it really takes to make software, are so resistant to paying anything for tools that make their job easier and faster. It blows my mind. Take the Jetbrains IDEs. I don't mean to offend any VSC fans out there but the Jetbrains IDEs are simply better and more mature in every single way. For individual use, most of…

> I don't mean to offend any VSC fans out there but the Jetbrains IDEs are simply better and more mature in every single way. Yeah, no. Don't get me wrong, Jetbrains IDEs are great. But they're not as easy to extend, its proprietary nature makes it hard to debug when writing extensions. I use neovim primarily, but I've got licenses for a bunch of other editors (Nova, Sublime, used to have IntelliJ). I do sincerely tr…

Yup, it’s definitely not a money thing. There’s plenty of tooling I do pay for, but I like hacking on my editor.

Sure, you need to go deep sometimes to tune things how you want, but hey, that’s what we do, right?

The important point is that people have different priorities and will make different trade offs. For me I like lean, fast and hackable. For others it’s that they don’t want to have to understand or configure it. That’s totally fine.

Re: I’m switching from VS Code to VS Codium

#39
post #20

What I find truly bizarre is how many software engineers, who are aware of how much they earn and how long it really takes to make software, are so resistant to paying anything for tools that make their job easier and faster. It blows my mind. Take the Jetbrains IDEs. I don't mean to offend any VSC fans out there but the Jetbrains IDEs are simply better and more mature in every single way. For individual use, most of…

I think developers do pay a Lot for hardware tools ( Mac / screen / custom keyboard / IOTs they will never play with and so on ). They just don't pay much for software tools. Marketing / Sales people will not pay that much for hardware but pay a lot for software tools.

Re: I’m switching from VS Code to VS Codium

#40
post #16

I started using vim 13 years ago. Editors come. Editors go. Vim remains.

I always come back to vim. Sure there are "vim mode" options for VS Code, Jetbrains products, Xcode, whatever else, but there is a speed and ergonomics to regular old vim that none of those bolted-on modes have matched yet. And with some setup you can get the same LSP features in vim that you have in VS Code today.
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